This Month's Latest Tech News in Jacksonville, FL - Thursday July 31st 2025 Edition

Jacksonville's tech landscape is accelerating rapidly in July 2025, driven by notable AI innovations and strategic growth. UptimeAI, an AI pioneer focused on heavy asset industries, recently won Frost & Sullivan's 2025 North American New Product Innovation Award for its self-learning AI platform that maximizes industrial operational reliability across global sectors including oil, gas, and utilities (UptimeAI's Award-Winning Solution).

Meanwhile, the University of Florida's efforts highlight how research universities fuel AI advancement with initiatives such as digital twin technology, enhancing data-driven urban planning in Jacksonville (UF's AI-Powered Digital Twins).

Despite headlines linking AI to tech layoffs nationwide, experts clarify the situation is nuanced, with AI investments driving efficiency and new job opportunities rather than wholesale job losses (The Complex Reality of AI and Tech Employment).

As Jacksonville embraces autonomous transit, AI-powered education, and operational excellence, local professionals can gain foundational and advanced AI skills through Nucamp's comprehensive bootcamps - from “AI Essentials for Work” to “Solo AI Tech Entrepreneur,” supporting the region's inclusive, innovative growth.

Duos Technologies Group, through its subsidiary Duos Edge AI, is rapidly expanding its footprint in the U.S. edge computing market with a goal to have 15 Edge Data Centers (EDCs) under contract by the end of 2025.

These modular, SOC 2 Type II compliant EDCs are designed with N+1 architecture and dual backup generators, providing over 100 kW power per cabinet and enabling deployment within 90 days.

Positioned within 12 miles of end users, they reduce latency substantially, supporting critical services in education, healthcare - including telemedicine and Electronic Health Records - and AI workloads.

Their ongoing partnership with Accu-Tech ensures U.S.-based manufacturing and supply chain reliability, accelerating deployment amid global market volatility.

Notably, Duos Edge AI will deploy two new EDCs in Corpus Christi by July 2025, serving carriers and local institutions to strengthen digital infrastructure. Additionally, a strategic collaboration with Region 3 Education Service Center in Victoria, Texas, will place a highly secure EDC supporting 37 school districts, furthering efforts to bridge the digital divide in underserved regions such as Texas, the Midwest, and the Southeast.

Doug Recker, President of Duos Edge AI, emphasizes the company's commitment to delivering

“high-density, resilient digital hubs… right where they're needed most,”

enhancing local economies and enabling scalable network capabilities.

Explore more about this initiative on Duos Edge AI's 2025 deployment goal, the Corpus Christi Edge Data Center project, and their partnership with Region 3 Education Service Center in Victoria, Texas for in-depth details.

The University of Florida (UF) is launching Florida's first-ever Master's program in Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical and Health Sciences at its new Jacksonville graduate campus, set to begin in fall 2025.

This innovative program, offered through UF's College of Medicine, emphasizes experiential learning to equip healthcare and biomedical professionals with the skills to develop and implement trustworthy AI technologies that enhance digital patient care, translational research, and precision medicine.

The Jacksonville campus, situated in the historic LaVilla district near the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center, is part of a broader $300 million investment including the Florida Semiconductor Institute and degrees in engineering, business, and law, aimed at driving tech growth downtown.

With initial courses hosted in a $7 million renovated facility, the campus development projects serving up to 10,000–20,000 graduate students by 2030, creating over 250 permanent jobs, and fostering workforce-ready talent.

Local leaders highlight the program's potential to attract high-tech businesses and meet growing industry demands in Northeast Florida. As Councilmember Matt Carlucci stated,

“The campus will attract new high-tech businesses…”

This initiative aligns with Jacksonville's broader AI and tech acceleration strategies.

For detailed program info, visit the UF Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical and Health Sciences program page, read about the UF Jacksonville AI program launch, and explore the city's announcement on the LaVilla campus site selection.

Jacksonville-based CapVox AI has introduced a groundbreaking voice automation platform featuring ultra-realistic, humanlike AI voice agents designed to operate 24/7 for lead conversion and customer engagement.

