2_use_case_name: Electronic Virtual Assistant (e-VA)
3_agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
3_abr: VA
4_bureau: VBA: Veterans Benefits Administration
8_topic_area: Government Services (includes Benefits and Service Delivery)
10_commercial_ai: None of the above.
11_purpose_benefits: The electronic Virtual Assistant (e-VA) information system is a product acquired from SaraWorks (formerly The Career Index (TCI)) by the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) Veteran Readiness & Employment (VR&E) Business Line. e-VA is a breakthrough digital assistant that does most of the work a human assistant can do in terms of client follow-up, data entry, and documentation. The primary objective for implementing e-VA is to provide virtual support services that will alleviate administrative tasks from Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors (VRCs), which enable them to focus their time on the Veterans’ needs, fulfilling VR&E’s mission of guiding Veterans to successful outcomes. e-VA is the only digital assistant focused on applying these autonomous capabilities to the complex field of human services. The e-VA system will create reminders for appointments, grades, receipts, etc. and accept documents and images, in addition to connecting program participants directly to their Counselor. The application also enables automated routine electronic communication with program participants through either text message and/or e-mail. Participants can interact with the e-VA application via text or email to schedule and reschedule appointments, respond to reminders, and submit supporting documents and receipts related to their VR&E case. The e-VA information system is single-tenant, which resides in SaraWorks private AWS GovCloud. It is not a public-facing system. The SARA Sync windows executable will receive information from the e-VA system, such as supporting documents, receipts, etc., case notes, or updating of status on their case. This information are transmitted to the VA database of record for storage.
12_outputs: Allow VRCs to focus on providing world-class service to our Veterans. The e-VA system will create reminders for appointments, grades, receipts, etc. and accept documents and images, in addition to connecting program participants directly to their Counselor. The Case Manager ID will be used to identify case managers and assigned caseload which will determine the location of the requested appointment. The application will also enable automated routine electronic communication with program participant through either text message and/or e-mail. Participants can interact with the e-VA application via text or email to schedule and reschedule appointments, respond to reminders, and submit supporting documents and receipts related to their VR&E case.  The SARA Sync windows will receive information from the e-VA system, such as supporting documents, receipts, etc., case notes, or updating of status on their case. This information are transmitted to the VA database of record for storage.
16_dev_stage: Operation and Maintenance
17_impact_type: Both
18_date_initiated: 6/1/2019
19_date_acq_dev_began: 6/1/2019
20_date_implemented: 6/20/2020
22_dev_method: Developed with both contracting and in-house resources.
23_contract_piids: 36C10E19P0165
24_hisp_support: No
27_public_info: Yes
29_contains_pii: Yes
30_saop_review: Yes
31_data_catalog: No
33_agency_data: We do not train e-VA
34_data_docs: Documentation is missing or not available: No documentation exists regarding maintenance, composition, quality, or intended use of the training and evaluation data.
35_demo_features: Other
37_custom_code: Yes
38_code_access: No – agency does not have access to source code.
40_has_ato: Yes
41_system_name: electronic Virtual Assistant (e-VA) VASI: 2419
43_infra_provisioned: No
45_compute_request: Other
45_question_type: e-VA does not do predictive modeling
47_timely_resources: Other
47_question_type: e-VA does not do predictive modeling
49_existing_reuse: None: This use case does not re-use any internally developed tooling or managed infrastructure from any other AI development efforts within the agency.
50_internal_review: No documentation is available: No documentation detailing model performance metrics, model architecture, features and intended use of the models have been created or are currently accessible to other data science teams within the agency.
51_extension_request: Yes – Agency requested an extension for this use case.