VA signs $1.6B contract to integrate AI into agency functions

The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a contract valued up to $1.6 billion to Salesforce — a global cloud-based software company — to develop and integrate artificial intelligence into existing workflows that support customer communication, patient care coordination and the claims approval process, Salesforce announced Friday.

Salesforce said it inked the contract with the VA to help the agency modernize health care delivery and provide a “more timely and consistent experience” for veterans and their families.

The company’s announcement was made in a news release titled “VA Awards Salesforce $1.6B Contract to Transform Veteran Care and Services.”

The AI buildout will include support for VA’s virtual contact center, which operates around the clock. “HIPPA-ready” AI agents also will assist with the collection of patient information to support health care and treatment, Salesforce said.

“Salesforce will provide a unified foundation across the department, equipping VA employees with trusted agentic AI, integrated data, and advanced collaboration tools that can reduce administrative friction and give staff more time to serve veterans,” Salesforce said in a written statement. “Trusted AI agents deployed directly into existing VA workflows will surface real-time knowledge during live calls, instantly route triage cases, and automate benefits verification, freeing overstretched staff to focus on direct veteran support that matters most.”

The company will also help the VA reduce the time it takes for veterans to schedule visits with their VA provider and in the private sector, according to Salesforce.

“This new agreement will allow for the consolidation of several IT contracts with significant cost savings for VA. Regarding AI, VA customer service representatives will use it to access helpful information more quickly for veterans. This is not a means of replacing VA’s customer service representatives,” said VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven, who noted that the VA has contracted with Salesforce for the past decade.

The contract aligns with the VA’s efforts to deploy AI to enhance work functions that include claims processing, appointment scheduling and patient intake, according to NextGov.com, which reports on the federal government.

“The company plans to support the creation of daily snap reports, claims processing dashboards and employee performance reporting through a unified data layer, the release adds,” according to NextGov.com.

The initial VA award is a one-year agreement, with the option of two one-year renewals, for a total value of $1.6 billion, Salesforce said.

The VA serves more than 9 million veterans enrolled in its health care services out of a total veteran population of 16 million to 18 million, the VA said. Other critical VA services include disability, education and home loan and life insurance benefits, as well as burial services.

Salesforce is a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of approximately $131 billion in July, according to Companiesmarketcap.com, a financial data website that lists more than 11,000 public companies.

The announcement of the AI initiative with Salesforce follows an executive order by President Donald Trump in November 2025 announcing the “Genesis Mission” to use AI to accelerate scientific discovery and technological innovation.

The Genesis Mission brings together national laboratories, universities, and private industry to develop an AI supercomputing platform, according to the Department of Energy.

The White House on Tuesday said that the Genesis Mission will become a whole-of-government initiative involving 15 federal agencies that will contribute research awards, funding opportunities and specialized scientific datasets.

The VA will participate in the Genesis Mission, according to the White House.

The VA will include its electronic health records and genomic data, which are now part of the Million Veteran Program, to assist the Energy Department’s training of AI models to detect disease and health risks earlier, according to the White House.