In a landmark move positioning California as the convening hub for human-centered AI collaboration, the University of California Systemwide Procurement, Human+Tech Week (HTW), and NativelyAI today announced a strategic partnership creating a year-round Global Human+AI Exchange Platform connecting California with cities and regions worldwide.
The partnership drives economic development, workforce mobility, technology transfer, and trade expansion between California and international partners — enabling UC research, California suppliers and student talent to scale globally while allowing participating cities to access world-class innovation, co-development capacity, and commercialization pathways.
This historic collaboration applies UC’s innovation capabilities and massive contribution to California’s gross state product (GSP) as a catalyst for shared growth, accelerating economic activity and innovation capacity both across the state and throughout global partner regions.
A Year-Round Engine for Statewide and Global Impact
The partnership integrates UC’s systemwide mission with global innovation networks to drive applied solutions across:
- Human Flourishing & Vision: Advancing human-centered AI solutions that strengthen health, workforce readiness, public services, and societal resilience across communities worldwide.
- Local & Global Economic Development: Expanding market access for California small, local suppliers while creating collaboration pathways for partner cities.
- Workforce & Talent Development: Providing experiential, cross-border career pathways for UC students while enabling international talent participation in California innovation projects.
- Technology & Innovation: Deploying distributed AI research and engineering teams to build solutions that benefit California industries and international public and enterprise sectors alike.
- Global Connectivity & Trade: Positioning California cities as core nodes in a worldwide innovation trade network, facilitating capital flows, joint ventures, and cross-border growth aligned with GO-Biz (California’s Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development) objectives.
Activation, Operation & Momentum
The collaboration defines statewide priority challenges across workforce, health, infrastructure, and procurement modernization. NativelyAI will then mobilize its global network of over 240,000 developers to execute solution sprints. This delivers procurement-ready technologies for California deployments and partner markets worldwide.
Human+Tech Week serves as the flagship annual convening — uniting city leaders, sovereign investors, corporate buyers, and researchers to launch pilots, structure partnerships, and drive cross-border commercialization. UC students participate in solution development to ensure direct workforce readiness tied to real global deployment.
Quotes
Paul Williams, Chief Procurement Officer, UCOP: “By integrating UC talent with international collaboration, we are expanding export markets for California businesses while supporting economic modernization for our partner communities worldwide.”
Nichol Bradford, Founder and CEO, Human+Tech Week: “Human+Tech Week is the catalyst for cities of all sizes to collaborate on applied AI solutions that improve health, economic opportunity, and societal well-being.”
Joseph Spence, Chairman, NativelyAI: “We convert shared priorities across California and cities globally into deployable technology, creating continuous two-way flows of talent, innovation, capital, and trade.”
About Human+Tech Week
Human+Tech Week is the global platform convening leaders across technology, government, and industry to advance human-centered innovation in health, work, and society through a flagship annual event, year-round applied collaboration, and key partner initiatives. For more information, visit www.humantechweek.com.
About University of California Systemwide Procurement (SWP)
SWP coordinates systemwide alignment across the University of California's campuses and research centers, advancing the university's core institutional priorities in economic development and global engagement. To learn more, visit procurement.ucop.edu.
About NativelyAI
NativelyAI operates a continuous Global Solution Exchange Infrastructure leveraging a network of over 240,000 developers across more than 130 countries. The platform matches challenges defined by California institutions and partner cities worldwide with global talent teams to build, test, pilot, procure, and scale technology solutions across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. For more information, visit nativelyai.com.
Media Contact
Nerizza Tajanlangit
pr@humantechweek.com
