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AI-Assisted Document Business Value Classification

Planning & Decision-making

What it collects

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Electronic documents held by Veterans Affairs Canada — administrative records, correspondence, and other government files — processed to determine their business value for retention. No personal information was involved.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Run by
Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
No data retained
Shared with
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Your copy
You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

Planning & Decision-making

This system used IBM Watson Explorer to automatically determine whether electronic documents held business value for retention purposes at Veterans Affairs Canada. It was a proof-of-concept tool used internally by government employees, not by the public. No personal information was involved. The system has since been retired and is no longer in operation.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Electronic documents held by Veterans Affairs Canada — administrative records, correspondence, and other government files — processed to determine their business value for retention. No personal information was involved.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Processing

Computer Vision
  • Computer Vision was listed as a capability of the IBM Watson Explorer deployment, likely used to interpret scanned or image-based documents as part of the classification pipeline.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Language Models
  • Natural Language Processing was listed as a capability, used to read and interpret textual content of documents to support the business-value classification task.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

What it does

Deciding (Analytical AI)
Human decides
  • The system classified documents as having or lacking business value — a predictive label applied to structured and unstructured content. As a proof of concept reviewed by GC employees, humans retained final judgment over retention decisions.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Sensing (Perceptive AI)
Human decides
  • Computer Vision was listed as a capability, indicating the system could interpret document images or scanned files to extract structured information prior to classification.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Outputs

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Classification results indicating whether each processed document was deemed to have business value for retention — used by GC employees to make records management decisions. No personal information was output.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Run by

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC)
  • Federal government department that deployed IBM Watson Explorer as a proof of concept to classify electronic documents for retention purposes.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Built by

IBM
  • IBM provided Watson Explorer, the AI platform used to perform document classification and natural language processing in this proof of concept.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Kept for

No data retained
  • The system has been retired. No information is available in the register about a data retention schedule during active operation. As no personal information was collected, retention risk is minimal.
  • Duration: Not applicable — system retired

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Shared with

Not available to me
  • This was an internal government proof-of-concept tool for GC employees only. Members of the public had no access to the system or its outputs. AI use was not disclosed to users.

GC AI Register — 2526-VAC-ACC-007

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyThis system was an internal proof of concept used by government employees and has since been retired. It did not process personal information. Public transparency about the system is available through the Government of Canada AI Register.

Risks and safeguards

No risks or safeguards have been published for this system yet.