Google Cloud Announces $100,000 BigQuery AI Hackathon

What if your SQL queries could not only crunch numbers but also write, summarize, search, and even understand images? That’s not a futuristic dream. It’s happening now with BigQuery AI. And guess what? You’re invited to roll up your sleeves and actually build the future of data with it.

This isn’t just about dashboards or reports anymore. It’s about creating AI-powered solutions directly inside BigQuery that solve real-world problems with the data companies already have but rarely use.

Why This Hackathon?

Let’s be real. Businesses today are drowning in unstructured data: chat logs, PDFs, support tickets, screenshots, videos, you name it. The problem? Most of it just sits there, untouched, because current tools can’t handle messy, mixed-format data without endless manual work.

BigQuery AI flips that script. Instead of exporting your data into different systems, you bring AI to where your data already lives. That means:

• Summarizing thousands of customer support calls in minutes
• Surfacing the most relevant past tickets the instant a new one comes in
• Predicting future trends directly from your warehouse
• Mixing spreadsheets with images to solve problems like product quality or property valuations

This hackathon challenges you to go beyond rows and columns and show how AI inside BigQuery can change the game.

How You Can Build with BigQuery AI?

There are three tracks (or “personas”) you can step into. Pick one, two, or all three. It’s your playground.

The AI Architect

Think of yourself as the data magician. Using BigQuery’s generative AI, you can generate marketing content, write executive-ready summaries, or even forecast the future with SQL or Python.

Inspiration idea: Build an “executive insight dashboard” that chews through raw call logs and spits out clean, categorized action points. No more endless scrolling.

The Semantic Detective

Keywords are old school. With vector search, you can make BigQuery understand meaning. That means it won’t just find text that matches. It will find text that means the same thing.

Inspiration idea: An intelligent triage bot that pulls up the most relevant historical support tickets to speed up resolutions.

The Multimodal Pioneer

Data is rarely just numbers. It also includes images, documents, and recordings. With BigQuery’s multimodal features, you can stitch structured and unstructured data together.

Inspiration idea: Improve real estate valuations by combining structured data (sqft, number of bedrooms) with unstructured data (property photos or even satellite images).

What You Need to Submit?

You don’t need a full-fledged startup. Just a working prototype and a story that shows how you used BigQuery AI to tackle a real-world problem. Submissions include:

• A Kaggle write-up (with your problem, solution, and impact)
• A public notebook with documented code (non-negotiable)
• Optional: a demo video or blog to bring your project to life

The judging will focus on technical execution, creativity, clarity of demo, and whether your code actually runs.

Official link

What’s in It for You?

Besides bragging rights as a BigQuery AI trailblazer, there’s serious prize money on the table:

• $100,000 overall track
• $15,000 for first-place winners in Generative AI, Vector Search, and Multimodal tracks
• Runner-up prizes, honorable mentions, and more

The hackathon kicks off August 12, 2025, with final submissions due September 22, 2025. Winners will be announced in October.

Why Join?

This is your chance to:

• Push past traditional analytics
• Experiment with tools that blur the line between databases and intelligence
• Build something that could genuinely shape how companies use their data

BigQuery AI isn’t about adding bells and whistles to SQL. It’s about turning your warehouse into an AI engine that understands text, numbers, images, and context all in one place.

So whether you’re the Architect, Detective, or Pioneer… this is your shot. Join the hackathon and let’s build the future of data together.