The Gen AI Exchange Hackathon by Google Cloud & powered by Hack2skill, concluded with its finale in Bengaluru after months of activity across the country.
The event saw sign ups from more than 270,000 developers from over 1,900 towns and cities, according to the organisers. Over 4,400 prototypes were submitted on Google Cloud, with 100 teams invited to the in-person finale at The Leela Palace. Their AI prototypes were evaluated by a panel of 30 judges from technology firms and industry bodies, including Google, NASSCOM, JK Cement, LVX and EaseMyTrip.
About hackathon
The hackathon was part of a broader training and development programme (Gen AI Exchange Program) aimed at encouraging practical applications of generative AI. Problem statements were supplied by public and private sector partners such as the Maharashtra government, NASSCOM’s Centre of Excellence, JK Cement, EaseMyTrip and LVX, giving participants access to real operational challenges rather than hypothetical tasks.
Addressing finalists, Prashanth Subrahmanyam, APAC Lead for Developer Adoption at Google, said “The future of development isn’t something you will read about, it’s something you will build.”
What did winners get?
Teams presented projects across 10 problem statement divided into two tracks, separate for students & professionals, reflecting a mix of public-interest and enterprise use cases. Selected winners included a youth mental health assessment tool, a digital assistant for local artisans, a platform that simplifies legal documents, and a deepfake detection system. Other winning entries focused on career guidance, automated test-case generation, cement plant optimisation, startup evaluation, personalised travel planning and AI-supported governance dashboards.
The programme’s organisers mentioned follow-up initiatives are planned to support developers of India to build solutions for real-world deployment.