RAISE your HACK 2025: The World's Largest AI Hackathon Summary
RAISE your HACK 2025: The World's Largest AI Hackathon Summary
Paris, France – Picture this: The historic Carrousel du Louvre, a hub of art and culture, buzzing with the energy of thousands of brilliant minds. This was the scene for RAISE your HACK 2025, the World's Largest AI Hackathon, an event that truly transcended the traditional hackathon format. From July 4–9, 2025, NativelyAI's lablab.ai platform, one of the leading platforms for global AI hackathons, in conjunction with the prestigious RAISE Summit, brought together the world's top tech talents to build, innovate, and create the next wave of AI. This wasn't just a competition; it was where ambitious ideas transformed into tangible realities, setting new benchmarks for artificial intelligence and Web3 development. Featuring a $150,000+ prize pool designed as a power-up for future growth of AI Apps developed at this artificial intelligence hackathon, the stakes were high, and the potential was limitless.
For those exploring AI hackathon ideas or wondering how AI hackathons work, RAISE your HACK 2025 serves as the definitive example of what online AI hackathons can achieve when they bring together global talent, cutting-edge technology, and real-world challenges.
With an incredible lineup of industry giants: Groq, Meta, Qualcomm, Prosus, Vultr, Coral Protocol, Fetch.ai & Fetch.ai Innovation Lab, Qubic, Blackbox.ai, and Snowflake, thousands top tech talents pushed the limits of technology, and the results were simply revolutionary. Why? Keep reading.
The World's Largest AI Hackathon: Where the Future of AI Came to Life, Right Next to the Mona Lisa
RAISE your HACK 2025 was called the World's Largest AI Hackathon for a reason. This global AI hackathon saw an astounding 6,247 participants form 922 dedicated teams, collaborating remotely from every corner of the planet. Imagine the collective brainpower of these top tech talents, coding right next to masterpieces like the Mona Lisa! While the global community was working on their solutions since July 4th, the energy culminated with 300 participants coding onsite at the iconic Le Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. This hybrid format—combining online AI hackathons with in-person collaboration—demonstrated the power of virtual AI hackathons to bring together global talent while maintaining the energy of physical events.
Every single submission was judged on its technical execution, its real-world business application, and how effectively it embraced advanced multi-agent systems. As innovation knows no boundaries, everyone had equal chances to win, based only on the quality of developed solutions. This collective genius led to 223 AI applications. It was a true testament to what can be built when passion meets cutting-edge technology in artificial intelligence hackathons, even within just 5 days - innovation unleashed.
The Heart of the Challenge: Supercharging AI with Groq and Meta & tapping into Web3
At the core of RAISE your HACK, participants moved beyond simply using AI; they were tasked with truly mastering its potential. A foundational requirement across most tracks was for every team to tap into the raw power of the Groq API and integrate at least one Llama model from Meta. It was a strategic move to accelerate AI inference to speeds previously thought unreachable. This commitment to cutting-edge technology ensured solutions were not just innovative, but performant and genuinely pushing the envelope. Teams embraced this challenge, leveraging Groq's low-latency performance to build applications that were incredibly fast and responsive. The Qubic Track offered a unique opportunity for teams to explore the specific demands of Web3 environments, showcasing the versatility of innovation beyond traditional AI. Beyond these core elements, optional components like MCP, Compound-beta, and Groq Speech Models encouraged teams to truly extend their projects' capabilities, fostering an environment of continuous experimentation and breakthrough development.
