Building a Brighter Future with AI Innovations

A New Chapter in Generative AI

At a time when many generative AI (GenAI) applications are still defined by templated customer service bots or data-crunching tools, the Forge the Future hackathon highlighted the vast potential of this groundbreaking technology. Even in its early stages, GenAI is proving capable of tackling real-world challenges when equipped with the right data at the right moment.

In Singapore on February 28, 2025, 12 innovative teams came together to push GenAI forward. Sponsored by Elastic and powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the hackathon focused on developing advanced applications for a range of sectors, including banking, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, ecommerce, and the public sector.

The Tools Behind the Transformation

Participants received guidance from seasoned solutions architects along with access to state-of-the-art tools such as:

• Search AI Platform: Merging precise search functionalities with the intelligence of AI to create transformative applications.
• Amazon Bedrock: A fully managed service providing access to high-performing foundation models from leading AI companies.

These resources enabled teams to experiment with building solutions that could potentially redefine how organizations interact with and leverage data.

ElasticOn Singapore Finals: The Pinnacle of Innovation

Three exceptional teams—Buckle Up 4 AI, Singtel Code Crew, and SquareShift—advanced to the finals held on March 4, 2025, at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre during ElasticON Singapore. Their projects were evaluated by a distinguished panel including:

• Shay Banon, Founder and CTO, Elastic
• Hock Chuan Lim, Deputy Director, Product Management, AI Products, xDigital, HTX
• Laurence Liew, Director AI Innovation, AI Singapore
• Anil Nallamotu, Head of Global Strategic Partners Solution Architecture, APJ, AWS

Spotlight on Innovation

The standout winner, Buckle Up 4 AI from Standard Chartered Bank, impressed judges with a solution that turned financial data into actionable insights. By analyzing Elastic’s recent earnings call transcripts alongside publicly available data, the team demonstrated a GenAI tool capable of responding intelligently to queries regarding financial performance.

Karthikeyan GJ, a member of the winning team, reflected on the experience: "Seeing the other teams’ ideas has been enlightening, especially since they covered innovative solutions for sectors like healthcare and fashion. Winning the competition has been both a positive and eye-opening experience."

Laurence Liew remarked on the high quality of the presented concepts, particularly praising how Buckle Up 4 AI showcased practical applications of AI in transforming organizational processes. Similarly, Hock Chuan Lim highlighted a project that leveraged data from health devices to offer personalized insights, underlining the potential for AI in improving day-to-day health management.

The Role of Advanced Search in AI Development

As Singapore aims to transition from pilot projects to widespread AI adoption with its Smart Nation initiative, the importance of powerful search capabilities becomes evident. The government has earmarked significant investments, including up to S$150 million for the Enterprise Compute Initiative and a S$3 billion boost to the National Productivity Fund, intended to accelerate innovation in AI and quantum computing.

Advanced search technologies, such as vector search and retrieval augmented generation (RAG), are set to revolutionize how data is interpreted and utilized. Vector search provides results based on the underlying meaning of diverse content types—be it text, images, audio, or video—while RAG grounds the outputs of large language models (LLMs) with data from proprietary sources. Together, these innovations ensure that AI systems can deliver accurate, real-time responses tailored to an organization’s unique data context.

Looking Ahead

The Forge the Future hackathon not only showcased pioneering AI solutions but also underscored the transformative power of integrating intelligent search with generative AI. As companies continue to explore and develop these technologies, the potential for creating impactful, real-world applications grows exponentially.