The Complete Guide to Using AI in the Government Industry in Virginia Beach in 2025

Virginia Beach's rise as a “digital gateway” for the East Coast - anchored by undersea fiber optic cables and a thriving startup scene - makes AI more than a buzzword for local government: it's a practical lever to preserve workforce knowledge, speed services, and cut regulatory red tape, from Kilsar's work capturing trades expertise to statewide pilots that let agencies scan and simplify rules with generative tools.

Local plans already call for expanding AI across city systems while Richmond has launched a first‑in‑the‑nation agentic AI regulatory audit to strip contradictions and streamline compliance, so city officials who pair policy safeguards with staff training will unlock the biggest wins.

For busy public servants wanting hands‑on skills, an applied option like the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp helps build prompt literacy and practical deployment tactics that translate directly into safer, faster constituent services.

“The Virginia model for regulatory modernization has become the gold standard across the U.S.” - Reeve Bull, Director of the Office of Regulatory Management

The likely AI breakthrough for Virginia Beach in 2025 isn't another flashy chatbot but the wider arrival of agentic AI - autonomous, goal‑driven agents that can analyze data, carry out multi‑step workflows, and augment staff across planning, benefits, and compliance; as Route Fifty reports, “over one‑third of public service executives expect AI agents to play a significant role” in strategic planning and service delivery, shifting work from form‑filling to insight and action.

For Virginia specifically, the state's Executive Order 51 pilot uses agentic, generative tools to scan thousands of pages of regulations to flag contradictions, identify redundancies and suggest streamlined language - building on prior cuts that already streamlined 26.8% of regulatory requirements and trimmed 47.9% of guidance text - so city agencies in Virginia Beach can expect faster rule reviews and a new kind of digital auditor for red‑tape reduction.

Practical wins will appear first where data is centralized and oversight is strong: 24/7 citizen assistants for routine 311 tasks, eligibility‑checking agents that clear straightforward benefit claims, and workflow agents that hand tricky edge cases to humans - delivering measurable efficiency without surrendering accountability.

For a compact primer on agentic approaches and where to start, see Route Fifty's coverage of agentic AI and Virginia's pilot overview.

“AI has swept across the nation and our Commonwealth, energizing industries, empowering citizens, and rapidly advancing our way of life in unforeseen ways. Using emergent artificial intelligence tools, we will push this effort further in order to continue our mission of unleashing Virginia's economy in a way that benefits all of its citizens.” - Governor Glenn Youngkin

Regulatory terrain for AI in 2025 is deliberately messy - and Virginia Beach agencies need to plan for both rapid federal pivots and an active state patchwork: the January 23, 2025 Executive Order “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence” directs agencies to roll back prior Biden‑era restrictions and to produce a national AI action plan, while a companion January 14 order pushes U.S. infrastructure, data‑center buildout, and clean‑power commitments for frontier AI, so local leaders should expect federal incentives for domestic AI capacity alongside new national security and energy guardrails (White House Executive Order: Removing Barriers to American Leadership in AI (Jan 23, 2025); White House Executive Order: Advancing U.S. Leadership in AI Infrastructure (Jan 14, 2025)).

At the same time states are racing ahead - every state introduced AI bills in 2025 and dozens have enacted measures - so Virginia Beach must track both federal guidance and evolving state law, inventory high‑risk uses (benefits, permitting, public‑safety systems), document datasets and human‑in‑the‑loop safeguards, and treat IP and training‑data risks as real (the Copyright Office guidance on authorship and training is already reshaping procurement choices).

The practical takeaway: don't wait for a single national rulebook - build adaptable governance, log and audit AI use cases, and coordinate with state regulators and utilities now so the city can capture efficiency gains without being blindsided by compliance gaps or energy and data‑center siting pressures.

(2025 Overview of U.S. AI Laws and State Activity - AI Legal Landscape)

High‑impact, data‑rich AI for Virginia Beach should hustle where people already report problems and where auditors and investigators already triage cases: automated anomaly detectors that flag suspicious benefits claims or vendor invoices for human review (see a practical sketch in the Benefits Fraud Detection model), predictive analytics and continuous‑monitoring dashboards that feed the City Auditor's fraud, waste & abuse program, and pattern‑matching tools that support the VBPD Economic Crimes Unit and the Sheriff's Consumer Protection Unit in spotting scams and pawn‑shop links before losses cascade.

