Hackathon Challenges

Teams select one of three challenges to tackle. Each challenge is grounded in a real strategic priority for BNZ and is designed to be ambitious but achievable within the three-to-four week submission window. There is no single correct answer — we’re looking for creative, practical, and well-reasoned solutions.

All challenges have an AI-first orientation. Your solution should meaningfully incorporate artificial intelligence — whether that’s machine learning, generative AI, conversational AI, intelligent automation, or another AI approach — powered where possible by AWS services.

CHALLENGE 1: AI-First Customer Experience

Theme: How might we elevate our customer experiences in an AI-first world?

Banking customers increasingly expect personalised, intelligent, and frictionless interactions. This challenge asks you to reimagine a customer touchpoint — from onboarding to everyday banking to financial wellbeing — and design an AI-powered solution that meaningfully improves the experience.

Example directions your solution might explore:

• An AI-driven onboarding journey that adapts to each customer’s financial situation and goals.
• A proactive financial wellbeing assistant that anticipates and acts on customer needs before they arise.
• A personalised product recommendation engine that surfaces the right banking solution at the right moment.
• An intelligent complaints and resolution system that resolves issues faster and with greater empathy.

CHALLENGE 2: AI-Accelerated Value Delivery

Theme: How might we challenge the way we work to deliver value for our customers faster?

The pace of change in banking is accelerating. This challenge asks you to look inside BNZ’s delivery process — from ideation to customer release — and identify where AI can compress timelines, remove friction, or unlock new ways of working.

Example directions your solution might explore:

• An AI-powered software development assistant that reduces cycle time from code to production.
• An intelligent requirements and prioritisation tool that helps product and engineering teams align faster.
• An automated testing or quality assurance solution that dramatically reduces manual effort.
• A knowledge management system that surfaces institutional knowledge to the right person at the right time.

CHALLENGE 3: AWS-Powered Open Innovation

Theme: What could BNZ build with AWS AI services?

This open challenge, supported by AWS, invites teams to propose a bold, AWS-native AI solution that could create meaningful new value for BNZ customers or teams. Teams taking this challenge are encouraged to make full use of AWS AI and ML services.

Example directions your solution might explore:

• A generative AI application using Amazon Bedrock that creates hyper-personalised financial guidance.
• A real-time fraud detection or risk intelligence layer built on AWS AI/ML services.
• A voice or multimodal banking interface that meets customers where they are.
• An internal AI agent that automates complex multi-step back-office workflows.