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How AngelHack uses hackathons to ease AI adoption

From internal hackathons to accelerator programmes, Singapore’s AngelHack is empowering everyday employees to build their own AI applications while expanding its reach in the US, Brazil and Australia

Aaron Tan
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Published: 16 Jun 2026 8:41

While more enterprises have jumped on the artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagon, many are still figuring out how to translate the technology into business outcomes. For Singapore-based innovation firm AngelHack, the key to solving the problem lies in hackathons.

In an interview with Computer Weekly, Ryan Chew, director of AngelHack DevLabs, noted that despite the rapid growth of AI adoption, businesses continue to struggle to use large language models (LLMs) to build AI applications that suit their business context and workflows.

AngelHack, which runs a range of developer and innovation programmes, has seen rising demand for its expertise in organising hackathons. Instead of relying on external consultants who may not understand a company’s operations, AngelHack runs internal hackathons that teach non-technical employees, such as marketing or finance teams, to build their own AI-powered applications.

“Many companies like to get consultants from external parties who say, ‘Hey, try to do AI for me.’ But they don't know your workflow, they don’t have privileged information, and they don’t exist day-to-day in operations,” Chew explained. “You just need to spend a week to teach the people who are the actual stakeholders, and they can produce much better results because they know their workflows best.”

AngelHack, which boasts a global database of developers, also organises large-scale external hackathons for tech giants like Microsoft to drive adoption of tools like Copilot.

Beyond product adoption, these events are also used for recruitment and employer branding. Local telco Singtel recently reached out to AngelHack to showcase its investments in datacentres and AI capabilities, while government-linked initiatives like the Defence Science and Technology Agency’s BrainHack uses these competitions to identify and recruit top tech talent.

When a commercially viable project emerges from a hackathon, AngelHack can also help guide the project to market. In Singapore, the company is working with Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) and AI chip giant Nvidia to run accelerator programmes that turn prototypes into scalable businesses.

And for those that lack the internal engineering chops to bring an idea to life, AngelHack’s DevLabs arm can step in build minimum viable products (MVPs) and custom software applications, helping enterprises ease the transition into frontier technologies like AI and blockchain.

Organisational challenges

As AI becomes more capable of writing its own code, it’s also upending software engineering roles. Chew calls it the “surface area” problem: If a single developer using AI can now cover the amount of work that used to require a team of five, how should companies organise their engineering departments?

He added: “Do you have enough features for everyone to work on? And if you do, you’d need to redesign your organisational structure within your engineering team so that their roles are clear, whether that’s in auditing or reviewing PRs [pull requests]”.

While some big tech firms have used AI efficiency to justify mass layoffs, Chew views the technology as a multiplier that should be used to expand a company's output, not shrink its staff. “If you have AI empowering engineers, you should be able to produce more and not try to cut people,” he said.

Then there are also governance, risk and compliance issues that enterprises must grapple with. “No AI is 100% correct, and no human is 100% correct. I can hold humans accountable, but I cannot hold AI accountable,” Chew pointed out. As a result, much of the enterprise AI development currently facilitated by AngelHack focuses on internal workflows rather than higher-risk, external-facing applications.

AngelHack is now riding a wave of global growth. The company, which has about 70 employees, has seen an uptick in demand across its academy, hackathon, and custom solutions businesses. Notably, Chew said more small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) are engaging DevLabs to understand how AI can improve internal efficiencies or be integrated into their existing products.

The company has also been expanding its footprint, having organised hackathons for customers in Australia and Brazil. It is also planning a multi-city hackathon across the US later this year.

As the barrier to tech development continues to fall, Chew noted that the appetite for expert facilitation by companies like AngelHack shows no signs of slowing. “Even if you know how to cook,” he quipped, “if cooking is made super easy, sometimes you just prefer to eat at a restaurant.”

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