Two Weeks Left: $50K AWS AI Pitch Competition is on April 16th. Have You Applied?
The Amazon Web Services AI Pitch Competition, co-hosted by the ASBTDC and UA Little Rock, takes place Thursday, April 16th, 2026, from 5:30–8:00 p.m. at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business and Economic Development on the UA Little Rock campus. The prize is $50,000 in professional AI implementation services from PREDICTif Solutions, funded by AWS. Not cash, but expert technical help building out whatever AI concept wins.
The application window is closing fast, and you don't need a tech background to compete; you just need a problem that AI could help solve. ASBTDC State Director Laura Fine states: "We are seeking current and future Arkansas entrepreneurs who envision practical, creative, high-impact ways to put AI to work in a business setting." All competitors receive expert feedback, whether they win or not, making this a free AI strategy session for your business.
Apply at luma.com/eyzl670q today, or register as a free public attendee at the same link. Even watching gives you networking access to the state's top AI advisors and PREDICTif's solution architects in one room.
SBA Disaster Loans for 50+ Arkansas Counties Expire April 22nd
The U.S. Small Business Administration issued a final reminder this week that the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) application deadline for Arkansas small businesses affected by the April 2nd-22nd, 2025, severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding is April 22nd. Eligible counties include Cross, Hempstead, Lawrence, and Little River, as well as dozens of surrounding contiguous counties across the state. Loans are available up to $2 million at interest rates as low as 4% for small businesses and 3.625% for nonprofits, with terms up to 30 years and no payments due until 12 months after first disbursement.
This is working capital, not disaster repair, which means your business does not need to have suffered physical damage to qualify. EIDLs can be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and operating bills you couldn't cover because of business disruption from last spring's storms. With the deadline 19 days away, any eligible business owner in the covered counties who hasn't filed yet is leaving potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table. After April 22nd, there is a 60-day grace period during which SBA will still accept late applications, but priority processing ends at the hard deadline.
Apply online right now at sba.gov/disaster or call SBA's Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955. The online application takes about 20 minutes. Have two years of federal tax returns and a recent P&L statement ready.
Arkansas Tech Launches First AI Degree Track, and It Directly Feeds Your Future Talent Pipeline
Arkansas Tech University (ATU) in Russellville announced on March 30th that it will launch a new Artificial Intelligence academic track within its Bachelor of Science in Computer Science program beginning this fall. The announcement was submitted as a letter of notification to the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board and was driven by direct input from industry advisory board members, citing "increasing demand for graduates with specialized knowledge in AI and machine learning across nearly every industry sector." Courses will include AI Fundamentals, Advanced AI, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, and Big Data and Cloud Computing, and will also be available as electives to ATU information technology and cybersecurity students.
For Central Arkansas business owners, ATU's new AI track is a direct signal of where the regional talent pipeline is heading. Dr. Robin Ghosh, one of the faculty leads, explained that the curriculum isn't just technical; it teaches students "how to ethically use AI," which matters enormously to small businesses that trust these tools with customer data. Businesses that build relationships with ATU's career services now will be first in line to hire this emerging talent. It also confirms the state-wide trend: AI literacy is becoming a baseline expectation across industries, not just tech.
For further action, you can contact ATU's College of Engineering & Applied Sciences career placement office at 479-968-0343 to get your business listed as an internship or hiring partner before Fall 2026 graduates enter the pipeline. Being early costs nothing and positions your business ahead of larger competitors.
Venture Center’s Jolt Cyber Challenge Opens April 24th. Cybersecurity Is Now a Small Biz Issue
The Venture Center's 2026 JOLT Cyber Challenge runs Friday, April 24th, through Sunday, April 26th, at the UALR Business Building in Little Rock. This year's theme is "AI, Scale, and Security," a direct acknowledgment that as AI tools enter the workplace, so do new cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Registration includes six meals, access to technical mentors, and exposure to top regional cybersecurity talent. Teams of four work through Jeopardy-style challenges in web application vulnerabilities, reverse engineering, and encoding.
Cybersecurity is no longer just an enterprise IT problem. As small businesses in Conway and Little Rock adopt AI-powered tools for customer service, scheduling, accounting, and marketing, they become targets for credential theft, phishing, and data breaches — often through the very AI products they're adopting. JOLT is one of the few events in the state where small business owners, IT staff, and operators can get hands-on experience with how these attacks work and how to defend against them. Viktoria Capek of The Venture Center describes JOLT as "a community builder, and it's a kind of workforce development program disguised as a cybersecurity challenge.
Register your team (up to 4 people) on Eventbrite and bring your IT staff, ops manager, or the most tech-savvy employee. You do not need to be a coder to participate — problem-solving skills and curiosity are the real prerequisites. Tickets are on sale now.
Tariffs Are Hitting Arkansas Small Businesses Now; Here’s the AI-Powered Way to Fight Back
As of April 1st, 2026, small businesses across America, including in Arkansas, are still grappling with the cumulative impact of Trump-era tariffs. An Arkansas children's play space in Benton, "Hey, Let's Play," made national news this week when owner Laurie Curry reported that her equipment, held up overseas, faces a large tariff bill that could delay her June 1st opening. Nationally, among U.S. importers, 97% are classified as small businesses, and the average effective tariff rate hit 14.3% in 2025, the highest since 1939.
Tariff pain is not evenly distributed, but it is widespread. Arkansans who source inventory, equipment, materials, or supplies from overseas — or even from U.S. suppliers with offshore inputs — are seeing cost creep that squeezes margins and forces hard pricing decisions. The businesses surviving in this environment are using AI tools to do two things: identify domestic or nearshore substitute suppliers faster (using tools like Pricefx, Thomasnet AI, or even ChatGPT for supplier research) and reprice dynamically rather than silently absorbing costs. For a Conway retailer or a Little Rock restaurateur, those two moves can mean the difference between surviving the next 12 months or not.
Spend 30 minutes this weekend asking ChatGPT (free at chat.openai.com): "I run a [type of business] in Conway, AR. I currently source [product/material] from [region]. What are my top 5 domestic or low-tariff-risk substitute suppliers, and how should I communicate a price increase to existing customers?" The output won't be perfect, but it will give you a concrete starting list that’s faster than any manual search.
Source: https://katv.com/news/local/arkansas-small-business-faces-tariff-challenges-amid-opening-plans
Editor's Radar: What to Watch Next Week
April 16th — AWS AI Pitch Competition, UA Little Rock Reynolds Center (free public admission)[1]
April 14th — Free ASBTDC "Starting a Business in Arkansas" workshop in Paragould[13]
April 22nd — Hard deadline: SBA EIDL disaster loan applications for 2025 storm-affected AR counties[2]
April 24th–26th — Venture Center JOLT Cyber Challenge, UALR[7]
The Google–Arkansas AI Skills Partnership continues to offer free no-cost scholarships to Google AI Essentials and Google Career Certificates for any Arkansan over 18 — a standing resource worth sharing with your staff. Sign up at the Arkansas Department of Commerce website at commerce.arkansas.gov.
Thumbnail photo by Markus Winkler: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-typewriter-with-white-paper-4106707/