The AI Agent Arena (Hackathon)

Build Autonomous AI Workflows for Real-World Enterprise ImpactPut your coding, agentic system design, and problem-solving skills to the test in a multi-round competitive hackathon. Move beyond traditional prompting to build, harden, and pitch self-executing AI agents.

Who can join? School students and university undergraduates. Compete individually or in teams to build functional AI agent prototypes. AI Agent Arena participants cannot register for other TechX events. The Arena runs across both days, so please plan to be available for every round.

Choose your track level

For university students

End-to-End Autonomous Systems

End-to-end autonomous systems, API integrations, multi-step agent orchestration, and business logic alignment.

  • API integrations
  • Multi-step agent orchestration
  • Business logic alignment

Example problem statement

Supply chain disruption management

Final problem statements are released at the event.

Register for The AI Agent Arena

The 5 domains

Each team picks one domain when registering. Problem statements are released at the event.

  • Domain 1

    FinTech Fraud & Compliance

    AI agents that investigate suspicious payments step by step, check the evidence and keep clear compliance records.

  • Domain 2

    Smart City & Autonomous Mobility

    AI agents that respond to transport disruptions in real time, coordinating fleets, charging and commuter updates.

  • Domain 3

    Healthcare Operations & Clinical Workflow Automation

    AI agents that coordinate hospital admin handoffs across departments while respecting patient privacy, with no diagnosis.

  • Domain 4

    Aviation & Airport Operations

    AI agents that help airports recover from delays and disruptions across passengers, bags and crew, within airside safety rules.

  • Domain 5

    Water, Energy & Climate Resilience

    AI agents that balance water and power use during extreme heat, peak demand and lower solar output, keeping people and facilities safe.

How it works

  1. 1Submit team registration
  2. 2Attend Pre-Orientation Webinar
  3. 3Complete Round 1
  4. 4Advance to Round 2 (Edge-Case Semi-Finals)
  5. 5Finalists pitch live at Round 3 (Stage Finale) before industry judges

Participation includes access to the pre-orientation webinar, event sessions, and eligibility for cash prizes.

Key dates & deadlines

  • Registration Deadline15 November 2026
  • Pre-Orientation WebinarAccess links and schedule details will be sent to confirmed registrants prior to the main event.

The competition rounds

  1. 01

    Round 1

    Sandbox Sprint

    Teams start building their agent in a sandbox environment.

    10:00 AM – 1:00 PM · Fri, 20 Nov

  2. 02

    Round 2

    Edge-Case Semi-Finals

    Agents are tested against tricky edge cases to decide who goes through.

    2:00 PM – 4:00 PM · Fri, 20 Nov

  3. 03

    Round 3

    Scratch Ideathon

    Shortlisted teams design a solution from scratch.

    9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · Sat, 21 Nov

Team rules

Compete solo or in a team of up to 4 students from the same track. A team leader registers everyone, and every member gets their own registration and confirmation email.

Resources

Every Arena team is given the sandbox access, API keys and cloud credits it needs to compete. Nothing has to be earned first.

Judging

Teams are judged by industry experts. Full judging criteria will be published before the event.

What you can win, and what everyone gets

Awards go to winning AI Agent Arena teams and top performers. Conditions for scholarships, internships and certificates will be confirmed by the organisers.

AI Agent Arena prize pool

AED 2,000

For the winning Arena teams.

  • Scholarships

    For top performers.

  • In-kind support

    Such as internships.

For every participant

  • Learn from industryTalks, panels and workshops led by practitioners.
  • CertificatesDigital and hardcopy certificates. Conditions will be confirmed by the organisers.
  • Digital PassportOptional stamps for the sessions you attend.