Charles Worthington, top VA tech and AI official, departs agency
Charles Worthington, top VA tech and AI official, departs agency
https://fedscoop.com/charles-worthington-leaves-veterans-affairs/
Publish Date: 2026-03-12 17:13:00
Source Domain: fedscoop.com
- Charles Worthington, the VA’s Chief AI Officer and CTO, is stepping down after nearly nine years, citing it as the right time for a change.
- Worthington established the Office of the CTO and the VA Digital Service team from scratch, leading to a current staff of over 100 professionals.
- Before joining VA, Worthington served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow and co-created the U.S. Digital Service post-HealthCare.gov rollout.
- He brought significant advancements to VA, enhancing digital services and adopting commercial cloud infrastructure. The VA’s website was rebuilt, and services like VA Notify were introduced.
- Worthington championed AI adoption, transforming the VA into one of the top AI users in the federal government, with 367 identified use cases including a generative AI tool and AI scribes for clinicians.
- He is credited with reducing clinician burnout by applying AI tools for note-taking and medical record management.
- Worthington did not disclose his next destination but expressed enthusiasm for contributing to AI’s technology frontier going forward.