AI Innovation Hub
The Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS) announced the launch of the ITS AI Innovation Hub on January 10, 2025. This groundbreaking initiative is designed to position Mississippi as a leader in AI innovation, education, and workforce development by fostering collaboration among state agencies, higher education and private industry. The AI Innovation Hub is a groundbreaking statewide collaboration between the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network (MAIN). The Hub aims to accelerate the deployment of AI-driven solutions to enhance public services, boost economic growth, equip the workforce with cutting-edge AI skills and create a path to keep our best and brightest students working in Mississippi after college.
"This collaboration with MAIN and AWS is a significant step forward for Mississippi," said Dr. Craig P. Orgeron, ITS Executive Director and State CIO. "The AI Innovation Hub will accelerate AI adoption, drive economic growth, and enhance public services across the state."
The AI Innovation Hub is proud to be in partnership currently with three leading Mississippi institutions: Mississippi State University, University of Southern Mississippi and University of Mississippi to pair student teams with the Hub to work on solving Mississippi’s AI use cases. There are currently three innovative pilots underway addressing Food Insecurity challenges, Secretary of State policy operations, and ITS procurement initiatives. A full-scale launch of the AI Innovation Hub is scheduled for late January. The innovative student teams are interdisciplinary and supervised by institutional staff/faculty to work on rapid proof of concept (PoC) AI solutions with use cases they submit a proposal for. Timelines for PoCs vary by use case but are typically expected to be 6-8 weeks each. There are over 20 use cases submitted already and more coming in every day. The Hub provides a low-risk, high-value framework for operational modernization, data-driven decision-making and long-term AI capacity building.
Key components of this partnership include:
- Proof of Concept (POC) Investment: AWS is providing funding for AI application POCs, leveraging AWS landing zones operated by ITS. This will allow for the development of practical AI solutions and foster a skilled workforce. Higher education students will also have access to a sandbox environment within the ITS AWS landing zone to build POCs.
- Educational Investment: AWS will contribute AI/ML curriculum for higher education, providing students with hands-on experience in developing real-world AI applications. This includes tailored training programs, hands-on labs and workshops, and certification pathways for AWS AI/ML specialties, managed by MAIN.
- Digital Innovation Team Support: ITS, with MAIN and AWS, will conduct specialized workshops to help organizations identify strategic AI implementation opportunities and develop actionable innovation roadmaps.
- AWS Advisory Committee: An AWS Advisory Committee, including ITS and MAIN, will be established to provide guidance and support for the successful deployment of AI initiatives.
- Economic Impact: AWS's investment in AI/ML local zone datacenters will boost Mississippi's tech infrastructure and expand the economic benefits of AWS's presence in the state.
This partnership draws inspiration from successful models like Massachusetts' InnovateMA and ASU’s Artificial Intelligence Cloud Innovation Center, aiming to create a centralized platform for sharing use case requests and POC progress, and to connect student innovators with workforce opportunities.
Documentation for the Hub will be published soon!
Those interested in learning more about the AI Innovation Hub can contact InnovationHub@its.ms.gov.
Ready to get involved? Use the link below to submit a use case or request for training:
https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/f10f58ec371d439aaff12c5bf34403ba