These AI agents seamlessly replace traditional sales development representatives and receptionists to manage inbound and outbound calls, qualify leads, schedule appointments, and answer complex queries with context-aware, objection-handling capabilities.

Serving industries such as legal, solar, HVAC, insurance, healthcare, and business process outsourcing, CapVox AI boosts response times and conversion rates while reducing operational costs.

Businesses can experience a personalized demo within minutes, tailored with their company specifics, offering transparency and confidence before commitment. The platform's comprehensive dashboard tracks call volumes, lead qualification, and booking metrics, enabling data-driven optimization.

This innovation aligns with broader AI trends in sales, where conversational AI analytics and automation are driving significant improvements in lead management and customer interactions, as detailed by industry leaders like iovox's insights on AI in sales.

The humanlike voice quality and scalable architecture position CapVox AI as a cost-effective alternative to expanding human sales teams, ensuring continuous engagement with minimal missed opportunities.

For businesses looking to elevate their sales operations with advanced AI, CapVox AI represents a transformative solution combining efficiency and natural communication.

Learn more and try the demo at CapVox AI's official website.

Jacksonville City Schools are enhancing student safety through the deployment of AI-powered weapon detection technology developed by ZeroEyes, as approved by the Jacksonville City Council in June 2025.

Integrated with over 60 existing security cameras across school buildings and grounds, the system utilizes advanced AI to scan real-time video feeds for potential weapons such as firearms, instantly notifying school administrators and law enforcement upon credible detections.

Each detected alert undergoes human verification at ZeroEyes' Operations Center to minimize false positives, ensuring accurate threat assessment. This proactive approach aims to provide a faster response than traditional methods, complementing existing security measures including School Resource Officers (SROs) without replacing them.

Jacksonville Police Chief Marcus Wood emphasizes the lifesaving potential of this technology, stating it serves as "another proactive step" in maintaining safe campuses.

Initial funding for the three-year contract, costing approximately $33,120 annually, is supported by a grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), with the city and school district sharing costs in the final year and seeking additional grants for extension.

The system is set to be operational by August 2025, providing comprehensive coverage and faster alerts for pistols, rifles, shotguns, and possibly knives in the future.

Public Information Officer Benjamin Nunnally highlights the difference this technology could make, saying,

"This could be the difference between life and death for some people."

For more information on this initiative, visit the official ABC 33/40 News report on the City Council's approval, read the WBRC coverage on Jacksonville Police's AI safety enhancements, or explore details at WVT-M13's report on AI's integration into Jacksonville schools.

Local Jacksonville entrepreneur Kathy Keene is making significant strides in advancing AI adoption through her company, Keene Lane Co., which has become one of only five U.S. and global Canva agency partners.

Her expertise bridges practical marketing and AI to help businesses define their brand voice and optimize digital workflows, especially utilizing Canva's AI-powered tools like Magic Design and Magic Write.

Beyond business growth, Keene is dedicated to empowering women in technology as a brand ambassador for SheIsAI, an organization supporting minorities and underserved groups globally.

This aligns with broader industry findings that fewer than 22% of AI professionals are women, underscoring the critical need for inclusive mentorship and ethical AI development frameworks.

Keene actively promotes practical AI applications that reduce gender bias, foster leadership, and streamline entrepreneurial endeavors, echoing key strategies highlighted by experts in AI and women's empowerment such as personalized learning, unbiased hiring, and scalable automation.

Her work exemplifies how integrating AI with a human-first approach and emotional intelligence can drive business success while cultivating diversity and equity within Jacksonville's expanding tech ecosystem.

For those interested, Keene recently hosted an online session emphasizing how AI enhances customer relations and brand consistency, demonstrating real-world ways small businesses can implement AI-driven marketing for sustainable growth.

Learn more about how Kathy Keene harnesses AI to boost local business innovation and empower women in tech by visiting her company's insights page.

