VA’s Aggressive New AI Strategy
VA just released the most aggressive AI adoption strategy in the federal government, targeting "minutes not months" for benefits delivery while deploying AI across 400,000+ employees.
If you’re a federal leader, you’ll want to pay attention, as this strategy offers a roadmap for scaling AI without sacrificing security or trust. It’s not just an incremental improvement. VA is betting that AI will fundamentally transform how 9 million Veterans access health care and benefits.
What VA Is Doing Differently
VA's taking a dual-track approach, enabling rapid experimentation while building standards based on what actually works:
Employee access first: Expanding AI tools to all computer-based employees (VA GPT already saves users 10 hours/month at $1.25/user)
Workflow redesign: Not retrofitting AI into broken processes, but reimagining entire workflows from scratch
Infrastructure investment: Building enterprise data platforms, like the Summit Data Platform, (SDP), that enable both innovation and scalability. VA’s cloud environment includes tools for onboarding, monitoring, model testing, and deployment, which increases development velocity without sacrificing security.
AI-ready workforce: Their Hub-and-spoke model, with the Chief AI Officer (CAIO) team and the National Artificial Intelligence (NAII) at the center, allows creation of an "AI Corps" of deep experts. These experts can embed with internal teams to provide expertise and education, facilitating AI knowledge dissemination throughout the agency. VA plans to couple this with mandatory training for all employees to increase AI literacy and confidence.
Transparent governance: Public AI inventory and risk management that builds Veteran trust. Creating resources, guides, and training to increase AI literacy both inside and outside the agency, as well as aligning with Federal security goals and requirements to ensure trust isn’t breached once established.
Early results prove the concept works. AI-assisted colonoscopy devices increased tumor detection by 21%. The opioid risk model reduced mortality by 22%. These aren't pilots — they're live systems improving Veteran outcomes today.
What Federal Leaders Should Know
This strategy challenges conventional wisdom about AI adoption in three ways:
Speed over perfection: VA's using a 60-day accelerated authority to operate (ATO) for AI products. Most agencies take 12-18 months.
Buy before build: Defaulting to commercial tools for commodity AI capabilities. Custom solutions only when necessary.
Local innovation, enterprise scale: Regional sites can pilot approved tools when the central office can't provide them yet, but outcomes feed back to inform enterprise adoption.
The hidden insight: VA recognizes that with AI, the use cases are still emerging. You can't standardize what you don't yet understand. So they're learning in public while maintaining governance guardrails.
The Five Priorities
VA's strategy rests on five interconnected priorities. Each one addresses a different barrier that typically kills AI adoption in government: access, legacy workflows, data silos, skills gaps, and trust deficits.
Here's what they mean in practice:
Priority 1 - Expand Employee Access: Give everyone useful AI tools. Think GitHub Copilot for developers, meeting summarization, and ambient clinical scribes. Make AI as common as email.
Priority 2 - Reimagine Workflows: Stop layering AI on broken processes. Redesign from scratch. VHA's targeting: automated community care documents, AI-generated clinical notes, proactive health monitoring.
Priority 3 - Build AI Infrastructure: Create modern data platforms (like Summit Data Platform) where teams can experiment safely, scale quickly, and reuse what works.
Priority 4 - Train the Workforce: Mandatory generative AI training for all computer-based employees. Build an "AI Corps" of deep experts. Create clinician innovator programs.
Priority 5 - Earn Trust Through Transparency: Public AI inventory. Risk management for high-impact systems. Regular Veteran research (71% had no fears about AI scribe technology).
What This Means for Your Agency
Three takeaways federal decision makers should act on:
You can't standardize your way to AI innovation. VA's dual-track approach lets them move fast while building standards based on real results, not hypotheticals.
Employee adoption drives impact. The 10 hours/month savings from VA GPT only matters if 100,000+ employees actually use it. Focus on tools people want, not tools you think they need.
Security and innovation aren't opposites. VA's proving you can accelerate (60-day ATOs) while maintaining compliance and trust. CDAO’s OVL framework provides an example of this, achieving initial ATOs on an average timeline of 30 days.
The risk isn't moving too fast — it's moving too slow. Every month of delay means more manual processes, more administrative burden, more Veterans waiting for care.
Dive Deeper
Want the full strategy? Read VA's complete document here.
Working on similar challenges? Aquia specializes in helping federal agencies deploy secure, compliant AI at scale. Aquia Nava II LLC, our joint venture with Nava Public Benefit Corporation, just won an $8.8 million contract to support VA's NAII. Through our work, we are ensuring AI solutions are both innovative and compliant — something federal agencies shouldn't have to choose between. Learn more in our recent press release or contact us at federal@aquia.us.
