Baylor Business Launches Nation’s First AI Venture Challenge

Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business will launch a groundbreaking student competition designed to spark creative business ventures powered by artificial intelligence.

The AI Venture Challenge invites undergraduate students enrolled at Baylor to team up and pitch bold, tech-driven solutions to real consumer problems. The competition seeks to uncover the next generation of entrepreneurs who can integrate AI tools such as chatbots, facial recognition and digital assistants into viable business ideas that meet market demand.

“We set out to design an experience for students at the crossroads of innovation, entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence,” said David M. Szymanski, Ph.D., The William E. Crenshaw Endowed Dean of the Hankamer School of Business. “This competition is not just about the tech; it’s about using it purposefully. We want students to think critically and creatively about how AI can drive real-world value in a competitive setting not seen in any other institution in the United States.”

The AI Venture Challenge is an outgrowth of the Business School’s implementation of the University’s Baylor in Deeds strategic plan, particularly its imperative on the human-technology interface. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and other technologies, Baylor is uniquely positioned to address the challenges at the intersection of faith, ethics, humanities, education and research. The University’s commitment is to prepare students to be fully human and guided by moral, intellectual and spiritual virtues as they live and work in a world increasingly more reliant on the ability to team with technology.

Following a nationwide search, Baylor welcomed David M. Szymanski, Ph.D., as The William E. Crenshaw Endowed Dean of Baylor’s nationally ranked Hankamer School of Business in May.

As dean, Szymanski brings strategic leadership to the Business School, nurturing and strengthening the School’s Christ-centered culture and excellent teaching while also continuing to elevate Baylor’s research aims and global reach toward a technologically transformed future.

“I am truly blessed and honored to serve as Dean at the Hankamer School of Business,” Szymanski said. “This opportunity to enhance the already impressive national and international reputation of our outstanding students, faculty and staff is one that I hold dear, especially because of the school’s Christian-centered mission, which is the foundation of all our efforts. I am eager to share this mission by fostering corporate sponsorships, enhancing experiential learning, promoting faculty research and introducing innovative academic offerings, all of which represent bold pathways toward sustained excellence and meaningful achievements.”