AI for Organizations Grand Challenge | Stanford HAI
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AI for Organizations Grand Challenge

Stanford HAI and Google DeepMind invite computer and management science researchers worldwide to submit paradigm-shaping research that will influence the future of collaboration within organizations.

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Overview

AI is transforming how we work, make decisions, and collaborate. Legacy paradigms are colliding with new technologies. But while our tools are evolving fast, our organizational models are overdue for reinvention.

Stanford HAI and Google DeepMind are issuing a global challenge. We’re inviting the world’s brightest academic minds to imagine how AI can unlock new forms of leadership, coordination, and collective intelligence. Winning ideas will become real: developed and validated in collaboration with Google DeepMind and shared with the world.

This is a rare moment to shape not just the next tool—but the next era of organizations. Let’s build what comes next.

Submissions for AI for Organizations Grand Challenge are now closed.

Meet The Team

Google DeepMind
Simon Bouton
Chief Experience Officer, Google DeepMind
Martin Gonzalez
Org Design and Development Lead, Google DeepMind
Steve Perry
Lead Program Manager, Google DeepMind
William Stanger
Strategy & Special Projects to GDM's Chief Experience Officer, Google DeepMind
Stanford HAI
Melissa Valentine
Associate Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford | Senior Fellow, Stanford HAI | Co-Director of Science of Work, Technology, and Organization (WTO), Stanford
Michael S. Bernstein
Associate Professor of Computer Science | Senior Fellow, HAI | STMicroelectronics Faculty Scholar, Stanford University
Ahmad Rushdi
Senior Manager of Research Collaborations, Stanford HAI | Stanford University

Co-sponsored by

This challenge invites scholars to submit bold ideas on how AI can improve and reimagine organizations. With significant focus already on boosting individual productivity, we are specifically seeking proposals that address a different goal: using AI to enhance human collaboration within organizations.

Selected teams will partner with Google DeepMind researchers to study its real-world impact, co-publish their findings, and share their work through various platforms.

We’re looking for bold, fresh ideas in two categories:

  • New approaches: Research proposals involving interventions that use AI capabilities to tackle real-world challenges in today's organizations. These are applied ideas that can be tested and validated through field experiments within Google DeepMind or its partner organizations. Proposals in this category will be primarily evaluated on their potential for measurable, real-world impact.

  • New paradigms: Empirical research proposals exploring foundational questions on how we should organize by leveraging the power of AI. These ideas aim to surface new mental models, frameworks, or principles. Proposals in this category will be primarily evaluated on the novelty of their conceptual contribution and their potential to establish new, foundational principles for the future of work.

Whether proposing a new approach or a new paradigm, we’re looking for research ideas that tackle universal challenges faced by organizations. Specifically:

  • Strategic alignment: Enhancing decision-making by clarifying tradeoffs and linking local actions to global priorities—without relying on top-down control.

  • Coordination: Boosting performance by enabling clear roles, dynamic teaming, and seamless collaboration across boundaries.

  • Information flow: Replacing static reports with shared context and real-time situational awareness, ensuring information moves where it’s needed.

  • Workforce design: Building adaptive organizations by anticipating evolving needs and integrating human and AI agents in fluid, responsive ways.

  • Culture and listening: Using AI to reinforce core values, surface engagement patterns, and sense the health of collaboration in real time.

This call for research is open to faculty and researchers at any university or research institute around the globe. Each submission must have a full-time faculty member as the Primary Investigator (PI) or advisor, and teams are welcome to include their students.

This is a first of its kind challenge at a rare moment in management science to build our future together. We hope you participate in this global community of academics.

For finalists, we will acknowledge your ideas through:

  • A platform to share your ideas with the world, co-hosted by Google DeepMind and Stanford HAI

  • A by-invitation-only contribution to a special issue in the Journal of Org Design, and an invitation to share your ideas in a series of “AI for Organizations” webinars hosted by the Organizational Design Community

For the top research proposal in the New Approaches and New Paradigms categories:

  • A research award of up to $100,000 to conduct the study

  • Where relevant, Google DeepMind engineering effort to build and deploy your idea within the organization

  • An invitation to conduct your proposed study at Google DeepMind or with a partner organization

The judging panel will be composed of affiliated faculty from Stanford HAI, academics from other institutions, and leaders from Google DeepMind. The process is a partially double-blind review: the first two criteria will be judged blindly, while the third will be considered in a subsequent step:

  • Novelty: We will assess the freshness and boldness of the ideas and their adherence to Google’s AI principles.

  • Impact: We will evaluate the likelihood that the ideas will impact real organizational challenges, whether in the short term (for the New Approaches category) or the long term (for the New Paradigms category).

  • Capability: We will consider how equipped the proposing team is to carry out the research successfully, and whether DeepMind can facilitate a deployment at Google DeepMind or a partner organization.

The competition has 2 submission stages:

  • Stage 1: Initial Proposal. Submit a 3-page proposal following the instructions provided at the submission link. Submissions are now closed. The deadline was October 24, 2025, at 4:00 PM Pacific Time. By November 7, 2025, 10-20 shortlisted teams will be notified and invited to submit a full proposal.

  • Stage 2: Full Proposal (by invitation only). Shortlisted teams will receive guidelines and an optional 30-minute call to help refine their ideas. Full proposals will be shared at a virtual pitch day with the judging panel in December. Finalists will subsequently be invited to a public conference at Stanford HAI.

Please first review our FAQ document. If your question is not addressed there, email it to ai-for-organizations@google.com. To ensure a fair process for all applicants, please note that the team cannot review proposal drafts or schedule individual calls.