DIR Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AI-C oE) Receives State IT Innovation of the Year Award

June 2, 2021
DIR News
AUSTIN—The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AI-CoE) today received the State IT Innovation of the Year Award from the Scoop News Group as part of the 2021 StateScoop 50 Awards.

The center, formed in December 2020, helps state and local governments use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to foster digital transformation and improve efficiency. The AI-CoE is a public-private partnership that offers free AI skills training to state information technology leaders.  So far, this effort has resulted in more than 20 test projects using AI, robotic process automation, and chatbots.

"We are so excited to receive recognition for this truly innovative initiative that utilizes technology to improve government processes," DIR Executive Director and State of Texas Chief Information Officer Amanda Crawford said. "I'm very proud of the work that the AI-CoE team has done in the past six months. The response we have received from state agencies and now StateScoop shows the center's success."

The AI-CoE is one of nine recipients of the State IT Innovation of the Year Award, which are among those StateScoop honored for "the most innovative and influential projects in state government and the people with the passion and drive to advance the use of digital technology inside state agencies."  

"We are developing use cases and success stories in all towers of artificial intelligence and are offering a growing portfolio of training to our customers," said Krishna Kumar Edathil, practice leader for the AI-COE and director of the Enterprise Solution Services (AI/Cloud) Division. "We believe this will provide immediate benefit to Texas' public sector and help retain talent as well as attract a new generation of state government workforce."

Nominations for the awards opened in February, and the website received thousands of nominations of leaders and projects for the awards. StateScoop narrowed the list to 180 finalists who received the most nominations, and readers cast more than three million votes to select the winners.

For more information on the AI-CoE, please visit the Texas AICoE page.

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