Virginia Senate reviews new findings on state AI use

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission presented new research on AI to the Virginia Senate, reporting that over one-third of government agencies in Virginia had already incorporated AI into daily work. Another 30% were considering AI tools, while a JLARC survey found that over 90% of agencies would prefer updated standardization for AI use.

Drew Dickinson, JLARC’s chief legislative analyst, said the state needs to improve how it governs AI for state uses. The most recent AI standards were last updated in 2023 by the Virginia IT Agency, and JLARC identified clearer rules as a major need.

JLARC broke AI into three major categories to help lawmakers address definitional challenges: predictive AI, which classifies, predicts or recommends; generative AI, which creates content such as text, images, code or video; and agentic AI, which can carry out multi-stage tasks to complete an objective. Dickinson said AI could help modernize outdated IT systems and reduce the state’s SNAP payment error rate, but warned that risks rise when AI handles important tasks without human oversight.