Impact & scale

The challenge, by the numbers.

14
Days of Innovation
One intense, end-to-end product sprint.
1–3
Members per Team
Go solo, pair up, or build as a trio.
29
Innovation Tracks
Eight categories — or pitch your own.
6
Judging Criteria
A fair, transparent score.
The submission

What every team ships.

Five deliverables — proof that it works, that it matters, and that you could sell it.

01
Working Prototype
Web, mobile, CLI, AI agent, browser extension, or internal tool — it must actually run.
02
Presentation
Max 10 slides: problem, solution, architecture, demo, and business value.
03
Demo
Show it working live on Demo Day — don’t just describe it.
04
Source Code
A Git repository (provisioned by the DevOps team) with clear commit history and documentation.
05
Product Brief
Max 2 pages — the story behind what you built and why it matters.
Non-negotiables

Five ground rules.

Rule 01
Use AI meaningfully
One ChatGPT API call doesn’t count. AI must be central to how your solution works.
Rule 02
Solve a real problem
Address an actual business challenge — not a hypothetical or a toy example.
Rule 03
Original work only
No plagiarism. Any open-source projects you build on must be clearly declared.
Rule 04
Must be demoable
PowerPoint-only ideas won’t qualify. It has to run live, in front of judges.
Rule 05 · just for fun
Birds of a feather. Engineers pair with engineers, QA with QA, and DevOps with DevOps — find your tribe and build.
The sprint

A suggested timeline.

D1
Day 1
Kickoff, team formation, and problem selection.
D3
Day 3
Idea review and architecture check-in.
D12
Day 12
Final code freeze — polish only, no new features.
D14
Day 14
Demo Day — judging and the awards ceremony.
Treat this like a real product sprint: validate early, iterate fast, and demo confidently.
How we'll score

Six judging criteria.

Innovation
Novel approach and creative use of AI.
25%
Business Value
Real impact on customers, costs, or operations.
25%
Technical Execution
Quality of code, architecture, and reliability.
20%
AI Usage
AI must be core to the solution — not a checkbox.
15%
User Experience
Intuitive, usable, and well-designed.
10%
Presentation
Clear storytelling and confident delivery.
5%
Recognition

Three prize categories.

Instead of a single winner, we recognize excellence across multiple dimensions.

Category 01
Best Overall Product
The highest-scoring submission across all six criteria.
Category 02
Best Business Impact
The solution with the clearest path to real-world value.
Category 03
Most Innovative Use of AI
The most creative and technically impressive AI application.
Your arsenal

The AI toolkit.

Bring any model and build on our stack — the platform APIs are your unfair advantage.

eOcean platform · provided

Build on our stack

WhatsApp Business API
Rich two-way chat, templates, and WhatsApp payments.
Voice & IVR — Voxara
Programmable voice, click-to-call, and call recording.
SMS & RCS API
A2P messaging at carrier scale across 150+ operators.
xNotify
Real-time, ML-driven notifications across channels.
Digital Connect APIs
Omnichannel inbox, bots, campaigns, and CSAT data.

LLMs & AI APIs

credits provided
OpenAI GPT-4oAnthropic ClaudeGoogle GeminiLlama 3

Build & ship

bring your own
GitHub CopilotCursorLangChainVector DB

Voice & documents

open source
Whisper STTNeural TTSOCRRAG
The grandest challenge

Build the next product for eOcean.

Think like a founder, not a developer. Don't build a feature — build something a customer would pay for.

Solve a real customer problem
Not a hypothetical — something a real customer feels today.
Use AI as a core capability
AI is the engine, not the decoration.
Have commercial potential
It should be possible to sell within 12 months.
Good to know

Frequently asked.

Who can join?

It’s open to all eOcean teams. Go solo, pair up, or build as a trio — 1 to 3 people.

How are teams formed?

1 to 3 members. And just for fun: engineers pair with engineers, QA with QA, and DevOps with DevOps — find your tribe and build.

Do I have to pick from the listed tracks?

No. Choose any of the 29, combine two, or pitch your own — as long as AI is core to the solution.

What do I submit?

A working prototype, a deck (max 10 slides), a live demo, your source code, and a product brief (max 2 pages).

What counts as “using AI”?

AI must be central to how your solution works — a single ChatGPT API call doesn’t qualify. We also expect you to build with AI coding tools rather than writing everything by hand, e.g. Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or Windsurf.

When are the key dates?

Registration closes June 5, 2026. Development kicks off June 8, 2026.

How do we get a Git repository for our project?

The DevOps team provisions a Git repository for every team. Reach out to the DevOps team to get yours set up — don’t create your own.