Imagine a claims processor at a federal benefits office working through a backlog. An artificial intelligence tool recommends denying a disability claim. Its reasoning is opaque, the queue is long, and accepting the recommendation is the fastest way to keep cases moving. If the tool is wrong, who catches the error — and who answers for it? This is no hypothetical: AI is already being used to process disability claims.
Washington has responded to the need for an AI-enabled workforce by promoting AI literacy and issuing guidelines for responsible use. Both are necessary, but knowing how to use AI is only the beginning. As AI enters health care, benefits determinations, finance, cybersecurity, transportation and critical infrastructure, we need people who can recognize its risks, exercise independent judgment, and take responsibility for how it is used. The AI era needs not just literacy, but accountability.
America’s veterans can help us get there.
Military service can cultivate habits of disciplined judgment, accountability, and calm decision-making that provide a strong foundation for this work. The RAND Corporation has identified leadership, decision-making, dependability, and attention to detail among the skills veterans bring to civilian employment. Many organizations that most need accountable oversight, including federal agencies, contractors and critical infrastructure operators, already recruit veterans.
.promo-main{padding: 5px 0; }
.promo-inline{text-decoration:none !important;}
.promo-inline p{ color:#0093d0; font-weight: 600; }
.promo_dash{
border-bottom: 1px solid #d4d4d4;
vertical-align: text-top;
line-height: 3px;
margin-right: 10px;
display: inline;
}
Veterans bring a foundation of accountability, but they still need specialized training in the technical, legal and professional dimensions of AI. A national workforce strategy should connect those strengths to roles in which human judgment and responsibility are central.
The need is immediate. More than half of job postings seeking AI skills are already outside IT and computer science, and by August 2026, such postings had more than doubled from a year earlier. Employers also seek more than 100,000 professionals annually with expertise in AI ethics and governance. Trained veterans could fill roles in AI governance, cybersecurity, model risk and data oversight across government, finance, health care and critical infrastructure.
Important parts of the solution already exist, but they do not yet form an integrated pathway. The Government Accountability Office has built an AI Accountability Framework, the National Institute of Standards and Technology AI Risk Management Framework calls for defined responsibilities and human-oversight roles, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has an AI Strategy and AI Workforce Resources Blueprint. Yet implementation lags: GAO reports that the VA struggles to comply with federal guidance as it builds an AI-capable workforce. Policies can set requirements, but they cannot take responsibility. People must, and they need preparation and institutional support.
Congress should therefore create a Veterans AI Workforce Partnership Program within the Labor Department’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service. VETS would administer grants, coordinate participating agencies, and remain accountable for employment outcomes. Labor already manages the veterans’ grant programs and employer apprenticeship relationships on which this effort would depend, and it is the agency that answers for veteran employment outcomes.
A Labor-chaired board would include the VA and NIST. The VA would oversee eligibility and veteran support, while NIST would set AI-accountability competencies, risk standards and evaluation protocols. The Defense Department, National Science Foundation, universities, community colleges and employers would serve as partners, and competitive grants would build regional capacity under common national standards. Single ownership will be complex because Labor will need NIST’s expertise and the VA’s support, but the alternative is the status quo, in which no one is responsible.
Many of the necessary ingredients already exist. VET TEC 2.0 supports non-degree training for high-tech careers, including some AI and machine-learning pathways. The Labor Department helps companies build AI skills into Registered Apprenticeships. DoD SkillBridge connects service members with work-based learning before they leave the military. NSF supports AI and cybersecurity education at colleges and universities.
However, these efforts have different goals. VET TEC trains veterans for high-tech jobs but does not address AI accountability or its application across professions. Registered Apprenticeships can develop AI skills, but they do not necessarily emphasize accountability or specifically serve veterans. SkillBridge gives veterans work experience but does not systematically connect their existing strengths to AI-accountability roles. Coordination alone cannot bridge these gaps: If ownership remains distributed among programs, no one is accountable for the full pathway or its outcomes.
.promo-main{padding: 5px 0; }
.promo-inline{text-decoration:none !important;}
.promo-inline p{ color:#0093d0; font-weight: 600; }
.promo_dash{
border-bottom: 1px solid #d4d4d4;
vertical-align: text-top;
line-height: 3px;
margin-right: 10px;
display: inline;
}
The proposed program would do three things. First, it would fund short-term, stackable credentials that build toward degrees or professional qualifications in risk management, cybersecurity, data protection, human-computer system design and auditing. It would also award academic and professional credit for relevant military experience. Second, it would connect that training to paid experience through SkillBridge, Registered Apprenticeships, federal agencies, contractors and critical infrastructure employers. Third, it would support regional partnerships among colleges, employers, nonprofits, and government agencies to create pathways into local roles that require judgment and expertise.
Finally, the program would be accountable for its results. Congress should authorize $120 million for an initial two-year phase serving at least 10,000 veterans across regions and sectors. That amounts to about $60 million a year, similar in scale to Labor’s Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program, which awarded more than $57 million in 2024 to serve nearly 16,000 veterans. Building on SkillBridge and apprenticeships would help control costs. NIST would define common standards and measures, while Labor would track completion, placement, wage gains and retention; review results after six and twelve months; and expand, redesign, or end models based on performance. An independent evaluation after two years would guide any further expansion.
This initiative is not charity; it is national strategy. The AI era needs more than workers who know how to use powerful tools. It needs people prepared and empowered to challenge those tools, exercise independent judgment, and answer for how they are used. With the right training and support, America’s veterans can play a leading role.
Shlomo Engelson Argamon is the associate provost for artificial intelligence and dean of the Graduate School of Technology at Touro University.
Copyright
© 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.