Solving real-life challenges through the use of AI in just one weekend is a tall order – but that’s exactly what a group of more than 60 local innovators have recently done.
For the AI Hackathon, the Digital Jersey Hub was transformed into a dynamic hive of energy, passion and creation. Developers, designers, entrepreneurs, students and curious first-timers all came together on a Friday night, laptops primed and minds ready to design solutions that matter. Their goal – to solve challenges Jersey faces, using AI.
Over the last decade, Digital Jersey has hosted a number of weekend-long hackathons, each one bringing together the digital community to address priority issues for Jersey – including housing, health and wellbeing, sustainable transport, climate, improving existing sectors, developing new sectors, future skills, and supply-chain resilience – using technology in different ways.
The latest one, supported by the Jersey AI Forum and Easy A, focused on using AI to find innovative solutions to real island challenges. To guide thinking and spark practical innovation, the group was given three specific challenge statements:
- Build a predictive AI model for supply-chain disruptions
- Cluster and compare labour supply verses sector demand, to identify present-day mismatches
- Develop a referral and information-sharing tool for GP and hospital hand-offs
And there was incentive too, with a £10,000 prize pot up for grabs.
The result was an impressive, high-energy weekend, where 20 teams developed, collaborated and ultimately pitched solutions aligned to one (or more) of the challenge statements.
From the moment check-in began on Friday evening, the Hub buzzed with activity. Sketches went up on whiteboards, datasets were downloaded, and ideas flowed, with participants bringing a rich mix of service design, coding, UX and domain expertise.
That cross-pollination of shared purpose and belief in the impact AI can have flowed palpably to every corner of the room.
Industry mentors supported teams throughout, helping sharpen problem statements, test user experience, challenge assumptions and refine prototypes. The pace was remarkable. And by Sunday morning a number of solutions were already demo-ready, from dashboards and AI assistants to predictive modelling tools.
Then, after a last-minute push to the deadline, on Sunday afternoon, teams delivered 20 creative presentations to the full room and an expert judging panel, with projects ranging across multiple sectors: customer-service tools for small businesses, tourism engagement platforms, health-data applications, automation for public services and more.
Winning Projects
After a tense pitch and judging session, three winning projects were eventually announced:
- Best Real-World Solution: Team Helix (Charlie Morgan and Gus Fraser) and the ‘ADHD Care Hub’, which sought to address the significant challenges of the ADHD community in Jersey. This was a technically robust, user-centred solution with immediate relevance to Jersey’s ecosystem.
- Most Original Idea: Rory Steel ‘Sensor Project. Rory created a heartfelt and innovative concept: a sensor-driven system to track important health signals for his daughter. It was a standout example of how personal stories can inspire meaningful, practical tech.
- Most Impactful Use of AI: Vincent Sider and ‘GeoJersey’. Vincent’s prototype focused on analysing Jersey’s AI visibility. Its strength lay in its clarity – a real problem, a clean solution, and visible potential to scale.
Commenting on the Hackathon, Tony Moretta, CEO, Digital Jersey, said: “This was an amazing showcase of collaboration, creativity and technical talent, with each winner demonstrating what a hackathon is all about: solving real problems for real people, using local expertise – and all in a highly focused 48 hours.
“What was impressive was how the digital and wider business community came together to use AI to build solutions that can really make a difference to Jersey. That’s something we are going to have to do increasingly as Jersey develops an AI-driven future – and what’s clear is that we have a rich pool of on-island talent to do just that.”
Pictured: Team Helix (Charlie Morgan and Gus Fraser)
