Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Tencent Cloud and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) have completed a five-week AI hackathon that challenged students to develop solutions to problems identified by local organisations, as part of a wider collaboration focused on AI education and skills development.
The hackathon ran from 10th of July to 13th of August, bringing together students to work on challenges set by AmBank, Johor Corporation (JCorp), Silverlake and Arkie AI. The programme included training, mentoring, and project development, with more than 300 engagements recorded across recruitment, training, and mentoring activities.
At the programme’s Demo Day at UTM Kuala Lumpur, participants presented their solutions to representatives from the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Tencent Institute of Games and other industry partners.
The hackathon took place under a three-year collaboration formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Tencent Cloud and UTM on 18 August 2026. The agreement was signed at The St. Regis Kuala Lumpur by UTM Vice-Chancellor Professor Ts. Dr Mohd Shafry bin Mohd Rahim and Poshu Yeung, Senior Vice President of Tencent Cloud International.
Students apply AI tools to industry problems
Participants received online and in-person training on Tencent WorkBuddy, an AI desktop agent for tasks including research, analysis and document creation; CodeBuddy, an AI programming suite; and Tencent Design Miora, an AI-native creative studio for visual content and design.
Students used the tools in their projects, with technical guidance and feedback from industry practitioners. The programme was designed to let participants test their AI and troubleshooting skills by addressing real-world problems in a controlled environment.
The challenge statements covered areas including financial scam prevention, organisational performance monitoring, and communication and social skills training. JCorp, for example, asked students to explore how AI could help management identify emerging performance concerns and understand their causes. Arkie AI set a challenge around using AI-driven role-play and personalised feedback to help people practise communication in a safe setting.
“Much of the AI conversation focuses on access to models and infrastructure. In practice, the harder question is what organisations do with them,” said Jasmine Chan, Partnership Director, Tencent Cloud Malaysia.
“The same applies to students. Working on a real brief requires them to make choices, test their assumptions and justify their solution with real world commercial outcomes. These experiences will become invaluable to students as AI continues to integrate into Malaysian businesses and the wider economy,” Chan continued.
Two teams selected for global finals
Team Sleep_Well, which included Ho Yu Xiang from UTM’s Faculty of Artificial Intelligence, won the AI Agent Track with AI Scam Shield, a financial scam prevention platform developed in response to Silverlake’s challenge.
Team Untitled, comprising Ahmad Mohamed Elhassan Seliaman Mohamed and Mohammed Rahbab Chowdhury, won the Game Track with Threshold. The 3D social simulation game is designed to help users practise communication and develop social confidence by creating an identity, exploring an open environment and interacting with AI-driven characters in different scenarios.
Both teams are due to represent Malaysia at the Tencent Cloud Hackathon Global Finals in Shenzhen, China, in September.
Three-year collaboration targets AI talent development
The hackathon is among the first initiatives under Tencent Cloud and UTM’s three-year agreement. The MoU provides for joint research in AI, cloud computing, smart technologies and digital transformation, alongside professional certification, hackathons and innovation programmes, internships, talent development, and exchange and training activities.
“Malaysia’s continued progress in AI will depend on our ability to connect academic learning with the skills and tools used by industry,” said Professor Ts. Dr Mohd Shafry bin Mohd Rahim, Vice-Chancellor of UTM.
“Through this collaboration, we look forward to giving students and educators more opportunities to build practical capabilities in cloud and AI, while contributing to a stronger national talent pipeline,” Dr Rahim continued.
The university said the Tencent Cloud collaboration also supports its UTM ASCEND 2030 strategy by expanding opportunities for students and educators to engage with current technologies, industry expertise and practical AI applications.
