The national gen AI hackathon has emerged as a powerful model for preparing students to tackle real-world challenges using applied artificial intelligence. Recently concluded in Bengaluru, the Gen AI Exchange Hackathon 2025 brought together students, developers, and early-career professionals from across India to build practical solutions using generative AI, moving beyond theory into real implementation.
Organised by Google Cloud and powered by Hack2skill, the hackathon was not a short sprint but a structured five-month programme. It attracted participation from over 2.7 lakh developers nationwide, reflecting the growing interest in hands-on AI learning. Participants worked on clearly defined problem statements rooted in industry and public-sector needs, ensuring that innovation stayed grounded in reality.
Unlike traditional coding competitions, the national gen AI hackathon focused on applied use cases. Problem statements were sourced from organisations such as the Government of Maharashtra, NASSCOM Centre of Excellence – IoT & AI, JK Cement, EaseMyTrip, and LVX. This exposed participants to challenges in governance, healthcare, manufacturing, digital platforms, and citizen services, areas where AI adoption can create measurable impact.
Throughout the programme, teams leveraged cloud-based generative AI tools to prototype solutions. These included conversational AI systems, content generation platforms, document analysis tools, and optimisation engines. The emphasis was not only on building models, but also on understanding feasibility, scalability, and user relevance, skills often missing in purely academic settings.
The grand finale, held on 29 November in Bengaluru, saw the top 100 teams present their working prototypes before a jury of industry experts and domain specialists. Evaluation criteria focused on the relevance of the problem, soundness of the technical approach, and the practicality of real-world deployment. From these, ten teams were selected for recognition, highlighting diverse applications of generative AI.
Several winning projects demonstrated how students can address sensitive and complex challenges. Team Prompt-o-nauts developed YouthMind, an AI-powered mental wellness platform that uses conversational check-ins to assess wellbeing and recommend supportive actions. The project showcased how generative AI can be applied responsibly in mental health support, a growing concern among young populations.
Other teams focused on economic empowerment and accessibility. Team Oopsie Operators created ArtisanGully, a platform that helps local artisans generate product listings and marketing content using AI, lowering barriers to digital commerce. Meanwhile, Team Crewmate’s Legal SahAI simplified legal documents and workflows, addressing a long-standing accessibility issue in legal systems.
Misinformation and trust in digital content also featured prominently. Team Technopaths built Parallax, a system designed to detect manipulated or synthetic media. As deepfakes and AI-generated misinformation rise, such tools reflect how hackathon-driven innovation can align with urgent societal needs.
Career readiness and enterprise productivity were equally represented. Projects ranged from AI-based career advisory platforms that analyse skill gaps and resumes, to systems that convert software requirement documents into automated test cases. Industrial optimisation solutions, such as AI-driven monitoring of cement manufacturing processes, highlighted how generative AI can improve efficiency in traditional industries.
The national gen AI hackathon also demonstrated the value of human-centred AI design. Participants remained closely tied to real users, administrators, or industry workflows. Many projects included dashboards, explainability features, and feedback loops, reinforcing the idea that successful AI systems must work alongside people, not replace them.
Beyond individual projects, the hackathon reflects a broader shift in AI education. Experiential, project-based learning is increasingly seen as essential to building job-ready talent. By working on real datasets, real constraints, and real stakeholder expectations, students gain skills that traditional classroom learning often cannot provide.
For enterprises and governments, such initiatives serve as talent incubators. They offer early visibility into emerging ideas while helping shape a workforce familiar with applied AI tools, cloud platforms, and ethical considerations. For students, the experience builds confidence, portfolios, and a deeper understanding of how AI systems operate in the real world.
As generative AI continues to reshape industries, programmes like this hackathon highlight an important lesson: training future AI builders requires more than teaching algorithms. It requires immersion in real problems, collaboration across disciplines, and exposure to the messy realities of deployment and impact. To stay updated on how AI education, hackathons, and real-world innovation are shaping the future, visit ainewstoday.org for more AI news and insights.