The Tracks: A Story of Innovation Across Industries
RAISE your HACK 2025 featured six visionary Industry Tracks, each a microcosm of future disruption, focused on real-world use cases. Participants didn't just solve problems; they redefined entire sectors, transforming conceptual challenges into deployable realities. Here’s a glimpse into the truly amazing applications that emerged:
- Qualcomm Track: AI on the Edge, Right Where You Need It. This track ignited a revolution in everyday technology, challenging teams to build Edge AI Consumer Utility Applications that run entirely on-device using the powerful Snapdragon X Elite. This bold push for on-device AI directly addressed critical real-world needs for privacy, low latency, and offline reliability, pushing AI closer to the user than ever before. Imagine an AI tutor coaching students without the internet, or a "local second brain" that indexes your private data entirely offline. One standout exemplified this by translating speech into SignWriting and Sign Animation in real-time, fully offline. This not only provided real-time communication for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community but showcased AI’s ability to bridge communication gaps directly on your device, ensuring privacy and accessibility.
- Prosus Track: Reimagining Consumer Commerce with AI Agents. Prosus’s track dared participants to fundamentally reinvent how consumers shop, eat, and travel through Agent-Powered E-Commerce Apps. Teams moved beyond traditional interfaces, crafting conversational shopping assistants that intelligently built reusable user profiles based on real-time dialogue, stored as dynamic knowledge graphs. This vision pushed the boundaries of personalization, creating AI agents that learn and adapt to every unique user preference, seamlessly spanning domains from retail to travel. Think about an AI-powered agent designed to rescue group trips from the dreaded group chat chaos. It takes everyone’s preferences, makes decisions, and gets the trip booked, from flights to dinner reservations, proving AI can turn complex coordination into a seamless experience.
- Vultr Track: Architecting the Future of Work with AI Agents. The Vultr track was a proving ground for enterprise innovation, challenging teams to harness robust cloud infrastructure and multi-agent systems to transform workplace productivity. Participants designed sophisticated AI "co-pilots" to simplify complex tasks and enhance enterprise workflows. Solutions like a cognitive assistant for field technicians, truly stood out. This real-time, multi-modal, AI multi-agent system provides clear, interactive guidance for critical tasks in industrial settings, using vision agents, command agents, and procedure agents collaborating through the Coral Protocol and powered by Groq's Llama 3 API. It’s a genuine "Future of Work" agentic workflow, transforming high-stakes operations into safer, more efficient, and fully auditable procedures. Another incredible project tackled the growing problem of hiring fraud. This AI-powered credibility checker helps hiring managers verify candidate authenticity by detecting inconsistencies across CVs, LinkedIn, GitHub, and even automated reference calls, providing crucial insights before costly hiring mistakes are made. We also saw projects like a no-code, prompt-driven AI Agent Builder that lets users generate and deploy autonomous AI agents from APIs, effectively turning apps into automations or digital workers for enterprise systems.
- Qubic Track: Decoding Decentralized Intelligence for the Web3 Frontier. The Qubic track bravely bridged the gap between Web3 and AI, challenging teams to Develop the Next Killer App for Qubic Mass Adoption. Focused on the unique potential of the C++-based Qubic Network, participants built powerful proofs-of-concept for cross-chain bridges, DeFi primitives, EVM interoperability, and C++ Smart Contract Audit Tools. This track unveiled cutting-edge solutions for decentralized AI compute and the future of verifiable, blockchain-powered AI services. One particularly impressive project showcased how AI can automatically identify vulnerabilities in smart contracts, categorize them by severity, and even deploy them in a controlled testing environment to build a battery of tests to verify the real impact of each vulnerability. This is a game-changer for secure and streamlined Web3 development.
- Blackbox.ai Track: Accelerating Developer Genius with AI for Code. BLACKBOX.AI's track empowered developers to Build Smarter and Code Faster by creating next-generation AI applications that revolutionize the development process itself. Teams leveraged the BLACKBOX.AI Coding Agent to build intelligent AI Code Assistants, proactive Developer Copilots, LLM-Powered Code Review Tools, Rapid Prototyping Tools, and innovative Automation Frameworks. This track showcased the future of developer productivity, where AI is a true co-pilot, not just a tool. One notable solution was an AI companion that helps developers grow their security skills directly within their workflow, detecting, learning, and remediating security issues in real-time during pull requests. This project showcased how AI can enhance developer security awareness and efficiency directly in the tools they use every day.
