By Erin Bailey, education reporter
On Aug. 23, 2026, Virginia Tech News announced the launch of HokieAI, a university-supported platform designed to give students, faculty and staff access to vetted artificial intelligence tools. HokieAI aims to provide users with innovation while focusing on security and ethical use.
Features available through HokieAI range from drafting and revising content to coding support and image creation. The platform is designed to handle all levels of data, including high-risk information.
Virginia Tech urges interested individuals to complete a training course called AI at Virginia Tech: A Primer for HokieAI. The module supports AI literacy and responsible use.
In an interview, Carl Harris the Chief Technology Architect at Virginia Tech elaborates on how HokieAI will change higher education in the foreseeable future.
Carl Harris is the Chief Technology Architect at Virginia Tech. (Courtesy of Virginia Tech, Division of Information Technology)
His comments were edited slightly for length and clarity.
What did the process of creating HokieAI look like?
When we decided we wanted a platform like HokieAI, we looked to see what was in the market, and we decided to do competitive procurement for it, something through a request for proposals, and that process is time-consuming. Ultimately, we started in November, maybe even as early as late October, and we had responses in, reviewed and evaluated by the committee associated with that procurement, and forwarded the contract in April of this past year.
How do you envision HokieAI changing the way students approach learning, research and creative work?
I teach a course in electrical and computer engineering. My syllabus includes details about where you can and can’t use AI. The thing I always tell my students about with respect to this affecting the experience that you’re getting is, if you’re not having to think about what you’re doing, if it’s really just asking questions and then regurgitating responses, you’re getting no benefit from that. Part of our statements around literacy for AI is this notion that you still need to be the expert in whatever domain that is. In my course, it’s an electrical engineering topic, but you still need to be providing that expertise to ground what the AI is telling you. You still need to be applying your own judgment. AI doesn’t have a sense of judgment, humans do, and you need to be thinking critically about what it’s telling you.
How does HokieAI’s secure, university‑managed environment change the way students and faculty can safely use AI?
Students are already using things like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini for their learning and for their research. One of our goals with this was to create a space where students could do that, where whatever they’re putting into that tool, we know isn’t being used to train models. We know it’s not being retained for any sort of purpose by the provider. We’re the provider. While we do retain some of that data, it’s mostly because we need to from a legal perspective, not so that we use different models or share with anyone. When students need to use AI in their coursework, we’re ensuring through having this tool that all students have equal access, really regardless of their ability to pay or spend more money out of pocket.
How do you see HokieAI reshaping the way faculty design courses, assignments or assessments?
One of the things that we hope is if we’re providing a tool and everyone has access to it, that those universities providing solutions will inspire faculty to get more engaged, especially those that are either still on the fence, but maybe some of them are actually behind the fence.
I can have much higher expectations for what I want students to gain out of projects, or how many projects they do, if I know a lot of the grunt work of doing those projects can be assisted with AI. It’s really rethinking higher education, thinking about what does higher education look like in the face of this very powerful tool.
How does HokieAI position Virginia Tech among peer institutions in terms of AI leadership?
Even though there are other schools doing this, we’re still among the early adopters. Not every school out there has this capability, although it’s becoming more common because I think it’s a good decision that’s relatively affordable in the concept of universal access for everyone at the university that solves a lot of the has and have nots challenges.
How do you imagine HokieAI influencing the skills students graduate with?
The opportunities for students to ask the hard questions about what are the impacts of AI societally, environmentally, what should this mean in the course of my career? I think providing the space and the opportunities to explore and have really the academic discourse about these things is key to us. Not just grappling with it, but getting through solutions and answers to some of those questions.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We had some students asking what happens to my prompts that go into HokieAI, and will my professors be able to get access to that? Asking those questions and thinking really about the implications of this is going to be a commitment that your generation is going to have to carry forward. Getting a deeper understanding of what are the implications, where could this go, where do we not want it to go and where would we like to see it go? I think it’s really important for people in their university experience to be asking those questions.
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