AI Hackathon: Innovating for Supply Chain Resilience - October

Join us for a 48-hour hackathon with a £10k prize pot, bringing together innovators, developers and creatives to tackle Jersey’s greatest challenges using AI.

Event Details:

Date: Friday 2nd October – Sunday 4th October 2026
Location: Digital Jersey Hub, Grenville Street, St Helier
Duration: 48 hours (Friday evening – Sunday afternoon)

Event Overview:

Friday: Team registrations, welcome presentation and networking over pizza and beers. The hackathon begins.

Saturday: Hackathon continues, with lunch and refreshments available.

Sunday: Hackathon concludes with team presentations, curry lunch, judging and prize giving.

About the Hackathon

The AI Hackathon is your chance to build meaningful solutions for Jersey’s most pressing economic challenges. Over one high-energy weekend, teams will prototype AI-driven tools designed to lower the cost of living by reimagining Supply Chain Resilience.

From shipping disruptions to the empty mile inefficiency, we are looking for innovative and action driven prototypes that use local data to make Jersey’s economy leaner and more self-sufficient.

Use AI to build solutions that matter for Jersey’s future

Join developers, designers, entrepreneurs and problem-solvers for a weekend of innovation, collaboration and real-world impact. The AI Hackathon is your opportunity to utilise the potential of AI to create solutions that tackle challenges shaping the island’s future.

This isn’t just about ideas, it’s about action. Over an intense and inspiring sprint with access to local data, you will develop a working prototype and pitch your solution to the judges and ecosystem leaders.

The Challenge

The challenge is to build a meaningful solutions that utilise AI, as part of the solution and/ or in their delivery for Jersey focusing on supply chain resilience.

We welcome ideas using AI to solve any area in this topic, but to help you focus your ideas, we’ve provided three key example challenges. These are just starting points, you can shape them in your own way.

Key Challenge 1

Build a predictive AI model for disruptions by combining multiple data sources (shipping timetables, freight stats, fuel prices, weather forecasts, global trade indicators).

• AI Focus: Multivariate forecasting and anomaly detection across time series.
• Expected Output: A live dashboard that assigns “risk scores” to supply chain categories (e.g. food, energy, medicine).

Key Challenge 2

Jersey is an import heavy economy. While thousands of containers arrive full, a significant portion of our outbound freight consists of “empty miles”, containers returning to the UK or France with nothing in them. This inefficiency is baked into the “Island Premium” we pay at the checkout.

• The Mission: Build a “Circular Logistics Engine.” This should identify opportunities to fill outbound containers with local exports, recyclable waste, or shared equipment.
• AI Focus: Constraint-based optimisation & generative logistics.
• Expected Output: An AI-driven brokerage platform that dynamically discounts freight rates for outbound “gap-filling,” lowering the total overhead for local distributors.

Key Challenge 3

Local produce often struggles to compete with UK supermarket imports on price, despite lower transport distances. This is largely due to fragmented data; local farmers don’t always have the real-time market intelligence to time their harvests or pricing against the massive supply chains of UK retailers.

• The Mission: Create a local first intelligence tool that helps Jersey producers undercut or match import prices through smarter timing.
• AI Focus: Reinforcement learning & dynamic pricing models.
• Expected Output: A mobile-first dashboard for farmers that suggests the “optimal harvest window” and price point to ensure 100% of their yield stays on-island, reducing our reliance on expensive external supply chains.

These are just example challenges to help spark ideas, feel free to shape your project in your own way!

How It Works

Teams can have up to six people. If you are not part of a team, you can register and work independently. You’ll have time and space to build a working prototype using AI in a meaningful way, and present it to our panel during the final pitch session.

Whether you’re a coder, designer, strategist, data analyst or domain expert, there’s a place for you. You’ll also have access to free workspace, Wi-Fi, refreshments and support throughout the event.

We will provide open datasets we have found related to supply chain resilience upon registration.

Why Take Part?

• Build something that matters, directly aligned to Jersey’s future
• Collaborate with like-minded innovators and experts
• Make time to focus on the latest AI tooling with a purpose
• Compete for recognition and prizes

Judging and Prizes

Projects will be judged on creativity, relevance to Jersey’s needs, the impact of the AI used, and how feasible the idea is in the real world.

For the winners there will be a £10,000 cash prize. Prizes will be awarded for:

• Most Innovative use of AI
• Greatest potential impact for Supply Chain Resilience in Jersey
• Best Working Prototype

Final judging will be carried out by a panel of independent experts with experience across business, government and AI.

What You Need to Know

The event is open to anyone aged 18 and over. Participants retain full ownership of anything they build. You can use open-source tools and libraries, provided you follow their license terms. By taking part, you agree to act respectfully, follow ethical practices and allow the organisers to use event photos or videos for promotion. Full terms and conditions will be shared when you register.

This is your chance to contribute to Jersey’s future, learn from others, and bring meaningful ideas to life. If you’ve ever wanted to use AI to solve real-world problems, this is your moment!