Tie those tools to existing hotlines and reporting pipelines so AI becomes a time‑saving triage layer - routing clear, low‑risk tips to self‑service responses while surfacing the complex, high‑risk leads for trained auditors or detectives - so investigators spend fewer hours chasing noise and more on the handful of cases that truly demand human judgment.

These use cases map directly to local strengths: an established fraud hotline and audit risk model, active school and city hotlines for internal reporting, and law‑enforcement units that already track financial crimes, making implementation practical and accountability clear.

Learn more from the City Auditor's Fraud, Waste & Abuse page, the State Fraud, Waste and Abuse Hotline overview, and the Benefits Fraud Detection model to start planning pilots that pair AI alerts with strong human‑in‑the‑loop review.

Start small and plan deliberately: begin with an AI maturity assessment (the City's Information Technology performance plan explicitly lists “assess current AI maturity” as the first milestone) and use that inventory to build a clear AI roadmap and infrastructure checklist so pilots plug into existing systems rather than creating more silos - StateScoop's reporting on back‑office modernization shows why turning HR, finance and procurement from isolated systems into “one source of truth” is the foundational move that unlocks reliable AI. Prioritize one high‑impact, data‑rich pilot (benefits‑claims anomaly detection, procurement continuous monitoring, or a 311 triage assistant) where human review is already part of the workflow, instrument that pilot with logging and audit trails, and apply human‑in‑the‑loop safeguards required by state guidance; coordinate early with Virginia's Office of Regulatory Management so governance and regulatory modernization inform procurement and risk assessments.

Watch statewide lessons closely - Virginia's agentic‑AI regulatory pilot (covered in NextGov) shows how automated rule‑mapping can surface contradictions quickly - but also heed compliance timing issues reported for law‑enforcement AI rules so policy and training keep pace.

Finally, measure outcomes, document costs and workforce impacts, and scale only after audits confirm fairness, security, and measurable service gains.

“Using emergent artificial intelligence tools, we will push this effort further in order to continue our mission of unleashing Virginia's economy in a way that benefits all of its citizens.” - Governor Glenn Youngkin

Robust data governance, disciplined MLOps, and hardened infrastructure are the foundation that will let Virginia Beach turn promising AI pilots into reliable city services: the Federal Data Strategy frames this as a long‑term program - expectations like publishing inventories, institutionalizing enterprise data governance, assessing maturity, and building a data ethics approach are not optional checkboxes but the operational plumbing that prevents brittle, opaque models from reaching production.

Virginia's own experience - creating a Commonwealth Data Trust, naming a statewide chief data officer, and standing up an open data portal - enabled the state to spin up a COVID dashboard in days, a vivid reminder that the hardest work (data sharing agreements, quality standards, and interoperable pipelines) pays off when a crisis demands it.

Scale matters: some federal workflows process documents hundreds of pages long (VA PACT Act claims average ~900 pages), so MLOps practices - versioned datasets, reproducible pipelines, logging, and human‑in‑the‑loop gates - are essential to keep models auditable and defensible.

Pair technical investments with clear contracts and outcome‑focused procurement so cloud, colocation, and energy considerations align with federal guidance on security and privacy, and lean on cross‑agency playbooks from the Federal Data Strategy and practitioner frameworks for multi‑modal data sharing to speed safe reuse.

For pragmatic next steps, inventory priority datasets, formalize a local data governance body, require audit trails for model decisions, and negotiate data‑sharing agreements with state partners to avoid reinventing connectors at every project; those moves convert promising pilots into repeatable, accountable city capabilities (see the Federal Data Strategy framework and a blueprint for strategic data sharing for practical guidance).

“When you look at the federal government and how it manages data, getting us to be more consistent, ensuring security, privacy, confidentiality - while being able to do all of those things but consistently across the federal government is where the strategy is going.” - Maria Roat

Virginia Beach can turn statewide momentum into a practical upskilling pipeline by tapping the new one‑stop VirginiaHasJobs AI launch pad and Virginia Works scholarships to move incumbent staff from brittle, task‑focused roles to durable, AI‑literate positions - think benefits clerks trained on anomaly detection models, planners who combine GIS with data‑science certificates, and caseworkers fluent in prompt‑based assistants.