- Conduct(or) & RAISE Track: Shaping Human-Centric Experiences & Finance with AI. This track, powered by NativelyAI's Conductor platform, presented two impactful challenges. Teams pushed the boundaries of AI for direct human benefit by building either a Personal AI Companion to revolutionize attendee experiences at large-scale events (like RAISE Summit) or innovating Next-Gen Financial Platforms. A standout project was a comprehensive AI-powered event companion designed to elevate the experience for attendees, organizers, speakers, and sponsors alike. It offered personalized schedules, smart networking, real-time interactive features, and advanced venue navigation, demonstrating AI’s incredible role in optimizing large-scale gatherings and making them more engaging and efficient for everyone involved.
Technology: The Engine of Innovation
RAISE your HACK 2025 wouldn't have been possible without the essential tools and platforms provided by our leading Technology Partners, true enablers of innovation:
- Coral Protocol stepped in to empower teams building complex multi-agent systems. Their platform provided the crucial infrastructure for creating faster, more scalable agentic software, with powerful monitoring tools like Coral Studio. This meant teams could build sophisticated AI ecosystems that genuinely collaborate.
- Fetch.ai brought their unique expertise in decentralized agents. They enabled developers to build intelligent, autonomous AI using their cutting-edge tech stack (uAgents, Agentverse, ASI:One), paving the way for AI that can reason, adapt, and interact in real-time within decentralized networks.
- Snowflake offered a fully managed platform that was critical for teams building AI-powered applications that needed to ingest, transform, and serve both structured and unstructured data. This allowed innovators to maximize value from diverse datasets, providing a robust backbone for their AI solutions.
- Groq, as a main partner, was absolutely pivotal. Their high-speed API for accelerating LLM inference was a mandatory component for most projects, transforming what was possible by providing ultra-low-latency performance that allowed teams to build incredibly responsive and fast AI applications.
Key AI Trends Forged at RAISE your HACK 2025: Blueprints for Tomorrow's AI
The projects from RAISE your HACK 2025 paint a vivid, inspiring picture of AI's future, highlighting several converging trends that were not just theoretical, but were built, tested, and demonstrated live:
- LLMs Taking Center Stage, Working in Harmony: Virtually every project leveraged large language models, specifically the open-source LLaMA family (often supercharged by Groq’s high-speed API). But here's the kicker: teams didn't just plug-and-play. They brilliantly engineered hybrid systems where LLMs were components within larger, sophisticated pipelines. This wasn't just integration; it was an orchestration of AI, demonstrating the immense power of modular, composable AI systems that work together seamlessly.
- Edge AI and Privacy: A Monumental Shift: We witnessed a powerful move towards running AI locally on-device for enhanced privacy and offline access, a trend showcased vividly in the Qualcomm track. Projects like the offline AI tutor and privacy-first local "second brains" fearlessly challenged the traditional cloud-dependency paradigm. This reflects a surging market demand for data autonomy and secure, real-time functionality, proving that powerful AI can exist right where you are, without constant internet access.
- Multi-Modal and Multi-Agent Experiences: AI That Interacts Like Humans: Many solutions soared beyond mere text, seamlessly integrating voice, vision, and structured data. The multi-agent aspect, powerfully demonstrated by systems like the AR assistant for field technicians and the decentralized micro-task marketplace (using Coral Protocol and Fetch.ai frameworks), showed a future where constellations of AI services cooperatively solve complex problems – evolving beyond single-agent assistants into collaborative AI swarms that can see, hear, and respond to the world around them.
- Tools for Rapid AI Development: Speeding Up the Future: The hackathon was a crucible for validating developer tools. It showcased the critical role of open-source components and platforms like NativelyAI’s Conductor in enabling lightning-fast prototyping and live demos. This truly emphasizes the importance of a smooth developer experience in accelerating breakthrough development.
