Hello everyone! AITX Team here with more updates this week.
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Before we jump into the regular news, a few housekeeping items:
Upcoming AITX Community Events:
Austin AITX Community Monthly Meetup | sign up here!
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Texas AI House | sign up here!
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SxSW Events for the AI Community
🏠 Texas AI House presented by webAI
The Texas AI House is here.
AITX Community and Hack AI are teaming up for a full-day summit during SXSW exploring Texas's role in the AI revolution.
Why it matters: The Texas AI House is bringing together the entrepreneurs, engineers, and operators actually building AI in Texas for real conversations about where this industry is headed. Expect technical insights from major tech companies, honest dialogue from founders who chose to build here, and a ground-level view of AI development from the people doing the work.
The lineup wraps with dedicated networking time to connect with speakers, founders, and community members shaping the Texas AI ecosystem firsthand.
Sponsored by Antler and webAI, two companies putting serious investment behind Texas-based AI talent.
🤖 Agents & Automation with Apify and Overdrive
Agents and automation, live and in person.
Apify and Overdrive are hosting a morning of hands-on talks and live demos during SXSW week, diving into how AI agents and automation are changing the way businesses actually operate.
What you'll see: Overdrive AI walks through real automation case studies from the VC and startup world, covering dealflow pipelines, portfolio ops, and workflow automation running in production today. Apify demos how AI agents can scrape, extract, and automate across the web using composable tools, including a live look at giving agents web scraping superpowers through OpenClaw skills and Apify's actor ecosystem.
Who should be there: Founders, engineering leaders, VCs, solo builders, and anyone shipping AI-powered products or automations. Writing code or vibe coding your way through it, either way, this is your room.
👓 Meta SxSW Reception: Celebrating Wearable Technology
Meta is hosting a SXSW side event, Celebrating Wearable Technology: AI Glasses for Social and Economic Impact on Thursday, March 12 (5:30–8:00 p.m.).
The evening will feature opening remarks from Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a cross-sector panel on how AI glasses can drive accessibility, workforce development, and education, plus live demos and developer showcases highlighting Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses, Oakley Meta AI Performance Glasses, Meta Ray-Ban Display, Meta Neural Band, and the Wearables Device Access Toolkit.
☀ How To Apply AI To Solve Valuable Business Problems
Real AI. Real business problems. No slides.
Applied AI Society and OpenTeams are hosting a practitioner panel at SXSW on how to actually apply AI to solve valuable business problems.
Why it matters: Most organizations know AI matters but have no idea how to implement it. This panel brings together practitioners who each took a different path to the same conclusion: if you understand the business problem deeply enough, you can apply AI to solve it today. A platform evangelist, a consultant, and a founder who built his own replacement for the legacy software his industry depends on.
The format: No slides, no keynotes. One hour of concrete stories, moderated conversation, and audience Q&A in a room of 40 people at The LINE Hotel. Small enough for real dialogue.
When: Sunday, March 15 at 11am, part of the RedThreadX House activation at SXSW.
Cafe Cursor
Cursor is coming to Austin on Saturday, March 7th from 10am-4pm. Join us for Cafe Cursor: a chance to cowork, grab coffee, credits, and merch on us, and hear from Cursor engineers who will be flying in throughout the day. Attendance is limited, for more info & RSVP see here: https://luma.com/hs7mlfz5
In this week’s edition you’re getting:
5 Upcoming Events
3 AI Community Stories
So let’s jump in!
UPCOMING EVENTS
When: Saturday March 28 | 10:00 AM to-5:00 PM CST
Where: Austin 111 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701, United States · Austin, TX
What: We’re hosting the Robotics & Edge Inference Conference in March or April 2026. From the smallest microcontrollers to the most advanced Jetson-class modules, modern robots now run perception and policy on-device. We’ll go end-to-end—from compilers & runtimes (TensorRT, TVM, ONNX Runtime) and ROS 2/Isaac dataflow, to multi-sensor 3D perception & state estimation, to navigation and diffusion policies for manipulation. We’ll also showcase demos from top robotics companies in Austin.
