This Month's Latest Tech News in Richmond, VA - Saturday May 31st 2025 Edition

Richmond, VA's tech scene continues to surge in May 2025, with new milestones in AI innovation, investment, and cybersecurity. Notably, Herndon-based Knostic secured $19 million in funding to develop AI access controls that protect sensitive data in platforms like Microsoft 365 Copilot, reflecting growing demand for robust generative AI solutions.

As highlighted by Virginia Tech's Naren Ramakrishnan,

“You can't just walk into an office and take any file from any shelf that you want. You need to have a key.”

Broadly, Virginia's innovative climate is thriving: the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation reported the state's highest national venture capital ranking in 15 years, and more than 10,000 startups launched recently, cementing its place as a top state for business and tech growth.

Richmond's leadership is further showcased by the presence of 65 top-rated AI firms statewide, according to a GoodFirms listing of Virginia AI companies.

This dynamic ecosystem positions Richmond as a major engine driving regional and national AI advancement.

Richmond students Saket Sambaraju and Abhinav Gitta have garnered national recognition as the 2024 Congressional App Challenge winners for Virginia's Fourth District with their innovative app, MelanomAI. Designed to help users assess their risk of melanoma skin cancer, MelanomAI employs deep learning models trained on over 17,000 images, achieving an impressive 92.28% accuracy rate for distinguishing malignant from benign skin lesions.

The app not only offers diagnostic predictions from device-taken photos but also supplies educational resources and directs users to nearby hospitals using Google Maps integration, helping to break down healthcare barriers, particularly in underserved areas.

Their motivation for creating MelanomAI was deeply personal, as Sambaraju shared,

“We wanted to create an application that helped people in these rural areas that didn't have access to doctors to check on melanoma and make sure that it's not malignant.”

According to Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, this tool offers “a free, fast, and accurate way to assess a person's risk of skin cancer,” and has the potential to save lives by facilitating early detection as reported by VPM News.

Sambaraju and Gitta, students at Maggie L. Walker Governor's School and Deep Run High School respectively, aim to expand the app in collaboration with medical professionals and plan to launch MelanomAI on app stores.

Their achievement was celebrated alongside the record-setting 2024 Congressional App Challenge, which saw participation from 12,682 students and 3,881 submissions nationwide, illustrating a growing wave of youth-driven STEM innovation according to the official Congressional App Challenge announcement.

For further details and the official recognition, visit Congresswoman McClellan's press release on her website.

Autonomous delivery in Richmond, VA, is set for a breakthrough as Arrive AI and Go2 Delivery partner to roll out secure, AI-powered medication deliveries across Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Norfolk.

This initiative leverages Arrive AI's patented Arrive Points™ and Autonomous Last Mile (ALM) platform, which ensure HIPAA-compliant, temperature-controlled delivery for specialty pharmacy products valued up to $30,000.

The partnership tackles delivery challenges commonly faced in urban and multi-family complexes - such as theft and confusion over unit numbers - by utilizing IoT-integrated, individually linked smart mailboxes and robust authentication protocols.

As Go2 Delivery, a Virginia Beach-based, carbon-free courier with 28 years of experience, joins Arrive AI, the focus remains on sustainable practices and regional ecosystem restoration.

In the words of Go2 Delivery CEO Eric Brown,

“The Arrive AI platform offers a compelling solution for pharmacies that deal with high-risk, high-value medications... Our partnership with Arrive AI ensures secure delivery, particularly in theft-prone or multi-family environments, directly benefiting patients managing serious health challenges.”

This collaboration not only positions Virginia as a national leader in autonomous medical delivery - building on earlier drone experiments with Walmart and Wing - but also introduces a scalable suite of features including public safety alerts and charging stations.

For a deeper dive into how this pioneering model is transforming secure medication logistics in Virginia, explore the in-depth coverage from ACCESS Newswire's secure medication delivery report, detailed partnership analysis at StockTitan's Arrive AI and Go2 Delivery collaboration overview, and an industry perspective featuring local leadership and technology challenges via Movemnt's autonomous drone medication delivery insights.

Richmond-based Owens & Minor is ushering in a new era of supply chain innovation with the launch of two state-of-the-art distribution centers leveraging AI, automation, and augmented reality technologies to enhance the efficiency and reliability of medical product delivery nationwide.

The West Virginia facility, now operational, is equipped with robotics to streamline inventory management and order fulfillment, while the South Dakota center, opening in spring 2025, will feature advanced AR systems to optimize the order picking process (Owens & Minor announces major innovations to healthcare services network).

