International AI for Impact Challenge

Build AI that matters. Win recognition for solutions that serve real people.

What is IAIIC?

The AI for Impact Challenge (AIIC) is the world’s first student competition focused solely on applying AI for good. Unlike traditional contests focused on model performance, AIIC emphasizes using AI to address meaningful global problems that you can see in your community.

  • ✔️ Form a chapter to participate — no experience or funding required.
  • ✔️ Identify a group in your community affected by the global problem we define each year.
  • ✔️ Interview them to understand their specific challenges and needs.
  • ✔️ Design a creative AI solution tailored to their problem and get feedback from those you aim to help.
  • ✔️ Top teams are paired with university labs and mentors to refine, scale, or even patent their idea.
  • ✔️ If your solution helps a small community, it can help many — that’s the ripple effect we want to create.

This isn’t Kaggle. We don’t care how big your dataset is or what model you used. We care about your creativity, your impact, and your commitment to solving real-world problems.

Founded by students frustrated with competitions that rewarded compute over creativity, AIIC was born from a belief that the best way to learn AI is by using it — not tweaking numbers, but building solutions for others.

Why Enter?

  • 💡 Solve real global challenges in your community using AI
  • 🌍 Join a global network of mission-driven teams
  • 📚 Strengthen your resume via technical solutions with userbases and potential for patenting, publishing, and global use
  • 🧠 Work under mentorship from AI professionals and researchers
  • 🏆 Gain recognition, awards, and media exposure

How We Judge

Submissions are judged holistically — creativity, impact, clarity of explanation, community relevance, and usability all matter. You don’t need to train a model to win. You need to understand a problem and propose an AI-powered solution that can make a difference.

Enter the Competition Awards