When: Tuesday, March 10 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST
Where: Q-Branch
What: As real-time databases integrate more closely with data lakes to reduce storage costs and unlock data for AI and advanced analytics, data infrastructure is evolving fast. Join us to hear from leading experts as they share practical solutions and lessons learned in building open, scalable, and high-performance data platforms.
When: Thursday, March 12 | 1:30 PM - 9:00 PM CST
Where: Register to see address
What: Set against the backdrop of Austin’s rapidly evolving innovation landscape, the Summit brings together investors, founders, policymakers, technologists, and cultural leaders exploring how technology, capital, and creativity are reshaping and transforming the world in our home state of Texas and beyond.
When: Wednesday, March 4 | 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St · Austin, TX
What: Check the event website for speakers and topics.
When: Thursday, March 5 | 3:30 PM - 6:30 PM CST
Where: UT Dallas 800 W Campbell Rd · Richardson, TX
What: Join us for the official kickoff of embodied AI in Texas — a high-voltage gathering inside the iconic Davidson Auditorium at UT Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management. We’re rolling out the red carpet for advisory committee members, powerhouse partners, visionary founders, elite investors, and the boldest builders shaping the future with physical AI, autonomous robots, intelligent agents, cobots, humanoids, and superhuman manufacturing systems.
COMMUNITY STORIES
Texas is projected to become the world's largest data center market, driven by a massive $3 trillion AI infrastructure boom. According to Jones Lang LaSalle's 2026 outlook, global data center capacity will nearly double over the next decade to accommodate surging AI workloads, with Texas capturing a significant share of new construction projects by 2030.
Why it matters: The exponential growth in data center infrastructure creates unprecedented opportunities for AI-powered security and operational technology solutions like those provided by AITX to protect and manage these critical facilities.
Need to know:
Jones Lang LaSalle projects approximately $3 trillion will flow into the global data center sector, with Texas positioned to become the world's leading hub by 2030
Global data center capacity is expected to nearly double over the next decade to meet surging AI workload demands
Texas is capturing a significant portion of new data center construction projects, cementing its dominance in the rapidly expanding market
XTGlobal Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of XTGlobal Infotech Ltd., has landed a significant $796,900 contract with the Texas Department of Transportation to deliver AI-enabled engineering services. The six-month program, launching March 16 and running through September 30, 2026, includes milestone-based deliverables and the potential for a six-month extension, showcasing the growing adoption of artificial intelligence in critical state infrastructure projects.
Why it matters: This contract demonstrates how state governments are actively investing in AI integration for infrastructure operations, validating the expanding market opportunity for AI-focused companies in the public sector.
Need to know:
Contract value: $796,900 (approximately INR 7.2 crore) with payment tied to milestone-based deliverables
Timeline: Six-month program from March 16 to September 30, 2026, with potential for an additional six-month extension pending separate approval
Scope: Development and implementation of AI-enabled engineering services for one of the largest state transportation agencies in the United States
Texas 10-year-old develops AI glasses to assist visually impaired children
Lucas Tudor, a 10-year-old student at Harmony Science Academy in Leander, Texas, has created AI-powered glasses specifically designed to help visually impaired children navigate their world. The young innovator developed the assistive technology after recognizing the need for accessible solutions for children with visual impairments. This remarkable project demonstrates how the next generation is already leveraging artificial intelligence to address critical accessibility challenges.
Why it matters: This story exemplifies how AI technology is becoming accessible enough for young innovators to create meaningful assistive solutions, highlighting the democratization of AI development and its potential to solve real-world accessibility problems.
Need to know:
Lucas Tudor is only 10 years old and attends Harmony Science Academy in Leander, Texas
The AI-powered glasses are specifically designed to assist visually impaired children with navigation and daily activities
Tudor was motivated to create the glasses after recognizing the need for better perspective and accessibility tools for children with visual impairments
That’s all for now, folks!
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