The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AI-CoE), which helps state and local governments use AI to improve efficiency and foster digital transformation, has received the State IT Innovation of the Year Award in this year’s StateScoop 50 Awards.
The annual StateScoop 50 Awards are awarded to those who make state government more effective and efficient. This year, it was awarded to people and projects that helped the residents get through COVID-19 challenges with the help of technology.
AI-COE – DRIVING GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCIES
AI-CoE, led by an Indian-American, Krishna Kumar Edachil, has been driving government efficiencies and response to the Covid-19 pandemic impact with the development of AI concepts and standards throughout state and local government. Its goal is to improve and enhance AI implementations in the government and help agencies embark on the AI adoption journey. By partnering with industry, AI-CoE brings the latest innovations to the government and helps build a more technologically enabled, future-proof method to meet government missions.
Krishna, who serves as the practice leader and director of Enterprise Solution Services for the AI-CoE, expressed his excitement about receiving the award. He also expressed appreciation for the AI-CoE team and their work in the past six months.
He also shared that AI-CoE is developing use cases and success stories in all Artificial Intelligence areas and imparting training to the customers.
STATESCOOP 50 AWARDS – 2021
Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence is one of nine State IT Innovation of the Year Award recipients. This year’s winners span 20 states and eight private sector companies. Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, and North Carolina bagged the maximum number of awards.
As soon as the nominations for the awards opened in February by StateScoop – the website which covers news and events impacting technology decisions in state and local government, thousands of nominations of leaders and projects from the state and local IT community were received. Based on who received the most nominations, StateScoop narrowed the list to 180 finalists. The readers cast three million votes to select the winners, including DIR’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence.
StateScoop has recognized the most influential and innovative projects and leaders inside state government for the past eight years. This year’s winners include C-level leaders and emerging leaders in the state government community. Considering the ongoing pandemic, the 2021 edition of the awards was presented virtually.
