HokieAI enables secure access to new capabilities for students, faculty, and staff

Virginia Tech has rolled out HokieAI, a new university-supported artificial intelligence (AI) platform available to students, faculty, and staff at hokie.ai.vt.edu.

The launch marks a significant step in the university’s work to provide broad access to generative and agentic AI in an environment designed to support teaching, learning, research, and administrative work. The rollout is the culmination of months of evaluation, planning, and implementation aimed at offering AI tools that support institutional priorities around security; innovation; and responsible, ethical use.

“Completing the initial rollout of HokieAI provides the Virginia Tech community with secure, university-supported access to an evolving suite of AI tools,” said Sharon P. Pitt, vice president for information technology and chief information officer. “Our implementation team and steering committee have paid close attention to data protection, system governance, reliability, responsible stewardship of resources, and most importantly, the needs of users. We will continue to build on this foundation, evaluating and adopting new capabilities thoughtfully with input from the VT community.”

HokieAI gives users access to multiple commercial AI models through a single platform, and allows Virginia Tech to add models over time as they are vetted and approved for university use. The platform also meters usage over a monthly cycle to enable careful stewardship over costs. The structure will offer flexibility as AI technologies evolve, while maintaining institutional oversight.

Chief Technology Architect Carl Harris said, “HokieAI is built on a simple principle: access to leading foundation and frontier AI models at Virginia Tech shouldn't depend on a student's ability to pay or a department's willingness to absorb the cost — and it shouldn't come at the expense of security or compliance."

The platform is approved for use with all university data risk levels, including high-risk data, as defined by Virginia Tech. These protections are expected to give faculty, staff, and students an additional reliable option for university work and exploration with AI. Data entered into HokieAI remains within Virginia Tech’s protected environment and is not used to train current or future AI models.

In support of faculty and the university’s teaching and research missions, HokieAI provides resources that enhance intellectual, pedagogical, and scholarly strengths and collaboration. These resources, along with guidelines for responsible use of AI, offer a portfolio of tools that can support academic functions such as course design, differentiated learning, curricular and co-curricular engagement, and learning assessment. 

“HokieAI offers significant opportunities for faculty to enhance teaching, learning, and research activities and to reimagine student engagement and discovery,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Julie Ross. “Recognizing these tools require thoughtful and responsible use, our faculty can approach experimentation and innovation within a new and dynamic environment while protecting academic integrity, privacy, intellectual property, and data security.” 

Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies (TLOS) can support Virginia Tech instructional faculty as they develop educational assets using HokieAI or other university-approved AI tools. HokieAI can support research faculty, in consultation with the Office of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance (SIRC), in developing guidelines and standards specific to their research, intellectual property, publications, peer reviews, and data handling protocols, as well as in exploring rigorous and ethical review processes for AI-assisted research. 

As HokieAI evolves and best practices are expanded to support and advance academic and research priorities, faculty will see new AI models and more detailed guidance and resources for teaching and learning, training, and responsible and ethical AI principles, in accordance with Virginia Tech’s AI mission and vision and in alignment with the university’s AI governance structure. 

“Virginia Tech has a robust selection of AI offerings that include tools from Google and Microsoft, custom LLMs from Advanced Research Computing, and now, HokieAI,” said Chris Bateson, systems administrator and IT manager, and technical lead for the HokieAI project. “All these offerings position Virginia Tech to be a standout among our peer institutions in advancing AI capabilities and exploration.” 

Baseline features available through HokieAI include chat, drafting and revising content, coding support, personal agent creation and sharing, document upload for analysis, and image creation. 

In recognition of the relative newness of AI for many members of the university community, the rollout was also accompanied by guidance and training to support AI literacy and responsible use. A recommended training module, AI at Virginia Tech: A Primer for HokieAI, is available through the TLOS Professional Development Network (PDN) course catalog. This course adds to a suite of AI-related training available through PDN. 

For more information about HokieAI and the other AI tools available at Virginia Tech, visit the AI at Virginia Tech website. The site also offers guidance, defines common terminology, and outlines best practices for students, educators, researchers, and administrators when using artificial intelligence. The site will also be the best place to keep up with the latest information regarding AI decisions on tools, models, and technology enhancements.