The Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AI CoE) was established in 2025 by Admin to support effective and responsible AI adoption across state government in alignment with the statewide AI strategy’s “Promote, Protect, Pursue” pillars. As the coordinating body for statewide AI efforts, the AI CoE provides visibility into AI adoption and a consistent framework for evaluating business value, security, privacy, compliance and strategic alignment.

The AI CoE brings together IT leaders from state agencies and higher education institutions to share knowledge, develop best practices, evaluate AI initiatives and identify opportunities to use AI to improve government operations and services for South Carolinians.

The AI CoE maintains a centralized repository of AI use cases, which are reviewed through a coordinated process involving governance, privacy, security and the state AI director. This process evaluates operational value, risk, compliance, financial impact and alignment with the state’s AI strategy. The rapidly growing statewide AI use case portfolio reflects both the growing adoption of AI and the need for coordinated oversight.

The General Assembly reinforced this statewide approach through Proviso 117.194 (GP: AI Appropriations), which requires agencies and institutions appropriated or authorized funding for AI to coordinate their AI efforts and budget requests with the AI CoE, with specific reporting provisions for higher education.

The AI CoE serves as a statewide forum for sharing practical experience and lessons learned across government and higher education. This collaboration helps agencies understand emerging AI capabilities, responsible adoption practices and approaches that can be applied across state government. The AI CoE has also established an AI Coordinators Working Group to strengthen implementation-level collaboration among agencies.

For questions, coordination or support of AI-related efforts, please contact the AI Center of Excellence at AICoE@admin.sc.gov.