Delivering Scalable, Open-Source Generative AI for Campus Innovation
Vanderbilt University has been recognized as a 2025 AWS Champions Award winner for its groundbreaking development of Amplify GenAI — an open-source, enterprise-grade generative AI platform that brings cost-effective, secure, and scalable AI access to thousands of users across the university. Built entirely on AWS infrastructure, the platform supports a wide variety of academic and administrative use cases, transforming how the university community engages with AI technology.

Project Overview
Developed by the university’s Center for Generative AI, Amplify GenAI enables Vanderbilt students, faculty, and staff to access a curated suite of leading generative AI models. The platform empowers users to select the most appropriate model for their task, whether it’s code generation, document analysis, content summarization, or workflow automation.

The solution is fully containerized, using AWS services such as Lambda for scalability and cost control. A token-based pricing model ensures that users only pay for what they use, eliminating the barrier of expensive per-user licensing found in many commercial platforms.

Challenges Addressed: Balancing Scale, Flexibility, and Affordability
Vanderbilt faced several key challenges in bringing enterprise AI to its large and diverse campus community:

• Traditional AI platforms with per-user pricing were too expensive for institution-wide access 
• A wide variety of use cases demanded flexibility across academic and administrative domains 
• Strong controls were needed to ensure data security, compliance, and cost tracking 
• The platform had to scale seamlessly to serve thousands of users with minimal overhead 

The university needed a solution that was powerful, secure, and adaptable—yet still financially sustainable.

Results: Affordable Access and Meaningful Engagement at Scale
Amplify GenAI is now in full production and available to over 17,000 faculty, staff, researchers, and students. Key outcomes include:

• Monthly costs under $3 per user on average, including all AWS infrastructure 
• 50% of users spend less than $1 per month despite full-feature access 
• Pay-per-use pricing dramatically reduces waste compared to traditional licensing 
• Widespread adoption across departments for both academic learning and administrative efficiency 
• Scalable, secure architecture that maintains control while enabling innovation 

By combining open-source flexibility with a modern AWS foundation, Vanderbilt created a generative AI environment that balances performance with affordability without compromising on security or user experience.

Leading the Way in Generative AI for Higher Education
Vanderbilt University is setting a new benchmark for responsible, scalable, and inclusive AI adoption in academia. With Amplify GenAI, the university has created a powerful and accessible platform that not only meets today’s needs but also lays the groundwork for future innovation.