For four years, technology platform Gloo has hosted an annual AI Hackathon, inviting teams to come together and present projects with the goal of developing them into working AI solutions advancing human flourishing.
“Innovators, developers, faith leaders, and creatives build working AI solutions that advance human flourishing. The aim is real products, not just ideas,” Gloo representative Kaelyn Brooks explained in an email.
This year’s in-person event took place in Boulder, Colo., Oct. 6–8, with the theme: “Building Together: Humans, Agents, and the Future of Flourishing.” The event is multigenerational and open to all experience levels. Participantsincluded college students, researchers, technologists, and even corporate CEOs, Brooks said.
The hackathon saw 1,000 registrants from 12 countries, 34 states, and 25 universities. Teams are allowed 30 days ahead of the hackathon to build their projects and can continue to work on them during the in-person event. For the first time, Dallas Baptist University had three teams participate this year.
“Twenty-four DBU students participated across three cross-disciplinary teams, representing a rich mix of undergraduate and graduate students from across our programs,” explained Sharon Gorikapudi, DBU professor and program director of the university’s Master of Science in Ethical AI & Strategic Decision Sciences, launched by DBU in 2024.
Projects explained
One team, led by Mitaali Dayaal, presented a project called “Kairos.” The project description noted most churches already rely on automation tools for newsletters, volunteer requests, or other appeals, but automation doesn’t know what’s happening in people’s lives.
If an automated appeal for donor reengagement goes out to someone who has just requested prayer for a family health crisis, for example, it can cause real harm, the project description pointed out.
The Kairos tool “sits on top of a church’s existing tools, reads signals across multiple channels (attendance, giving, volunteering, prayer requests, pastoral notes), and evaluates every scheduled automated message, determining whether automation should proceed or whether a compassionate human step-in is required,” the project description said.
With Kairos, AI noticed the situation, stopped an inappropriate automated response, and a human showed up instead, Gorikapudi explained.
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Another DBU project, Bridgeline, led by Shenli Pei, sought to support smaller ministries, where pastors and leaders often carry enormous workloads alone.
The Bridgeline explanation noted, “Seventy percent of U.S. congregations have 100 or fewer members, and over half of rural pastors report that the church looks to them to do most of the work.”
While good tools, such as directories, matching platforms, and global networks exist, they stop at the introduction. Smaller ministries, however, can benefit from support from initial contact through the completion of a ministry request, the project description said.
The Bridgeline project offers an AI-assisted resource platform designed to take a pastor from a plain-language description of a situation needing attention “all the way to a confirmed, tracked support request.”
Gorikapudi explained: “The AI asks the right follow-up questions, summarizes priorities for the pastor to confirm, retrieves options from a verified provider catalog, drafts the outreach, and tracks whether help actually arrived. The AI diagnoses. People commit. The platform closes the loop.”
A project with future plans
The third project DBU submitted, called “theWay Bridge AI,” is the only one of DBU’s Gloo AI Hackathon projects currently in development for public use.
Christopher Pakkiaraj, who led the project, is a student in the Master of Science in Ethical AI & Strategic Decision Sciences program with 16 years of experience in cybersecurity. He said he expects the app to be available within the next six months to a year.
Pakkiaraj explained the name comes from the early church, where followers of Jesus were known as belonging to “the Way,” as described in Acts 9:2. He envisions the app serving as a bridge between people seeking spiritual help, who might not be ready to turn to a church, and vetted volunteers who can meet their needs and guide them toward real church connections.
The app would allow a person to request prayer. The app would then refer that prayer to a volunteer, report back to the requestor when the prayer has been completed, and follow up on whether more care is needed.
Additionally, he said, if a user receives satisfactory care and opts in to sharing a testimony, the app would incorporate the testimony into a scrolling display within theWay Bridge to encourage other users and demonstrate God is indeed at work.
The AI can “turn isolated requests into coordinated, accountable human care,” while providing safety features,including anonymity and appropriate escalation protocols, as in cases of abuse or imminent danger, when automation must stop, Pakkiaraj explained.
Finding local churches and global application
When an app user is ready to find a church, the app can match them with an appropriate church in their area.
“People need to go to church,” Pakkiaraj said. “This is the main agenda behind this app.”
The app would also help coordinate additional care, such as providing a ride to an appointment for an immigrant student in need of support. The app would match users with verified church volunteers without exchanging any personal contact information, he explained.
Pakkiaraj also sees global applications for theWay Bridge, particularly in areas experiencing religious persecution, including some states in India. There, the AI agent could coordinate prayer or ministry needs for groups facing persecution.
Future competition planned
Speaking about all the DBU participants, Gorikapudi said: “We are proud of what our students accomplished and grateful for the opportunity to participate in such a meaningful event. Their work reflects Christ-centered leadership, ethical AI stewardship, and the kind of rapid, mission-driven innovation that defines the MSAIS program at DBU.”
DBU teams will continue competing annually in the Gloo AI Hackathon and other similar events as the university’s program gains recognition in the field of AI ethics, Gorikapudi said. He described it as “the right time to scale.”
The Gloo AI Hackathon offered a total of $200,000 in cash prizes across three challenge categories: Agents of Flourishing, Scripture Beyond the App, and Ministry Resourcing.
This year’s grand prize of $100,000 was awarded to Austin Christian University for Fosterly, an AI agent designed to support young people aging out of the Texas foster care system. For a recap of this year’s event, visit https://gloo.com/ai/hackathon.
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