These investments come as part of a wider strategy to boost supply chain visibility and resiliency for Owens & Minor's thousands of healthcare customers. As stated by Andy Long, EVP and CEO of Products & Healthcare Services,

“Over the past two years, our P&HS teammates have worked creatively and diligently to identify areas where technology investments, operational upgrades and new approaches to how we do business could have a meaningful impact for our customers.”

Financially, Owens & Minor reported $2.6 billion in total revenue for Q1 2025, with robust growth in its Patient Direct segment and positive momentum in its Products & Healthcare Services division.

The company also recently partnered with Google Cloud to further strengthen its QSight® inventory management platform using cloud-based AI, an alliance designed to deliver real-time predictive insights for healthcare providers (Owens & Minor partnership with Google Cloud enhances healthcare supply chain technology).

See below for a summary of Owens & Minor's latest performance metrics:

Metric	Q1 2025	Q1 2024
Total Revenue	$2.63 billion	$2.61 billion
Products & Healthcare Services Revenue	$1.96 billion	$1.97 billion
Patient Direct Revenue	$674 million	$638 million
Adjusted EBITDA	$122 million	$116 million

For a detailed breakdown of the company's financial results and strategic direction, visit the Owens & Minor Q1 2025 financial report.

New research from the University of Richmond, together with recent national studies, spotlights the complex role of AI in reshaping advertising and consumer trust.

Virtual influencers - programmed personalities like Lil Miquela - are increasingly featured in campaigns, but research indicates that AI influencer marketing can damage brand trust more than its human counterparts, as consumers tend to hold brands more accountable when AI makes misleading claims.

As Sian Joel-Edgar, a leading researcher, explains,

"Virtual influencers are the extreme end of the artificial nature we see in media - the uncanny valley where things seem eerie because they're perfect, from skin texture to symmetry. The study raises questions about tighter control of virtual influencers and establishing greater transparency - like actually having to declare that they are powered by AI."

National consumer surveys back this up: 90% of respondents want clear disclosure of AI-generated images, and 83% believe legal requirements for labeling such content are necessary, while only about a quarter can reliably tell AI images apart from real ones.

Meanwhile, consumer trust in marketing is challenged as nearly 70% want to see real, untouched models and almost half prefer not to see AI-generated personalities in ads.

For brands, particularly in luxury sectors, integrating AI can backfire unless AI is used as a tool for genuine creativity rather than replacing human craftsmanship, as highlighted by recent findings on AI's impact on luxury perceptions.

Behavioral neuroscience studies also reveal that AI-generated ads tend to be rated as more annoying, boring, and confusing, driving a need for high quality and transparency.

For a comprehensive look at the dual-edged influence of AI on brand trust - including regulatory recommendations and consumer attitudes - read the original AI influencer marketing brand trust research.

Metric	Finding
Want disclosure of AI-generated images	90%
Support legal labeling requirements	83%
Can correctly ID AI images	25%
Prefer real, untouched models in ads	~70%
Say AI models are inauthentic	53%

Salesforce announced its definitive agreement to acquire Informatica, a leader in AI-powered enterprise cloud data management, in an $8 billion all-cash deal, reinforcing its drive to build the industry's most robust AI data infrastructure.

This strategic move aims to combine Informatica's strengths - data cataloging, integration, governance, quality, privacy, and master data management (MDM) - with Salesforce's AI-centric platforms, such as Einstein and Agentforce, forging an ecosystem for safe, scalable, and autonomous AI agents across all enterprise sectors.

As outlined by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, “We're excited to acquire Informatica for approximately $8 billion - uniting the world's #1 AI CRM with the #1 AI-powered MDM and ETL platform.

The combination brings together Salesforce's Einstein and Informatica's CLAIRE AI engines to forge the ultimate AI-data platform - trusted, explainable, and built to scale.”

“Joining forces with Salesforce represents a significant leap forward in our journey to bring data and AI to life by empowering businesses,”

added Amit Walia, CEO of Informatica.

The acquisition, expected to close by early fiscal 2027 pending regulatory approvals, will directly benefit Salesforce's Data Cloud, Agentforce, Customer 360, MuleSoft, and Tableau platforms by enabling unified, trusted, and actionable data insights.

