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ITS director nominee highlights procurement modernization, AI and enterprise agreements in committee appearance
Summary
Dr. Craig Orsaron, returning to lead Mississippi’s Information Technology Services (ITS), told the Senate Technology Committee he has launched an advisory council of the 30 largest agencies, advanced procurement vehicles and an AI framework aligned with a recent governor’s executive order. The committee approved his nomination by voice vote.
Dr. Craig Orsaron, nominated to serve (and presented in the hearing as the executive director of) Mississippi’s Information Technology Services (ITS), received the committee’s approval by voice vote after summarizing steps he said he has taken to modernize procurement and to prepare state agencies for artificial intelligence adoption.
Orsaron told the committee “Technology is the elixir in 2025 that can help Mississippians have better lives,” and described three “buckets” of work: internal ITS reforms, a new modernization advisory council for the state’s 30 largest agencies, and external alignment with cooperative agreements and cloud providers.
On procurement and agency engagement, Orsaron said ITS has implemented a project-management system, rolled out new procurement vehicles including a cloud procurement vehicle, and convened a modernization advisory council meant to coordinate the agencies that spend 98.2% of the state’s technology budget. He said the council has already met multiple times and is producing a roadmap and changes to operational limits.
Orsaron described recent steps on artificial intelligence governance and implementation. He said an ITS team led by Chief Administrative Officer Stephanie Hedgepeth prepared “a draft of an executive order to the governor in about 6 weeks,” and that the governor signed an executive order and established an AI task force. Orsaron said ITS has partnered with the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network and cloud providers, and that the agency holds 33 enterprise agreements with Microsoft across large agencies as part of a “multi-cloud” strategy where Google and other providers are expected to be added.
Committee members praised Orsaron’s outreach to agencies and the traction achieved in a few months. Senator Williams and other members commended the advisory approach and the leadership of ITS staff. After brief remarks and a motion, the committee approved the nomination by voice vote. The transcript does not record a roll-call tally.