In a troubling case highlighting the pitfalls of AI in law enforcement, Robert Dillon, a 51-year-old man from Lee County, Florida, was wrongfully arrested in August 2024 after the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office used facial recognition technology that produced a 93% match linking him to a child luring incident at a Jacksonville Beach McDonald's in November 2023.

Despite Dillon's insistence that he had not left Fort Meyers for two years, police relied heavily on the AI match combined with witness photo lineups - both witnesses identified Dillon, though the photo spreads included similar-looking individuals.

Experts, including Nate Freed-Wessler from the ACLU, emphasize that AI facial recognition cannot establish probable cause for arrests, describing it as

"glitchy" and "unreliable,"

often causing wrongful detentions, particularly impacting people of color even though Dillon is white.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters noted that facial recognition is only one investigative tool and insufficient alone for probable cause. The case also exposed jurisdictional finger-pointing between departments, with Jacksonville Beach PD deferring comment and responsibility to the State Attorney's Office.

Dillon's charges were ultimately dropped, and the arrest record is set to be expunged, but he is now pursuing legal action seeking damages. This incident underscores the urgent need for stricter oversight and safeguards in applying AI technology within policing to prevent further miscarriages of justice.

Read more on the implications of such wrongful arrests at Futurism's detailed report on police facial recognition and wrongful arrests, insights from Action News Jax's investigation into AI risks in Jacksonville policing, and legal analysis at Biometric Update's coverage of Florida wrongful arrest due to facial recognition.

Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) is set to host a half-day AI & Cybersecurity Workshop on June 9, 2025, at its Advanced Technology Center.

The event will gather students, faculty, industry leaders, and community partners to explore the latest trends in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Intel's Kevin Rush, the Lead AI Trainer for the Intel® Digital Readiness Program, will deliver the keynote, focusing on AI's growing impact in sectors including criminal justice, healthcare, and workforce development, alongside a live coding demonstration of AI-driven cybersecurity applications.

Attendees can also engage in panel discussions, interactive workshops, and network with local experts and vendors. Sha'Kia Riggins, FSCJ's Dean of Information Technology, emphasized the importance of this initiative:

“We're thrilled to welcome Kevin Rush and our community partners for a day of exploration and collaboration. This event demonstrates FSCJ's commitment to preparing our students for the technology-driven workforce of tomorrow.”

The workshop is open to FSCJ students, faculty, staff, and the broader community, with registration required.

For further details and sign-up, visit the official AI & Cybersecurity Workshop registration page. This program reflects Jacksonville's growing emphasis on equipping its tech workforce amid accelerating AI adoption and cybersecurity challenges.

Jacksonville-based Artera has achieved a significant breakthrough in prostate cancer diagnostics with its ArteraAI Prostate Test, the first AI-powered risk stratification tool for prostate cancer to receive the U.S. FDA's Breakthrough Device Designation.

This multimodal artificial intelligence test analyzes digital pathology images from biopsy slides combined with patient clinical data to accurately predict long-term outcomes, including a 10-year risk of distant metastasis and prostate cancer-specific mortality.

Designed to assist clinicians by providing personalized risk assessments, the test helps identify which patients will benefit from short-term androgen-deprivation therapy (ST-ADT), minimizing unnecessary treatments and associated side effects like sexual dysfunction and cognitive impairment.

The ArteraAI Prostate Test operates with rapid turnaround times of 2-3 days without requiring additional procedures, supporting shared decision-making in treatment plans.

Its clinical validity is backed by multiple Phase 3 randomized trials and incorporation into the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology. As Andre Esteva, CEO of Artera, noted,

“This designation is a powerful validation of our software's potential to transform how we treat cancer."

Laura Chang, SVP of Product, emphasized the test's transformative impact on pathology workflows, stating it brings advanced risk assessment directly to pathologists for the first time.

Available through Artera's CLIA-certified laboratory in Jacksonville, the test exemplifies how AI is advancing precision oncology, improving outcomes for the nearly 3.5 million men in the U.S. living with prostate cancer.

For more on this innovation, visit the official ArteraAI Prostate Test page, read the detailed Business Wire FDA announcement, or explore the clinical insights at Urology Times FDA coverage.