- Business-Driven Innovation: AI for Real-World Impact: These projects weren't just academic exercises. They were deeply rooted in addressing real market needs, a key criterion explicitly considered by the judges. They tackled current, tangible issues: from educational integrity and worker safety to information overload, conversational e-commerce, and building trust in AI services. This was AI designed to solve real problems and create genuine value.
- Symbiotic Industry Collaboration: Fueling the Ecosystem: The event proved a powerful model for collaboration, where sponsors didn't just fund; they truly partnered. By providing cutting-edge tools, APIs, and incentives, they received concrete, groundbreaking demos showcasing their technology's real-world application. This direct interaction will undoubtedly influence future product development and investment strategies, creating a powerful feedback loop that fuels innovation.
Voices from the Frontier: What Our Partners Said
Nick Debeurre, Sr. AI Developer Advocate, Qualcomm: "Thank you for the excellent partnership, NativelyAI team! We made it through with excellent outcomes. Huge kudos to your team for handling such a massive event."
Sara Warnik, Event & Community Manager, Prosus: "Dear NativelyAI team, we just wanted to say: a huge thank you for the amazing organisation and collaboration around the Raise Summit - what a success! From the inspiring speakers to the innovative ideas that came out of the hackathon (and potential candidates!), it was an impressive few days filled with energy, creativity, and great connections. Let's set up a short debrief session to reflect on the summit and explore ideas for future collaboration."
**Sana Wajid, Chief Development Officer, Fetch.ai: "It was a pleasure for Fetch.ai and the Fetch.ai Innovation Lab to sponsor and support RAISE your HACK. The level of innovation, energy, and talent throughout the event was truly inspiring. Initiatives like this are instrumental in driving global collaboration and advancing our mission to make cutting-edge innovation more accessible worldwide. We look forward to being back next year - thank you to everyone involved."
The Impact: A New Wave of AI Startups?
RAISE your HACK 2025 was more than just a hackathon (even though the World’s Largest AI Hackathon!); it was a powerful predictor of AI's future trajectory. It demonstrated that AI is rapidly expanding beyond chatbots, finding groundbreaking applications in critical industrial operations, profoundly personalized consumer experiences, empowered education, and robust new economic models for AI services. Many of the teams that participated in RAISE your HACK have already been accelerated after the event, continuing to build and work closely with our partners to further develop their visionary solutions. This hackathon wasn't just about building prototypes; it was about laying the foundation for a new wave of AI startups, poised to transform industries with the ideas born here.
The event powerfully reaffirmed that today's generation of developers is uniquely adept at navigating the complexities of AI, creatively combining tools, and focusing on tangible problems with incredible speed. These prototypes aren't just ideas; they are solid blueprints for full-fledged products and companies that will undoubtedly shape the coming years. It proved that the future of AI is being built here, now, at RAISE your HACK.
The Opening and Winners Ceremony were streamed online, connecting winners both onsite and around the globe, truly defying geographical boundaries, giving everyone equal chances to learn, collaborate and shape the future of AI. This one-and-only event served to connect a vibrant community of developers, engineers, and designers from universities, startups, and the tech industry, with one goal: creating a new wave of AI Builders. It was more than just a coding competition; it was a launchpad for revolutionary ideas that are already taking flight.
RAISE your HACK 2025 by the Numbers: The Scale of Innovation
The sheer scale of RAISE your HACK 2025 speaks volumes about its impact and reach. We welcomed 12 dedicated partners who championed innovation across 6 distinct industry tracks and supported 5 specific tech challenges. Throughout the event, 26 insightful speakers shared their expertise, while 46 dedicated mentors guided participants, and 40 expert judges meticulously evaluated the groundbreaking projects. In the end, 35 well-deserved prizes were awarded, celebrating the exceptional talent and revolutionary ideas brought to life in just five days. These numbers aren't just statistics; they represent a thriving ecosystem of collaboration, learning, and breakthrough development.
