{"id":31312,"date":"2026-05-07T18:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/31312\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T18:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:07:12","slug":"how-is-mississippi-government-using-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/31312\/","title":{"rendered":"How is Mississippi government using artificial intelligence?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Tate Reeves has worked to elevate Mississippi as one of the leaders in artificial intelligence development<\/a>, boosted by billions of dollars invested<\/a> in data centers<\/a> throughout the state.<\/p>\n

Some of the most enthusiastic adopters of artificial intelligence in the workplace are agencies of the Mississippi state government, spearheaded by the Department of Information Technology Services and the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network. Together, the departments have pushed AI and watched its spread, but the new technology hasn’t been full-throttle.<\/p>\n

The current focus of AI in government, explained Dr. Kollin Napier, the director of MAIN, lies in cutting out the simple tasks that state employees have to take care of every day. Run-of-the-mill emails and expense reports, he said, can typically be completed more quickly and cleanly by an algorithm than a person.<\/p>\n

“There are lots of ways that AI is being experimented with to take the mundane out of the day-to-day,” Napier said. “We’re looking at finance and accounting, checking things like reimbursements \u2026 Lots of things can get missed by a human, but there is always a human in the loop.”<\/p>\n

The Clarion Ledger spoke with Napier at the Mississippi AI Innovation Hub Showcase on May 5, where student groups from Mississippi universities and industry leaders presented new AI tools and their potential use in government. Approximately half of the new tools tackled the jobs that Napier discussed, and the other half dealt with the state’s medical agencies.<\/p>\n

The idea of new AI technology being responsible for their medical information is likely jarring to most Mississippians, but Stephanie Hedgepeth, the chief strategy officer for ITS, said that cybersecurity was the first priority in the systems being tested by the Board of Nursing and Department of Mental Health, among others.<\/p>\n

“The focus for AI is in productivity hacks and these low-risk, mundane tasks,” Hedgepeth said. “These agencies receive the acceptable use policy from ITS, which walks them through exactly how they can use AI in their offices.”<\/p>\n

The adoption of AI in state agencies has stagnated recently. The number of AI projects nearly quadrupled between 2024 and 2025, climbing to 232, but it increased by just eight projects in 2026, according to last year’s state agency AI inventory compiled by ITS.<\/p>\n

Medical state agencies are in the process of bumping up their AI usage, but early adopters include the employment security and environmental quality departments, as well as the arts commission.<\/p>\n

The adoption of artificial intelligence in state government work has been intentionally moderate, Napier said, because the state employees using the technology have to adapt and learn alongside it.<\/p>\n

“Just as much as we’re working on upgrading and building new tools, we need to do upskilling to show people how to use AI,” he said. “Workforce development has to be parallel to economic development.”<\/p>\n

\"Napier,<\/p>\n

Napier, the director of the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network, described AI as “the most accessible technology we’ve ever had.”<\/p>\n

The UPSKILL program, explained: Mississippi Legislature approves free community college courses for adults<\/a><\/p>\n

The UPSKILL program, which the Mississippi Legislature passed into law this session, offers free community college courses to adults in areas that the state highlights as economic priorities. Artificial intelligence is one that was promoted by several of the bill’s proponents and echoed by Gov. Reeves.<\/p>\n

“Think of AI like an intern,” Napier said. “A new intern has a lot of questions and the enthusiasm to solve issues, but you need to explain to them how you want things to be done and be very specific. The system is learning the human just as much as the human is learning the system.”<\/p>\n

Often, the extensive implementation of artificial intelligence brings concerns about job security and the worrying potential for, particularly, administrative jobs to be eliminated. Neither Napier nor Hedgepeth guaranteed that increased AI in the state government would not lead to layoffs, but both emphasized that current policy requires a human to oversee any generated work.<\/p>\n

“When we talk about AI in the workplace, think of it as redesigning the role,” Napier said. “You are in the role, because you are the knowledge expert. You have the final say-so.”<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence, Napier said, is not going anywhere.<\/p>\n

“AI is the most accessible technology we’ve ever had,” he said. “And we have a commitment from the state to ensure that all Mississippians prosper and have the opportunity to engage with it.”<\/p>\n

Bea Anhuci<\/a> is the state government reporter for the Clarion Ledger. She has covered the Mississippi government since the start of 2026. Email her at banhuci@usatodayco.com.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi government pushing adoption of AI in medical agencies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Tate Reeves has worked to elevate Mississippi as one of the leaders in artificial intelligence development, boosted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,20186,8059,20190,20187,20188,20189],"class_list":["post-31312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-kollin-napier","tag-mississippi","tag-mississippi-legislature","tag-state-agencies","tag-stephanie-hedgepeth","tag-tate-reeves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}