Mississippi’s statewide AI initiative.
The Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network (MAIN) is the first initiative of its kind in the nation. It connects all public and private universities and community colleges in Mississippi with government, workforce, industry, and technology partners. For an overview of Mississippi’s wider AI landscape and who is responsible for what, see AI in Mississippi.
One state. One connected AI network.
Purpose
Why Mississippi built MAIN
Artificial intelligence is changing how people learn, work, serve the public, and compete. MAIN gives Mississippi a coordinated way to widen access, align institutions, and move from awareness to responsible use.
Build the people, partnerships, and practical infrastructure Mississippi needs to use AI well.
- 2023
- MAIN launched as Mississippi’s statewide AI initiative and the first of its kind in the nation.
- Today
- The network connects all public and private universities and community colleges across Mississippi with cross-sector partners.
The work
What MAIN does
MAIN is more than a training program or a consortium. It coordinates the education, governance, implementation, and partnerships required to build statewide AI capacity.
Educate and prepare
Free courses, live workshops, faculty development, credentials, and workforce pathways.
Guide responsible adoption
Policy, governance, readiness, workflow discovery, and responsible-use planning.
Enable implementation
Use-case definition, roadmaps, labs, pilots, and partner-supported technical pathways.
Coordinate statewide
Shared priorities, cross-sector partnerships, and a front door to Mississippi’s AI ecosystem.
Statewide network
A network built at statewide scale
MAIN partners with all public and private universities and community colleges in Mississippi.
Education
State & local government
Workforce & economic development
Industry & technology
Capacity and impact
Statewide capacity, built to last
MAIN turns statewide coordination into practical infrastructure people and organizations can use.
Documented statewide impact from MAIN’s 2023 launch through FY2026.
Learning engagements include course enrollments and completions, module completions, and participation in workshops and other training activities. Totals are cumulative and may include multiple engagements by the same learner.
Infrastructure Mississippi can use today
Practical resources and coordinated pathways strengthen AI capacity across the state.
Strategic direction
Where MAIN is focused
MAIN’s priorities connect education, responsible adoption, implementation, and economic opportunity into one statewide strategy.
People
Expand practical AI literacy, education, and workforce pathways.
Organizations
Help institutions and agencies adopt AI responsibly.
Economy
Connect talent, implementation, and economic-development opportunities.
Statewide alignment
Keep education, government, workforce, industry, and technology moving together.
Statewide by design. Accountable in practice.
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College provides MAIN’s operational and fiscal anchor. MAIN’s statewide work is carried out through partnerships across institutions and sectors. Senate Bill 2426 (2025) seats the Director of the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network as a voting member of the Artificial Intelligence Regulation (AIR) Task Force it established.