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Helpful Places

Government of Canada – DTPR AI Register

AI-Assisted Document Summarization for Veterans Disability Claims

Healthcare · Eligibility & Public Benefits

What it collects that can identify you

Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • Veterans' medical assessments, disability records, and personal client files stored in the VAC Client Services Delivery Network and GCCase. This includes health information that constitutes sensitive personal data.
Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • Client records from the VAC Client Services Delivery Network and GCCase, which identify specific veteran clients and are linked to their accounts and benefit histories.
Run by
Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization
Your copy
You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

HealthcareEligibility & Public Benefits

This system uses generative AI to read and summarize personal records and medical assessments held by Veterans Affairs Canada, producing evidence bundles that help adjudicators decide disability claims. It is currently being tested and is not yet in full production. Veterans' personal and medical information is processed, and staff are informed that AI is in use.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • Veterans' medical assessments, disability records, and personal client files stored in the VAC Client Services Delivery Network and GCCase. This includes health information that constitutes sensitive personal data.
Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • Client records from the VAC Client Services Delivery Network and GCCase, which identify specific veteran clients and are linked to their accounts and benefit histories.

Processing

Language Models
  • Azure OpenAI large language models are used to synthesize extracted document content into coherent written summaries and evidence bundles for adjudicators.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • Uses generative AI (Azure OpenAI) to produce written summaries of client documents and evidence bundles. The generated content is advisory — a human adjudicator reviews and decides on each disability claim.
Sensing (Perceptive AI)
Human decides
  • Uses Document Intelligence capabilities including handwriting recognition, general document analysis, and custom extraction and classification models to extract structured information from scanned forms and handwritten records.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • A concise evidence bundle and written summary of the veteran client's documents and medical assessments, produced for use by a disability adjudicator. The output is a synthesized document, not a copy of the source records.
A recommendation or prediction
Identifiable data
  • The evidence bundle serves as an advisory input to the adjudicator's determination — it presents and organizes information to assist the human decision-maker but does not itself constitute a binding eligibility decision.

Run by

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC)
  • Federal department responsible for delivering benefits and services to Canadian veterans. Operates the Claims Summary Tool to support disability adjudication.

Government of Canada AI Register — CST entry

Built by

Microsoft
  • Technology vendor providing Document Intelligence and Azure OpenAI capabilities used by the Claims Summary Tool. The system was developed in part by the VAC AI Development team using Microsoft services.

Government of Canada AI Register — CST entry

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • Outputs are available to Veterans Affairs Canada adjudicators (GC employees) who use the evidence bundles to support disability claim decisions. Access is limited to authorized departmental staff.
Not available to me
  • Veteran clients do not have direct access to the AI-generated summaries produced about their own records. The output is an internal adjudicator-facing tool; veteran access to underlying source records is governed by separate VAC access procedures.

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 TransparencyVeterans Affairs Canada has disclosed that AI is in use within the adjudication support process. The system is listed on the Government of Canada's public AI register, providing transparency about its general purpose, capabilities, and data sources.
  • Right to a Human ReviewAll disability adjudication decisions are made by human adjudicators at Veterans Affairs Canada. The AI system produces advisory summaries only; no benefit eligibility decision is made solely by the AI. Veterans retain the right to have their claims reviewed and decided by a qualified human adjudicator.

Risks and safeguards

  • Reputational harmInaccurate or incomplete AI summaries could misrepresent a veteran's medical or service history, leading to unfair adjudication outcomes and reputational or financial harm to the veteran.Safeguard: The system is currently in development and being tested with adjudicators to verify that evidence bundles are comprehensive and accurate before broader deployment. Human adjudicators review all AI-generated summaries before any claim decision is made.
  • Civil liberties harmProcessing sensitive medical and personal records of veterans through a third-party AI platform (Microsoft Azure OpenAI) raises concerns about data sovereignty and the right to privacy under Canadian law, particularly regarding cloud data handling.Safeguard: Data sources are restricted to VAC's internal systems (Client Services Delivery Network, GCCase); the register confirms personal information is involved and AI use is disclosed to system users (GC employees).