TVA OIG AI Strategic Plan
Executive Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how federal agencies deliver their missions, and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) intends to embrace this opportunity. Aligned to TVA OIG’s mission to promote effective and efficient TVA operations, and prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse, this internal strategy charts a course to leverage AI to strengthen TVA OIG’s operations, risk identification, and efforts to help make TVA better. It reflects federal expectations for responsible AI use, including innovation, governance, and public trust.
The strategy rests on five pillars:
Applied through these pillars, AI is expected to reduce administrative burden, surface datadriven insight, and improve timeliness of product deliverables. Routine tasks that can be automated or augmented free staff for high-value, mission-focused work, and decision-making become more data-informed and timely. The emphasis on governance and responsible AI standards ensures those advances occur in a way that preserves public trust.
Introduction
This internal strategy addresses TVA OIG’s vision, current state, and approach for using AI to improve our operations, decision-making, and mission delivery. It recognizes that AI offers real potential to accelerate work and address complex problems. At the same time, the strategy must consider and mitigate potential risks related to security, governance, transparency, and trust.
AI Vision
TVA OIG aims to enable AI innovation and adoption, enhance internal capabilities, and promote data-informed decisions. This strategy advances the TVA OIG mission by adopting AI tools and methods that are human-centered, responsibly deployed, and operationally meaningful. This will be accomplished by cultivating an AI-ready workforce, modernizing data and infrastructure to support scalable and secure AI applications, and embedding governance so that AI is applied ethically, efficiently, and aligned with professional standards.
AI Maturity: A Baseline Assessment September 2026
After establishing appropriate data governance and information technology infrastructure, TVA OIG has transitioned from piloting generative AI with a Champion group to office-wide production. Mandatory AI use training has been delivered to all staff and set-up with annual refresher training. Employees are empowered to use Copilot to support their daily operations and assist in planning. Future work plans include implementing agentic AI for key operational processes.
AI Strategic Pillars
Five strategic pillars form the foundation for responsible, mission-driven innovation—establishing effective governance oversight, scaling mission-driven use cases, ensuring access to high-quality data and modern infrastructure, fostering secure and transparent innovation, and cultivating a skilled workforce. Each pillar aligns with federal guidance and is tailored to TVA OIG priorities.
Pillar 1: Governance
Oversight & Accountability
TVA OIG has established an AI Governance Board (AIGB). The AIGB provides strategic oversight of AI integration, holds primary responsibility for developing and implementing the AI strategy and risk-management processes, vets strategic business needs for use cases, and oversees high-impact use cases. The Chief AI Officer (CAIO) guides and tracks progress on the AI Governance Framework and leads coordination to establish processes for managing high-impact AI initiatives.
Policies & Risk Management
The TVA OIG AI Policy defines acceptable use of AI in work products and enables employees to use AI tools responsibly within well-defined boundaries. Effective risk management for high impact and generative AI will be managed by the AIGB and OIG leadership. Supporting infrastructure will expand to include secure testing environments, validation systems, and post deployment monitoring.
Track & Plan for AI Investment
A structured process will be put in place to plan, track, and evaluate AI investments. Procurement of AI tools will include reviews of necessary elements to safeguard TVA or TVA OIG data and address AI-specific risks, including data storage and retention, model training, data encryption, guardrails to prevent data leakage, and cybersecurity compliance. Future investments will prioritize scaling reusable capabilities, closing infrastructure gaps, and enabling secure innovation. We will consider only U.S.-based AI solutions.
Pillar 2: Mission-Driven AI Use Cases
Alignment with Mission Needs
AI Use Case Assessments will be reviewed and approved by the Board to ensure alignment with OIG operations. Employees are encouraged to propose AI use cases with traceable performance goals. Pilots of limited scale and duration must define key performance indicators and expected benefits up front. Successful pilots will be standardized using reusable components and processes that produce repeatable and trustworthy outputs.
Pillar 3: Data & Infrastructure for AI
AI-Enabling Data Infrastructure & Security
Microsoft’s Copilot is our approved tool for generative AI. TVA OIG’s Microsoft 365 cloud environment has been configured to enable data security so that data uploads remain within our tenant, and the risk of internal data leakage is minimized. OneDrive has been configured as the backbone to our Microsoft AI platform that allows Copilot access to files securely and with correct permissions.
In addition to Microsoft, additional applications with AI capabilities will be considered to support operations. Each will undergo review against governance and security baselines to ensure alignment with best practices.
Pillar 4: Accelerate Responsible Innovation
Resources
A page on our intranet provides a centralized AI space which hosts forms, a prompt library, and documentation. AI Champions across all functions will keep AI use top of mind in their groups and be points of contact for questions. We will seek to leverage agentic AI to serve repeatable operational processes.
Pillar 5: AI-Ready Workforce
AI Literacy & Awareness
All employees will receive training on the TVA OIG AI Policy, with annual refresher training. This training has also been incorporated into the on-boarding process for new employees. In addition, ad hoc operational training will be made available to expand awareness of leveraging AI.
Community of Practice
AI Champions representing all operational functions foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing, driving peer learning and reuse of insights and resources. Regular discussion will showcase successful pilots and deployments, and an intranet AI knowledge hub serves as a central repository for resources.
Retain, Attract & Upskill Talent
We have updated our recruitment practices by factoring AI-related experience to our hiring selection criteria. To develop AI skill, we will source external training focused on leveraging AI into operations.
Conclusion
This strategy sets a clear path for leveraging AI to advance mission and operational performance while fostering transparency and trust. Strong governance, workforce readiness, and secure infrastructure together ensure that adoption aligns with national priorities and supports responsible innovation. The strategy is a living document that will evolve with emerging technologies, risks, and opportunities, reinforcing a commitment to accountability and mission impact.