AI in Action Hackathon 2026 — Challenge Guide

Challenge 1 — Research Archive Intelligence

Terminus, Praxis Science

Organization: Terminus, Praxis Science
Product/Service: Platform connecting researchers with projects
Mission: Connect researchers and projects

The Challenge

Praxis Science has access to a significant archive of research material, including the John Bates archive and a collection of approximately 354 theories. The long-term goal is to make these materials accessible through an AI system that can help researchers explore, understand, and interact with the archive.

However, before an AI system can effectively work with this material, the archive itself needs to be organized, prepared, and structured for use.

For this challenge, teams will explore how an existing research archive can be transformed into a useful foundation for an AI-powered research assistant.

Tech Track — AI Research Archive

Challenge

Design and prototype a system for preparing a large collection of research materials for use with an LLM.

Teams will work with the available archive and explore how the material can be organized, processed, indexed, and made accessible through an AI interface. The goal is not necessarily to train a new model from scratch, but to demonstrate how an LLM can be given meaningful access to a large and potentially complex body of research.

Potential Features to Explore

Archive organization and document processing
Loading and structuring the John Bates archive
Preparing the collection of 354 theories for AI use
RAG and semantic search
Natural-language research queries
Document and theory classification
Knowledge extraction and summarization
Citation and source tracing
Identifying relationships between theories and research materials
Research-oriented AI interfaces

Enterprise Track — Research Archive Discovery

Challenge

Design a system that helps researchers navigate and discover information within a large collection of archived research.

The system should make it easier for a researcher to find relevant theories, documents, concepts, and connections without having to manually search through the entire archive.

Potential Features to Explore

AI-powered research discovery
Semantic search and recommendations
Theory-to-research matching
Research topic classification
Personalized research recommendations
Connections between researchers, theories, and projects
Automated summaries and research briefs
Search and filtering tools
Visualizations of relationships within the archive

Challenge 2 — EmpowerHer Event Intelligence & Lead Generation

Meagan Reed Consulting

Organization: Meagan Reed Consulting
Product/Service: Marketing and business growth services
Mission: Help businesses effectively market their products and services

The Challenge

Running a growing event requires far more than putting people in a room. Attendees, speakers, sponsors, communications, marketing, and finances all need to work together.

Meagan Reed Consulting is looking for ways to use AI to make the EmpowerHer Summit easier to manage while also creating new opportunities for business growth.

Tech Track — AI-Powered Event Management

Challenge

Build an automated system for managing attendees, speakers, event information, and follow-up for the EmpowerHer Summit.

The system should reduce administrative work while keeping event information organized and accessible.

Potential Features to Explore

Automated attendee and speaker tracking
Event registration management
Dynamic event tables and schedules
Automated reminders and communications
Sponsor and attendee fee tracking
Sponsorship-level management
Event dashboards and reporting
AI-generated event summaries or reports

Enterprise Track — Intelligent Lead Generation

Challenge

Build an intelligent lead-generation system that helps identify, score, rank, and prioritize potential customers.

The system should help transform a large pool of potential leads into a manageable list of the most promising opportunities.

Potential Features to Explore

Lead discovery
Lead scoring and ranking
Customer/business matching
Automated qualification
Personalized outreach recommendations
AI-generated outreach messages
Similarity or recommendation models
Two-tower or embedding-based architectures

Challenge 3 — AI-Powered Local Business Intelligence

Vicall

Organization: Vicall
Product/Service: Professional SEO and website services
Mission: Improve websites and help businesses become more discoverable online

The Challenge

Local businesses often have valuable products and services but lack the digital infrastructure needed to reach the right people.

Vicall wants to explore how AI can turn scattered information about local businesses into an intelligent system for discovery, research, and outreach.

Tech Track — AI Business Research Assistant

Challenge

Create an AI assistant that can search and reason over information about local businesses and their needs.

The system should be accessible through an AI or API interface and demonstrate how an AI agent could turn business information into actionable insights.

Potential Features to Explore

RAG-based business research
Natural-language business queries
Company information extraction
Business need identification
Decision-maker discovery
API-accessible AI functionality
Claude Code/OpenClaw compatibility
Exportable business and contact information

Enterprise Track — Smart Local Business Directory

Challenge

Build a searchable directory of local businesses that goes beyond basic company listings.

The goal is to create an intelligent resource containing businesses, relevant contacts, and information that can help organizations identify potential customers and partners.

Potential Features to Explore

Local business discovery
Business categorization
Decision-maker identification
Contact information management
Search and filtering
AI-powered recommendations
Business-to-business matching
Exportable prospect lists

Challenge 4 — Maker Marketing & Digital Operations

Project: Untitled

Organization: Project: Untitled
Product/Service: Online marketplace platform for makers
Mission: Foster and empower the maker community by building physical and digital hubs that help makers grow and develop their talents

The Challenge

A growing maker marketplace creates a unique data and operations problem. Marketing campaigns generate information across multiple channels, while email, social media, and content campaigns all require coordination.

Project: Untitled wants to explore how AI can turn this information into better decisions and more efficient digital operations.

Tech Track — AI Marketing Analytics

Challenge

Build a system that analyzes marketing and social media campaign data and transforms it into useful, understandable insights.

The system should help a user move from raw campaign data to an actionable understanding of what is working, what is not, and what should happen next.

Potential Features to Explore

Marketing analytics dashboards
Social media performance analysis
Automated analytical briefs
AI-generated campaign summaries
RAG-powered dashboard analysis
Trend identification
Campaign comparisons
Recommendations for future campaigns

Enterprise Track — Digital Campaign Operations

Challenge

Design a system that helps administrators manage the many digital channels required to operate a growing maker community.

The solution should make it easier to coordinate email, blogs, and social media campaigns from a centralized system.

Potential Features to Explore

Centralized email management
Social media account management
Blog/content management
Campaign creation and scheduling
Administrative oversight
Cross-platform campaign coordination
AI-generated content
Campaign calendars and approval workflows

Nonprofit Challenge — So Many Angels

So Many Angels

Organization: So Many Angels
Product/Service: Photography experiences for children with serious illnesses
Mission: Give children experiencing serious illness an opportunity to feel normal, even if only for a few minutes

The Challenge

So Many Angels coordinates photography experiences for children and their families. Making those experiences happen requires coordinating families, photographers, events, schedules, communications, and follow-up.

The organization currently relies on multiple systems and manual processes. The goal is to create one connected experience that makes it easier for families to participate and easier for volunteers to coordinate.

Tech Track — Unified Photo Session System

Challenge

Build a unified system that guides families from signing up for a photo session through the event and follow-up process.

The system should connect families with nearby photographers or events while keeping information synchronized as new opportunities are added.

Potential Features to Explore

Online photo-session registration
Photographer/event matching
Location-based matching
Google Sheets integration
Automatically generated event pages
Automated reminder emails
Post-event feedback collection
No-show follow-up workflows
Centralized administrative dashboard

Enterprise Track — Challenge Selection

Challenge

For the Enterprise Track, teams will select one of the participating small-business challenges they are most interested in solving.

Teams should rank their preferred challenges in order of interest. Rankings should account for first, second, and third choices in case another team has already selected the team's first choice.