The state partnership with Grow with Google bundles Google AI Essentials and Career Certificates, short community‑college programs, and reusable scholarships (Google is offering 10,000 no‑cost scholarships) so local HR and training teams can rotate cohorts through job‑ready courses; employers in Virginia are already seeing surge in demand (about 31,000 AI‑related job listings statewide), and outcome data show 86% of AI Essentials completers report productivity gains while 70% of Google Career Certificate grads see a career bump within six months.

Because Virginia uniquely spans K–12 through higher‑ed AI guidance, municipal workforce leads should coordinate with Virginia Works and local colleges to build clear ladders from entry reskilling to analyst and oversight roles - creating a visible career pathway that keeps institutional knowledge in city hands rather than outsourcing it to vendors.

“AI is increasingly part of every aspect of work, and we're excited to launch this opportunity for Virginians to take part in this future,” - Governor Glenn Youngkin

Risk management for Virginia Beach agencies now sits at the intersection of law, ethics, and everyday operations: the Virginia General Assembly's HB2094 makes clear that deployers may not put “high‑risk” AI into consequential decision pipelines without documented impact assessments, risk‑management programs, and consumer safeguards - so begin projects with a legal checklist, not a tech wishlist (Virginia HB2094 bill text).

Legal guidance highlights practical obligations - developers must disclose limits and bias‑testing methods while deployers must publish impact assessments, offer explanation and appeal rights, and keep auditable records - with enforcement reserved to the attorney general and civil penalties that can reach $10,000 for willful violations, a concrete reminder that governance lapses carry real costs (Faegre Drinker analysis of Virginia's high‑risk AI Act).

Pair statutory compliance with the state's Executive Order 30 playbook - human‑in‑the‑loop controls, transparency catalogs, and IT standards - to translate abstract ethics into operational rules (notice, logging, correction workflows) so a 311‑bot or benefits triage agent delivers speed without legal surprise (Data & Society summary of Virginia Executive Order 30).

The “so what?”: robust risk programs don't just avoid penalties - they preserve public trust by ensuring that automated decisions remain explainable, appealable, and clearly tied to human oversight.

“This might be a reminder to us all that as we're dealing with this technology that we always, always, always keep humans in the loop.” - Del. Cliff Hayes, D-Chesapeake

By 2025 a typical day for a Virginia Beach official could mean an AI agent pre‑scanning regulatory language and flagging outdated requirements so staff focus on the handful of real conflicts instead of slogging through thousands of pages - an approach Virginia is piloting to “supercharge” rule‑streamlining that even helped cut construction costs by roughly $24,000 on new homes - and that same agentic tech (the state has contracted startups to map and compare rules) will feed heat maps and suggested edits that speed permit and code updates while leaving final authority with humans.

On the front lines, citizen‑facing chatbots and 311 triage assistants will handle routine inquiries (similar college bots that cut emails 60% and calls 30%), freeing caseworkers to manage complex matters; back office pilots like the city's e‑billing and HCM rollouts will provide the cleaner, centralized data those agents need; and workforce pipelines such as the new VirginiaHasJobs AI Career Launch Pad program will help staff transition into oversight, prompt‑engineering, and audit roles.

For a close look at how Virginia plans to use agentic tools to scan statutes and speed regulatory reform, see the Route Fifty article on Virginia's AI rule‑streamlining pilot and NextGov's inside report on the state's pilot with emerging vendors.

“There will absolutely still be a human in the loop.” - Reeve Bull, Director, Office of Regulatory Management

Virginia Beach's immediate roadmap is practical and phased: use the GSA AI Guide for Government as the playbook to structure teams (IPT + IAT + central AI resource) and maturity milestones, meet OMB expectations by publishing an AI strategy and designating a Chief AI Officer, then run a single, auditable pilot that's human‑in‑the‑loop and measured for fairness and drift; agencies can accelerate safe testing by using the GSA USAi evaluation suite to compare models in a secured environment before procurement, and build staff capability with hands‑on training like the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus to turn clerks into oversight‑ready practitioners.

Frame progress around three simple metrics - impact, auditability, and workforce readiness - so each pilot converts to a repeatable capability rather than a one‑off experiment, and document decisions and data rights up front to align with federal guidance and procurement best practices.

Treat this as a governance plus delivery program: small, transparent experiments today unlock enterprise value tomorrow while preserving trust and legal compliance.

“USAi means more than access - it's about delivering a competitive advantage to the American people.” - GSA Deputy Administrator Stephen Ehikian