Ikoni Hackathon 2026

Everything started from a simple idea: sharing our knowledge and helping experts from our sister companies raise their AI competence so they can bring it to their own clients and industries. It’s not enough for AI expertise to live inside one company – it needs to spread, be applied in practice and create value where the customer actually is.

Learning began even before the official Hackathon day. Participants received a pre-task: identify concrete situations or processes in their own work that they would like to improve. No technical thinking, just business understanding. What do you repeat constantly? Where does time disappear? What causes frustration? What idea would make your everyday work easier? This pre-work turned out to be more valuable than gold. When participants arrived, they already had real problems in mind, giving the day a clear and concrete direction. 

The morning atmosphere was full of anticipation – and maybe a little nervousness. The focus of the day was clear from the start: AI tools were not approached as technology for technology’s sake, but as practical instruments that can streamline and improve everyday work. During the morning, ideas were refined and narrowed down using design sprint methods. This helped participants identify real-life challenges and choose those where AI could offer practical solutions. 

In the afternoon, ideas turned into experiments. Participants tested different approaches and built the first versions of their own AI solutions. Concrete prototypes emerged – for example to streamline tasks, support content ideation and structure information.

The day ended with short demos. These were not polished products, but demonstrations of courage: the courage to try, to narrow down an idea and to push it quickly into real-world testing.

So what did we actually learn?

Technical skills, of course – but that wasn’t the main takeaway.  First, AI is neither magic nor a threat – it’s a tool. Once you see it in your own hands, the fear and mystique disappear. What replaces them is a new question: how could I use this?  Second, the best ideas came from subject-matter experts. An HR specialist knows the bottlenecks of a recruitment process better than any developer. A marketer knows the customer’s language. When this expertisewas combined with AI tools, the results were genuinely useful – not just technically impressive.  Third, learning happens by doing. One afternoon of hands-on experimentation was worth many lectures. Mistakes were the best teachers, and there were plenty of them.

A huge thank you to all participants for the courage to jump in. And an even bigger thank you for taking something concrete with you – not just a memory of the day, but a personal experience of how AI can bring value to your work and to your clients. This is exactly what matters to us at Ikoni: building practical capability together, not just chasing AI hype for it own sake.