Visa is pioneering a significant evolution in digital commerce with its Intelligent Commerce program, enabling AI agents to autonomously make purchases on behalf of consumers.

Through partnerships with leading AI developers such as Anthropic, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Perplexity, Visa connects its extensive payment network - covering over 4.8 billion payment credentials globally - to AI platforms, addressing the longstanding challenge of secure payments in AI-driven shopping.

By introducing “AI-Ready Cards” with tokenized digital credentials and customizable spending limits, Visa safeguards consumer data while allowing AI agents to handle routine transactions like groceries and travel bookings securely, reserving more personalized or luxury purchases for human approval.

Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer, described this as a “transformational” leap comparable to the birth of e-commerce. Furthermore, with user consent, AI agents can access transaction histories to tailor personalized recommendations, enhancing the shopping experience while maintaining stringent fraud prevention and dispute resolution measures, as detailed by Matthew Griffin's analysis on AI agents in payments and the PYMNTS coverage of Visa's Intelligent Commerce initiative.

This initiative positions Visa at the forefront of agentic commerce, where AI seamlessly bridges product discovery and payment, reshaping how consumers transact in a digital-first landscape.

From July 4 to July 6, 2025, Gallery 725 in Jacksonville hosted the innovative exhibition “AI-Driven UX - The Future of Human-Centered Design,” showcasing a dynamic collection of interactive installations and experimental prototypes that blend visual art, user experience, and cutting-edge AI technology.

Visitors engaged with projects like AirChef, an AI-enhanced drone food delivery system developed by emerging designers combining persona modeling, real-time IoT tracking, and mobile-first interfaces to optimize both intuitive user interaction and operational efficiency.

The exhibition emphasized themes of ethical design, transparency, and empathy within AI-powered digital environments, highlighting AI not just as technology but as an artistic co-creator shaping future UX. This event reflects Jacksonville's growing reputation as a creative tech hub where art and AI intersect to redefine human-computer collaboration.

Complementing this cultural momentum, the City of Jacksonville Downtown Investment Authority's interactive art workshop on July 23 at the Main Branch Library sought public input on immersive installations celebrating Jacksonville's musical heritage, further demonstrating community engagement in tech-driven creative projects.

Together, these developments showcase how Jacksonville's tech ecosystem fosters innovation and inclusivity in art and design through AI-powered user experiences.

Jacksonville's technology landscape is positioned for sustained innovation and inclusive growth, driven by robust AI adoption across multiple sectors. With over 140 AI firms thriving locally and 81% of C-suite leaders directly overseeing AI initiatives, the city is rapidly advancing in areas such as AI-driven fraud protection led by FIS, and the ambitious deployment of 15 edge data centers by Duos Edge AI to serve underserved communities.

The University of Florida's Jacksonville campus is pioneering Florida's first master's program in Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical and Health Sciences, supported by extensive public and private investments exceeding $300 million, expected to enroll 1,500+ students by 2030.

Public safety benefits from AI-powered weapon detection cameras, while workforce readiness is bolstered by events like the Florida State College at Jacksonville's AI & Cybersecurity Workshop featuring Intel's lead AI trainer.

Local legislation, including “Brooke's Law,” addresses ethical AI challenges such as deepfake abuse, reflecting a commitment to responsible AI use. Furthermore, Jacksonville's leadership promotes financial efficiency through AI-assisted municipal budgeting, enhancing transparency and fiscal management.

These developments are supported by educational initiatives, including Nucamp's diverse coding bootcamps spanning AI essentials, cybersecurity, and AI entrepreneurship, offering accessible training and flexible financing to prepare residents for the evolving job market.

As Jacksonville integrates advanced AI technologies with strategic workforce development and policy frameworks, it stands out as a dynamic, inclusive hub ready to lead in the rapidly evolving tech ecosystem.

Explore more about Jacksonville's tech growth and how educational programs like Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work bootcamp, Nucamp's Solo AI Tech Entrepreneur program, and Cybersecurity Fundamentals bootcamp equip the local talent pool for these advancements.