Last week, we challenged our teams to push the boundaries of what’s possible when human creativity meets artificial intelligence.
What began as a technical hackathon quickly became something much bigger – a day of collaboration, comedy, and genuine innovation.
The results? Five functioning prototypes built in just hours, each solving real-world problems and showcasing not just the transformative power of AI-assisted development, but also the magic that happens when talented people come together to build something extraordinary.
The challenge
We brought together cross-functional teams from across Horizon Digital with one goal: to use AI tools like Amazon Q and Cursor to turn everyday challenges into working prototypes.
What emerged wasn’t just software. It was a fascinating mix of problem-solving, creativity, and team bonding, all accelerated by AI.
The human side of AI
There’s a lot of talk about AI taking over. What we saw was the opposite.
Developers became actors, with Hussain testing his team’s emotion detection app by pulling faces that had the whole room in stitches. Delivery Leads became storytellers, with Hadi’s theatrical “my oranges are ruined!” monologue to demo a plant health solution.
AI handled the heavy lifting, but it was the people who brought the ideas, energy, and imagination to life. That balance of human insight and AI acceleration is exactly where the magic happens.
The prototypes we built
🏆 Team Crystal – “Foodie Moody”
An app that recommends meals based on your mood. Using facial recognition, it detects your expression and suggests what you should eat. Simple, fun, and surprisingly accurate.
🥈 Team Rocket – “Insightful”
A tool for executives who spend too much time in meetings. It turns transcripts into dashboards that track sentiment, flag risks, and pull out action items.
🌱 Team Thunder – “Plant Health AI”
Farmers can snap a photo of their crops to get an instant diagnosis of plant diseases and recommended treatments.
💸 Team Blaze – “Gen AI Cost Advisor”
A cloud cost optimisation tool that predicts spend and suggests savings before budgets blow out.
🏢 Team Nova – “Smart Room Booking”
A clean and simple solution for one of the most common workplace frustrations: double-booked meeting rooms.
Five very different problems. Five working solutions. All built in record time.
Why it matters for business
Here’s the real takeaway.
Speed
Prototypes went from concept to demo in as little as 30 minutes. What would normally take weeks of development was compressed into hours, giving teams more time to test ideas and less time waiting for code.
Efficiency
With AI generating boilerplate code, UI components, and even algorithms, teams focused on solving problems and designing user experiences. Complexity became less of a barrier, so the best ideas could shine through faster.
Culture
Laughter, collaboration, and creative risk-taking weren’t side effects — they were the fuel for innovation. When people feel safe to experiment, and AI handles the grunt work, progress accelerates naturally.
For businesses, this is a glimpse of the future: less time tangled in technical detail, more time solving real problems that move the needle.
From hackathon to your business
Our hackathon wasn’t just an internal experiment, it showed what’s possible when human creativity and AI work hand in hand.
In just hours, our teams built working prototypes that would normally take months, and several are now being explored further as proof of concept projects.
The exciting part? This isn’t just for us. Through our partnership with AWS, we’re extending the same opportunity to our clients with a Free Prototype offer (valued up to $15K).
It’s a way to test ideas fast with an interactive software prototype, so you can validate your vision with real users before making a major investment.
Here’s a glimpse of what we’re already working on with clients:
- Media: AI tools to speed up project workflows.
- Mining: Smart systems to simplify team travel.
- Education: Platforms to empower small businesses globally.
- Wellness: Apps to boost employee mental health.
Want to see if a Prototype (POC) is the right fit for your business? Explore our Prototype Offer