What Participants Shared: The Human Impact
The true success of RAISE your HACK lies in the experience of those who were part of it:
"First of all, the clean experience with the UI of their website allows any participant to take over any team or even become the leader by organizing their own team. Second, the participants, either alone or all over the globe, when it comes to the creation of a project, this is such a marvelous experience for everyone, and being a student, this is something that literally feels out of the world!"
"I really enjoyed the hackathon – it was a great experience overall. I appreciated the presence of many important sponsors and tech supporters. As a participant, I loved the platform – very user-friendly and intuitive. The workshops and website were well-organized, with all videos neatly arranged by sponsor."
After this event, one thing truly stands out. Innovation knows no boundaries and groundbreaking AI solutions shaping the future can indeed be built within less than 5 days, when talents from every single part of the globe collaborate, supported by industry giants. All they need is a platform that lets their ideas come to life. This is lablab.ai.
This AI hackathon demonstrates what's possible when global AI hackathons bring together diverse talent, cutting-edge tools, and real-world challenges. Whether you're exploring AI hackathon ideas or wondering how AI hackathons work, RAISE your HACK 2025 serves as a blueprint for what online AI hackathons can achieve.
Frequently Asked Questions About AI Hackathons
What is an AI hackathon?
An AI hackathon (also called an artificial intelligence hackathon) is a time-limited competitive event where developers, data scientists, and AI engineers collaborate to build innovative AI solutions. These events—whether online AI hackathons, virtual AI hackathons, or hybrid formats—bring together global teams to solve real-world problems using cutting-edge AI technologies.
How do AI hackathons work?
AI hackathons typically follow this structure:
- Registration: Teams or individuals sign up for the event
- Kickoff: Organizers present challenges, APIs, and resources
- Development: Teams have 24-72 hours (or up to 5 days for extended events) to build their solutions
- Submission: Projects are submitted with demos and documentation
- Judging: Expert judges evaluate projects on innovation, technical merit, and impact
- Awards: Winners receive prizes, recognition, and sometimes job opportunities
Are AI hackathons free?
Most online AI hackathons and virtual AI hackathons are free to participate in. RAISE your HACK 2025, like many global AI hackathons, was free to join and provided access to cutting-edge AI tools and APIs.
Do AI hackathons pay?
Yes, many AI hackathons offer cash prizes, with prize pools ranging from a few thousand to over $100,000. RAISE your HACK 2025 featured a $150,000+ prize pool, demonstrating the value that global AI hackathons place on innovative solutions.
How long do AI hackathons last?
Most AI hackathons last between 24-72 hours, though some extended events like RAISE your HACK can span 5 days. The duration depends on the complexity of challenges and the event format.
What do you win in AI hackathons?
Winners in AI hackathons typically receive cash prizes, access to acceleration programs, mentorship opportunities, and networking connections. Beyond prizes, participants gain valuable experience, portfolio projects, and connections with industry leaders.
Are AI hackathons worth it?
Absolutely. AI hackathons offer numerous benefits including skill development, portfolio building, networking opportunities, and access to cutting-edge tools. They're particularly valuable for those exploring AI hackathon ideas or looking to break into AI development.
Do I need experience for AI hackathons?
No prior experience is required for many AI hackathons for beginners. However, having a well-rounded team with diverse skills can significantly improve your chances of success in competitive AI hackathons.
What are some good AI hackathon ideas?
Great AI hackathon ideas include:
- Multi-agent systems for automation
- AI-powered tools for specific industries (healthcare, finance, government)
- LLM applications with real-world utility
- AI agents that integrate with existing platforms
- Solutions that combine AI with blockchain or Web3
Explore all 223 AI Applications built at RAISE your HACK here: https://lablab.ai/event/raise-your-hack
Ready to join your next AI hackathon? Explore upcoming AI hackathons and discover how you can participate in global AI hackathons that match your interests and skill level.
Stay tuned for RAISE your HACK 2026.