The following table summarizes the key enterprise technology shifts resulting from this deal:

Area	Pre-Acquisition Landscape	Post-Acquisition Landscape
Enterprise Data Management	Fragmented; Informatica a leader	Salesforce becomes a major player
Cloud Data Integration	Multiple providers, point solutions	Salesforce enhances its integration stack
Enterprise AI Platforms	Growing; data access key constraint	Salesforce strengthens AI data foundation
CRM + Data Stack	Often requires third-party data tools	More integrated Salesforce offering

Read more about this transformational acquisition at the official Salesforce's official announcement of the Informatica acquisition, explore insights from CNBC's detailed coverage of the Salesforce and Informatica deal, and dive deeper into the market impact with comprehensive technology analysis of the Salesforce Informatica acquisition.

Richmond Public Schools (RPS) is taking a measured approach to managing the growing impact of artificial intelligence in education. This month, RPS committee members discussed the formation of an AI task force dedicated to developing clear guidelines for how AI tools can be used responsibly in classrooms and beyond.

Key issues include maintaining assignment integrity, addressing student plagiarism, providing robust teacher training, and ensuring policy updates that reflect evolving technology.

Dr. Shonda Harris-Mohammed, policy committee chair, emphasized,

"I do not want our students to have a higher level of knowledge than the teacher in the classroom. I want it to be a partnership and to learn and grow together about things that are new."

The initiative aligns with broader trends, as Virginia's Board of Education recently updated its internet safety policies to include artificial intelligence and called for feedback on recommended safeguards for K-12 environments.

RPS is also benchmarking efforts in other Virginia districts and referring to state and federal leadership, especially as the White House launches nationwide guidance and resources via its own Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force.

For further context and updates on the Richmond AI task force proposal, read the detailed report by CBS 6 Richmond's AI Task Force Coverage, explore the broader context of technology management in local schools in Richmond Magazine's Education Technology Coverage, and examine national AI policy direction through the full White House Executive Order on AI in Education.

A new national survey led by UC Irvine and the education nonprofit foundry10 reveals that teens are increasingly adopting generative AI tools such as ChatGPT for learning, with 69% of adolescent users reporting that AI helped them learn something new, while less than 6% attributed any negative social or academic impacts to their use.

The mixed-methods study, which surveyed 1,510 youth (ages 9–17) and 2,826 parents, found that 45% of teens used generative AI in the past month, but only 7% use it daily - and contrary to popular concern, few report using AI tools for cheating.

Instead, most leverage AI for homework (63%), classwork (40%), and entertainment (72%), and these patterns transcend income levels, showing “no significant gap in AI use among students from higher or lower economic backgrounds.” As summarized by UC Irvine's Kelli Dickerson,

“adolescents appear to be earlier and more eager adopters of AI, with their parents and teachers varying widely in terms of their familiarity, openness and comfort with these new tools.”

The findings underscore the need for responsible guidance and continued monitoring of youth AI engagement.

Explore more detailed results from the original K-12 Dive survey analysis on teen AI use, examine the full scope of the UC Irvine-led national study on AI in education, and find additional insights on learning trends from the California School Boards Association's AI survey report.

Metric	Finding
Teens using AI to learn something new	69%
Reported negative impacts	< 6%
Monthly generative AI users (teens)	45%
Daily generative AI users (teens)	7%
AI use for homework	63%
Socioeconomic gap in usage	None

Meta has officially launched its standalone Meta AI app, intensifying competition in the consumer AI assistant market and signaling a bold challenge to platforms like ChatGPT. Built on the powerful Llama 4 language model, the new app seamlessly integrates with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, offering users the ability to utilize an AI assistant that remembers personal preferences and facilitates cross-platform conversations across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.

The app introduces a "Discover feed" for sharing and exploring innovative AI prompts, while new features like full-duplex voice conversation, on-device image editing, and real-time translation further enhance usability - especially for the visually impaired community through detailed environmental descriptions and the expanded "Call a Volunteer" assistive service.

The rebranding of the Meta View app to Meta AI ensures a smooth upgrade for Ray-Ban Meta glasses owners, with all device settings and media automatically transferring to the new platform.

According to Meta, this evolution “offer[s] a hands-free form factor and Meta AI integrations - features that help everyone navigate daily life, but can be especially useful to the blind and low vision community.”

"Ray-Ban Meta glasses offer a hands-free form factor and Meta AI integrations - features that help everyone navigate daily life, but can be especially useful to the blind and low vision community."

Early releases are live in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with recent expansion of the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses to India.

For a detailed look at Meta AI's new features and device integration, review the official announcement, Introducing the Meta AI App: A New Way to Access Your AI Assistant, learn about the app's advanced accessibility options from India Today's coverage on Ray-Ban Meta Glasses AI features, and read how this launch stacks up against leading AI rivals at PCMag's Meta AI launch report.

