The University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, in partnership with Amazon Web Services, nClouds, and the Iowa Small Business Development Center, has launched an AI Services Challenge designed to help Iowa businesses turn artificial intelligence ideas into execution-ready solutions. The challenge builds on AI programming at Iowa JPEC, where $580,000 in AI implementation services was awarded across two events during the 2025-26 academic year. The AI Services Challenge will take place July 28-30, at the BioVentures Center in Coralville. The six to eight selected companies will participate in private, NDA-protected working sessions with AWS and nClouds experts on AI and analytics solutions tailored to their business needs. Up to $25,000 in services support is available to qualifying participants. Unlike traditional pitch competitions, the AI Services Challenge focuses on hands-on problem solving. Applications are open to Iowa-based businesses that are revenue-generating or near revenue. More information and application details are available at iowajpec.org.
