Announcing the Winners of the APJ Databricks Smart Business Insights Challenge: Data Intelligence Powered by AI/BI

We’re thrilled to announce the completion of the Databricks Smart Business Insights Challenge: our first-ever APJ-led virtual hackathon designed to showcase how AI/BI tools can turn raw data into real-world business impact.

Over the past few months, teams from across the Asia Pacific & Japan region have come together to experiment, collaborate, and build innovative data applications using Databricks. From predictive dashboards to natural language querying and business workflow automation, participants used a wide range of capabilities, including AI/BI Dashboards, Genie Spaces, and Databricks Apps to unlock smarter insights faster.

What the Challenge Was About

The AI/BI Challenge brought together business users, data analysts, engineers, and domain experts to tackle real-world challenges through data. Participants formed cross-functional teams and were given access to:

• USD $400 in Databricks Express credits per eligible team
• Free expert-led training sessions worth USD $3,000
• Live office hours and support from Databricks experts

The result? Dozens of creative, production-ready solutions demonstrating how organizations can shift from dashboards to true data intelligence without complex coding required.

And the Winners Are…

Our judges reviewed submissions based on business impact, creativity, storytelling, technical strength and user experience. After careful evaluation, we’re proud to announce our top three winners each exemplifying the future of data intelligence:

Grand Prize: Puma Energy

Powering smarter retail operations across emerging markets

Puma Energy, a global energy company with a strong footprint across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, tackled the challenge of siloed retail data across geographies. Their winning solution, One Retail, is a unified AI/BI dashboard built on Databricks that integrates over 15 KPIs from Sell-In/Sell-Out to Mystery Shopper and NPS. It leverages ai_forecast for predictive insights, LLMs for automated summaries, and Genie Spaces for deep dives empowering teams to turn complexity into clear, real-time action.

Second Prize: Bupa Australia

Transforming Healthcare with Databricks AI/BI

Bupa, a global healthcare and insurance provider, created a real-time sentiment anomaly engine to surface subtle customer issues before they escalate. Their Databricks-powered solution continuously scans for emotional mismatches between customer survey ratings and conversational tone updating every four hours. Featuring a live AI/BI dashboard and natural language search via Genie, the tool helps frontline teams quickly identify root causes, protect brand reputation, and resolve issues proactively.

Third Prize: CASETiFY

AI-Powered Insights for Designers to Optimize Ad Performance

CASETiFY, a leading global lifestyle and tech accessories brand, developed a solution to maximize ad performance by integrating design insights with data. Using MosaicAI and Genie, the team built a tool that auto-tags unstructured ad creatives with 20+ business attributes and links them with performance metrics. Non-technical teams can instantly ask questions like “Which ad style had the highest ROI?” streamlining workflows and driving more impactful, data-informed campaigns.

What’s Next?

If you missed this round, don’t worry, this is just the beginning. The Databricks Smart Business Insights Challenge has sparked incredible momentum across the region, and we’re already exploring what comes next to support our growing data community.

To everyone who joined us on this journey: thank you. Your ideas, energy, and passion for solving problems with data inspire us every day.

Explore the full challenge experience:

https://hackathon.stackup.dev/web/events/databricks-smart-business-insights-challenge

We'd also like to express our gratitude to AWS for their partnership in the Databricks Smart Business Insights Challenge - playing a crucial role in the event’s success.