The world of data and AI has shifted profoundly since 2021.   Serving again as a judge this year made that change impossible to miss. What once felt like experimentation now feels like intentional innovation.   AI is no longer the edge of the future. It is the working engine of discovery. Yet, despite the complexity of the tools, the essence of progress still comes from people — their curiosity, focus, and desire to build solutions that matter.   As data-science leaders plan for 2026, the hackathon arena provides a useful early-warning system. It shows where talent is going, what motivates teams, and which practices separate promise from impact. The themes below capture that evolution.   From models to missions One of the clearest shifts this year was how quickly teams moved from modelling ambition to mission ambition. Environmental, social, and civic outcomes shaped many proposals from the start. Climate resilience, resource optimisation, sustainable transport, and equitable public services all appeared as natural starting points rather than rhetorical flourishes.   This marks a cultural turn. Purpose is no longer a compliance conversation; it is a design principle. The new generation of data talent expects to work on meaningful problems. Hackathons now reflect that expectation with clarity.   And while these themes point to what comes next, it’s the teams themselves who show what’s possible right now. Find out who the champions are during our award session Dec. 11 on YouTube and LinkedIn!  AI as an accelerant AI sits at the centre of almost every submission, yet the strongest teams treated it with discipline. They used AI to accelerate iteration, surface patterns, and test ideas at speed. But they grounded their work in statistical understanding and validated assumptions with care.   This blend of fast exploration and methodological rigour is the new craft. It is the capability leaders must build in 2026: not AI-first, but AI-amplified.   Storytelling as a technical skill Storytelling reached a new level of maturity this year. The teams that broke through did so by making their point with clean intent. They named the problem quickly. They explained why it mattered. They showed how their choices created impact.   Formats varied widely — personal narratives, polished explainers, interactive dashboards with voice-overs — but the principle stayed constant. Clarity is now a technical differentiator. It builds trust. It unlocks investment. It secures adoption.   Diverse teams, better solutions Reviewing entries across regions highlighted a meaningful convergence. Challenges that once felt regionally distinct now appear global. Teams in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States centred their work on similar themes: resilience, sustainability, efficiency, fair access, and civic strength.   This reflects a broader truth. Diversity is not ornamental; it is operational. Teams with mixed backgrounds and varied perspectives produced stronger, more resilient solutions. For 2026 planning, investing in a broad range of viewpoints will raise the ceiling on what is possible.   Beyond the event: the new continuity Another difference from earlier years is how teams perceive the hackathon’s role. More are keeping their ideas alive. More are exploring pilots and partnerships. The hackathon has become a runway, not a finish line.   This signals an opportunity. Leaders can turn experimental energy into organisational value by building pathways from prototype to pilot. AI shortens the distance between idea and action. Organisations that absorb this pace will move ahead faster and with more confidence.   The human thread endures Despite the rise of automation and agentic workflows, the strongest entries always returned to people — their motivations, their communities, their desire to improve their surroundings. Technology can widen the range of what is possible. But people determine what becomes meaningful.   As leaders prepare for 2026, this is the grounding insight. AI will speed up the work. But values, curiosity, and care will shape the outcomes.   Purpose-driven progress This year’s hackathon shows the contours of the next era. Purpose leads. Clarity wins. Diversity strengthens solutions. Continuity turns experimentation into change. And the human spirit remains the source of momentum.   As the world of data and AI accelerates towards 2026, the organisations that succeed will blend speed with responsibility, ambition with discipline, and innovation with empathy. This is the emerging blueprint — one that the SAS Hackathon community is already beginning to write.   - Per Hyldborg   A huge thank you to our sponsors, Intel and Microsoft, whose support made this Hackathon possible. Their contributions went far beyond sponsorship- bringing expertise, resources, and inspiration that fueled innovation. Together, they created a truly collaborative and transformative experience for all participants. ... View more

I was recently honoured to be asked to be a judge at this year’s #SASHackathon. As always, the entries were innovative, interesting, impressive and inspiring in more or less equal proportion, as posts from my fellow judges and jurors showed. The cases were all very different, and spanned a wide range of sectors, from banking through telecoms and media, to healthcare, public sector and manufacturing. It’s always hard to make decisions about which were the best. It is also interesting to reflect on what I learned from the experience, so here are my top six takeaways.   1. Statistics is more powerful when combined with curiosity I found it very interesting to see the theoretical methodologies that each team used to create their solutions. I think it takes a certain kind of mind, coupled with strong curiosity, to be able to identify an issue, and then see how you can apply your knowledge of statistics to solve that problem. I think it is the combination of curiosity and expertise that is so powerful, because it enables you to create something smarter, better or easier than before.   2. Analytics really can change the world One of the things that really struck me about all the entries into the Hackathon was that they all wanted to do something that would have a real impact on their city, state, or business, and on people’s everyday lives. For example, some were focused on flooding, and how to quantify the risk, but there were many others focused on communities more generally. People seemed simply to have opened their front doors and looked around to identify problems. That made me realise that the real power of analytics may be when people use it to address real, genuine, everyday problems, and just make everyone’s lives a little bit better.   3. There is huge power in storytelling I was amazed by the quality of the storytelling on display in the hackathon entries. I don’t think anyone who presented was a professional presenter. However, they were all telling stories about advanced and complex ideas, and presenting them in a way that could be easily understood. There were also some interesting differences between the videos, highlighting different styles of storytelling. For example, some of them used a ‘talking heads’ approach, and others provided slide-type presentations, allowing you to read them for yourself, and make up your own mind.   4. It is important to make your key points upfront I’ll say it again: I was impressed by the quality of the storytelling in all the videos. However, running through them all, twice over, I found that there were some that really grabbed my attention, and others that were less compelling. The ones that were most compelling were short, precise, and started by saying what the team was trying to solve. A clear outline of the issue gives you a reason to pay attention: it tells you why this matters. If you can’t nail it within the first minute, you’ll lose your audience.   5. I was surprised by the range of presentation techniques used I was surprised and intrigued that not everyone took the opportunity to present their case orally, and put themselves in front of the camera. However, I don’t know whether this was positive or negative. I know that I like to be taken by the hand, and walked through the issues, with a clear idea of where to focus. However, I also understand that some people may feel that they themselves are a distraction from the ideas they want to present. Ultimately, everyone has to make their own decisions about how they present anything.   6. The hackathon shouldn’t be the end of the experience One of the things that always strikes me when I judge events like this is that there is a lot of excitement at the time of the judging and the awards, and then that’s it. I would like to see more interest in what happens to the teams and ideas in future. Some of them, we know, will be implemented, but others will just fade and die under pressure from the ‘day job’. I would like to see more follow-up and checking in with teams in three or six months, to see their progress. This might also provide an opportunity to build a community around the hackathon—and that, in turn, could give the ideas even more life.   More reflections Based on the many wonderful experiences my fellow judges and the mentors observed, we are hosting a tweetchat on 17th June  where more can share their takeaways. Will you join us?   Join SASChat June 17       ... View more