Start Hack 2024 teamed up with Intel® Liftoff to launch the "AI SpeedRacers" Side Quest earlier this year and the two winning teams have created solutions with tangible effects to enhance communication for enterprises.
The winners of "Best use of Intel Developer Cloud and Intel AI optimizations," was the Kanton team with works of my machine. They were followed in second place for the "Best use of PredictionGuard LLM API" by the BellBoost AI Companion created by team CODE Atzen.
Code Atzen: AI Companion for Community Management
To reshape the way that communities in a business environment interact, one winner of Start Hack 2024, Code Atzen created an AI Companion for community management. The AI recommendation engine utilizes natural language to match individuals and data. This means that individuals can find the perfect matching partners based on their interests and lifestyle habits in order to make friends with their colleagues.
Conceived to support large companies like the Swiss Bell Group in increasing employee satisfaction, this AI companion is able to facilitate communication between 15 subsidiary companies with about 13, 000 employees.
Large corporations, many of whom are migrant workers from Eastern Europe, were the target audience for their AI companion community management tool. This solution is able to overcome language barriers, is easy to use for those with limited technology experience, and prevents them from feeling isolated.
This solution enhances employee motivation and provides the employer with insights into their workforce. Additionally, it streamlines internal hiring procedures and removes the necessity for current cumbersome and costly solutions.
Since the hackathon in March 2024, the product and its applications have evolved significantly. Beyond friend matchmaking, our backend service connecting LLMs to knowledge bases has garnered interest from various sectors.
The team is currently exploring this idea further with fellow students from Stanford and CODE University, aiming to bring it to market. Buildspace in San Francisco has implemented a similar service, and Code Atzen is participating in their 8-week go-to-market challenge. We look forward to seeing what develops over the summer.
“Winning the Intel® Liftoff Side Quest validated our mission of building a meaningful product using cutting-edge technology. During these 36 hours of planning, programming, and presenting, our team bonded and learned to leverage each other’s strengths under pressure. We could all imagine building further products together as a team and agreed to participate in such hackathons as our yearly tradition,” says Maximillian Arnold, co-founder of Code Atzen.
Team Kanton: AI VoiceBot for Handling Incoming Calls
To relieve businesses faced with large volumes of incoming calls, Team Kanton, the second winner of Start Hack 2024, created an AI VoiceBot that is cost-effective, can cut a call from €13 to €0,50, and is scalable. This automated voice bot has been designed to handle large volumes of incoming calls and significantly reduces the need for human intervention by efficiently redirecting the complex queries to the relevant departments while simultaneously benefiting from the cost savings of using Intel® Developer Cloud.
These are not the only benefits; customers will also benefit from enhanced data collection and analysis from customer interactions, which can provide valuable insights for business improvements and increased availability. The automated system can handle calls outside of regular business hours, ensuring 24/7 support for customers. Also, by deploying on the Intel® Developer Cloud, businesses can take advantage of lower operational costs compared to other cloud services, making it a more economical choice.
According to Vishwa Singh, team member of Kanton, “Winning this hackathon is a significant achievement for our team as it validates the innovative approach and practical utility of our solution. It provides recognition from industry leaders like Intel, boosts our confidence, and opens up new opportunities for collaboration.”
Intel® Liftoff: Empowering Startups with Mentorship and Technology
Intel® Liftoff's involvement in these events aims to remove barriers to hardware access, accelerate development cycles, and improve the return on investment (ROI) of your AI and HPC workflows. This is done to assist startup founders like Code Atzen and Kanton in creating solutions that have a positive impact on business and society.
Intel® Liftoff is a free virtual program designed to help early-stage tech startups scale innovation faster.
If you are building innovation based on accelerated computing – AI, analytics, HPC, graphics – this program is for you.
For more information on how startups can leverage the superpower of Intel® Liftoff’s program visit https://software.seek.intel.com/intel-liftoff.
As a Software Tools Ecosystem Specialist at Intel, I’ve had the privilege of working on the dynamic GenAI initiative. My focus is on driving engagement with the software developer audience. I'm a proud team member of the Intel® Liftoff for Startups and the Developer Engagement, Relations, and Studio team.