How to Use Free AI Tools to Help With Your VA Claim

(The Right Way)

Smart prompts, powerful insights — and why better data gives you better results

AI Is Ready to Help — But You Need to Ask It the Right Way

AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini can now answer questions, explain complex VA terms, and even help you understand your disability ratings.

The good news is that many of these tools are free and easy to use which is really awesome for veterans.

The bad news? Most veterans don’t get useful results — not because the AI isn’t smart, but because the prompts are vague, and the data it’s working with is incomplete.

Smart Prompts for Veterans Using AI

If you’re using a general AI assistant (like ChatGPT or Gemini), here are a few smart prompts to get helpful answers:

Claim Prep & Understanding

• “Explain the difference between primary and secondary service-connected conditions.”

• “What documentation does the VA require to support a PTSD claim?”

• “What does a 30% rating for migraines mean under the VA rating schedule?”

Decision Letter Help

• “Help me understand the VA’s explanation for denying my claim under 38 CFR 4.130.”

• “Summarize this VA denial letter for me and explain what it means in plain English.” (copy/paste the letter into the prompt - no personal information!!)

Strategic Advice (General)

• “Give me a step-by-step guide for filing a supplemental claim with the VA.”

• “What’s the best way to organize my medical records for a C&P exam?”

• “I have back pain and sciatica. What VA ratings or secondary claims might apply?”

Tip: Be specific. Include details like your diagnosis, the date of your condition, or how it affects your daily life. Remember to not feed public facing AI with your personal information!

AI Has a Limit: Garbage In = Garbage Out

AI models are powerful — but they can’t read between the lines. The hard part is getting them pointed in the right direction in the beginning, before they get confused with a lack of information about your situation.

Most veterans make one of two mistakes:

1. They don’t give AI enough info — just asking vague questions like, “Do I qualify for benefits?”

2. They try to feed the AI a giant, messy PDF of medical records, expecting it to sort everything out magically.

3. Spilling personal details into the public!! Almost all commercially available AI systems are not HIPAA compliant and you have no idea where your data is going.

Unfortunately, AI doesn’t work like that.

To give strong, useful answers — especially about YOUR personal case — it needs structured, well-organized, clear input. And most veterans don’t have that. What you'll find is that a lot of AI agents will just kick back an error when you try to dump a large messy PDF into the chat window, or it wont understand it, make errors, or just kind of lose the whole plot of the chat. Annoying!

That’s Why We Do What We Do

Our service specializes in taking your scattered records — scanned PDFs, VA letters, imaging reports, handwritten notes — and turning them into:

• A clean, searchable, AI-readable database

• A structured timeline of your medical history + service events

• Indexed and labeled documentation aligned with VA disability categories

Once that’s in place, any AI tool becomes 100x more useful, whether you're doing your own research or preparing for a claim, appeal, or exam. The truth is there is a lot of messy work involved in the beginning to get your data in a usable format for the AI to really "get it". But once its set up - man what an amazing tool.

Think of it like handing the AI a messy shoebox of receipts... vs. giving it a spreadsheet. One gets you confusion. The other gets results.

Your AI Journey Can Start Today

You don’t have to be a tech expert to use AI. And as AI gets better, it should be easier to use.

And you don’t need to pay a lawyer or wait months for a VSO to call you back. The scary part is that most AI is smarter than these folks already!!

Start small. Ask smart questions. Learn what’s possible.

And when you’re ready to go deeper — with a clean, powerful, AI-optimized version of your records — we’ve got your six.