Microsoft's recent decision to pause or slow several data center projects - most notably its $1 billion Ohio development and phases of the $3.3 billion Wisconsin campus - has sparked widespread industry debate about the pace and direction of AI infrastructure growth.

The pause reflects a recalibration as AI demand proves less immediate than forecast, but Microsoft affirms its overall global infrastructure plans are still robust, with over $80 billion in fiscal spending planned through June 2025 and its data center capacity having doubled over the past three years.

As power supply, land, and cooling infrastructure become pressing constraints, Microsoft's moves are mirrored by similar reviews and lease pauses by Amazon and others, and highlight a more cautionary phase across the industry.

Analysts attribute Microsoft's adjustments to over-committing during the initial AI rush and evolving dynamics with partners like OpenAI; UBS reported leased capital expenditures soared 6.7x in two years, prompting cutbacks to optimize their growing portfolio.

Despite these slowdowns, industry analysts emphasize that the overall sector remains far from a downturn, with hundreds of billions still set to be invested and significant expansion expected in the coming years.

As Noelle Walsh, President of Microsoft's Cloud Operations, noted,

“Any significant new endeavor at this size and scale requires agility and refinement as we learn and grow with our customers. What this means is that we are slowing or pausing some early-stage projects.”

For a detailed breakdown of paused projects and sector investments, see the table below.

Read more about Microsoft's Ohio pause via Associated Press report on Microsoft's AI data center project pause, industry-wide effects and market analysis from CNBC's executive overview on AI data center investment trends, and global context in DataCenterDynamics' global report on Microsoft's data center developments.

Project/Company	Status/Investment
Microsoft Ohio Data Centers	Paused ($1B)
Microsoft Wisconsin Campus	Partial Pause ($3.3B)
Microsoft Global AI Infrastructure (2025)	$80B+ Further Spend Planned
Amazon	$100B Data Center Investments
Alphabet	$75B Data Center Investments
Meta	Up to $65B Data Center Investments

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has been closely analyzing how news about artificial intelligence (AI) influences the broader economy, treating such developments as "TFP news shocks" - announcements that alter expectations of future total factor productivity growth even before technological impacts are visible.

According to their recent Economic Brief on the macroeconomic effects of AI news, initial reports of AI innovation have negligible immediate effects on productivity metrics but can spark positive changes in stock prices, consumption, and investment due to anticipatory wealth effects and expectations of future gains.

However, research like "The Productivity Puzzle: AI, Technology Adoption and the Workforce" notes the actual translation of these expectations into measurable productivity remains elusive - echoing economist Robert Solow's observation:

"You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics."

Surveys further reveal that while 60% of firms recently adopted automation technologies (with around 40% of those leveraging AI), substantial macroeconomic effects may depend more on workforce demographics and the speed of technology adoption.

For a comprehensive review of adoption data and the productivity paradox across industries in the Fifth District, see "Automation and AI: What Does Adoption Look Like for Fifth District Businesses?".

These findings suggest AI's economic promise in Richmond - and nationally - will likely hinge on a gradual interplay of innovation diffusion, labor experience, and evolving expectations over years rather than months.

Richmond's AI and tech ecosystem is accelerating its impact across education, industry, and community, establishing the city as a model for regional growth. AI Ready RVA has positioned Richmond at the forefront of AI literacy by fostering inclusive cohorts, community events, and public-private partnerships dedicated to education and workforce development, as detailed in AI Ready RVA's community initiatives.

The University of Richmond exemplifies higher education's role, providing faculty and students with equitable access to leading AI tools like SpiderAI and expanding resources, usage, and policies to meet the rapidly evolving landscape; their efforts align with the 91% of higher-ed leaders nationwide expecting AI to enhance and personalize learning (Supporting Generative AI for Faculty and Students).

Meanwhile, local R&D and startups continue to thrive: Qnovia, a Richmond pharmaceutical innovator, has secured $16 million in new funding, contributing to $50 million in total investments toward their inhaled drug platform, while industry investments like Haleon's $54.2 million facility upgrade are stimulating the local economy, job growth, and health innovation (StartVirginia: Heard Around Virginia).

The intersection of education, entrepreneurship, and corporate investment, alongside programs such as Nucamp's Cybersecurity Fundamentals and Solo AI Tech Entrepreneur bootcamps, ensures Richmond residents have access to upskilling pathways and scholarships that match this momentum.

Together, these efforts are transforming Richmond into a thriving destination for AI talent, technological advancement, and regional economic leadership.