By leveraging zero-code AI tools, students and young developers across Southeast Asia are transforming impactful ideas into AI-driven solutions
SINGAPORE, May 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, successfully concluded the 2026 "AI Coding Challenge" Singapore Station on May 9, held at the de Suantio Gallery, Singapore Management University (SMU).
The 40-day competition, themed "AI for Good — Build What Matters," was hosted by Tencent Cloud in collaboration with the Gather Growth NPO and local universities. As part of Tencent Cloud's "AI CAN DO IT" Global Hackathon, the challenge invited students and developers from across Southeast Asia to move beyond technical complexity and focus on solving real-world problems in social impact, environmental sustainability, and human-centered design.
AI-Native Solutions: Protecting the Vulnerable
The true potential of the "AI-Native" generation was on full display during the final roadshow of 2026 "AI Coding Challenge" Singapore Station. First-prize winner Elena Xiao, an AI product specialist based in Singapore, showcased Auntie AI, a multimodal AI safety co-pilot designed specifically for seniors.
Auntie AI addresses the rising threat of digital scams. The tool reads phone screens to identify phishing SMS and suspicious links, explaining risks in plain language and triggering dialect-based warnings. "I wanted to help the elderly reduce the risk and cost of being scammed," Elena explained. Regarding her experience with Tencent's AI tools, she added: "CodeBuddy is highly efficient at writing and debugging code—it acts like an agent that handles the heavy lifting for you."
Further demonstrating the spirit of "AI for Good," second-prize winners Joshua Chew Jay Han and Yoong Jing Yi from the University of Malaya presented EyeDentify. Their project combines low-cost hardware with AI to provide a wearable visual aid for the visually impaired. "Our goal was to turn complex AI into a simple wearable tool to help them navigate daily challenges," the team shared. "Using CodeBuddy significantly reduced our development time; it's a product that even beginners can master in just a few days."
Beyond Engineering: A New Era of Creation
The competition was judged by a panel of industry heavyweights, including Michael Xu, Chief Architect of Tencent Cloud, Feida Zhu, the Associate Dean of SMU's School of Computing and Information Systems, and Terence, an engineer from AI Singapore. Projects were evaluated not just on technical execution, but on human-centered design, AI interaction, and feasibility.
"Many companies want to solve problems with AI but lack the capability to build models from scratch," said Michael Xu, Chief Architect and Senior Technical Trainer at Tencent Cloud. "Tencent Cloud's AI SaaS solutions—like OCR and Text-to-Speech—help these ideas land quickly. CodeBuddy, in particular, is a creative tool for the public, allowing everyone to build their own AI."
Terence, an AI Engineer at AI Singapore, noted the inclusivity of the event: "AI has become more accessible. Even youth with limited technical backgrounds can now create the projects they dream of. Seeing students and even teachers start to build their own AI applications shows that AI has truly entered every industry."
Sparking Cross-Border Innovation on a Global Stage
The Singapore hackathon featured participants from around the world, with teams like NaviCore, comprised of students from Malaysia, Canada, China, and India. Their AI-driven platform for maritime navigation highlighted Singapore's role as a global hub for cross-border collaboration.
Earlier in April, Tencent Cloud also announced the launch of its 2026 "AI CAN DO IT" Game Development Hackathon during the "Tencent AI Campus Tour" at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). Hosted by Tencent Cloud, the global competition spans five major regions: Hong Kong and Macau SAR, East China, North China, South China, and Southeast Asia. Following rigorous campus selections and regional pitches, the winning teams will be invited to the global finals at the 2026 Tencent Global Digital Ecosystem Summit in September, where they will compete for a massive token prize pool valued in the millions of HKD.
By providing a premier technical platform and tools like CodeBuddy, Tencent Cloud continues its mission to lower the threshold for innovation, empowering the next generation of creators to build a smarter, more inclusive future.
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About Tencent Cloud:
Tencent Cloud, one of the world's leading cloud companies, is committed to creating innovative solutions to resolve real-world issues and enabling digital transformation for smart industries. Through our extensive global infrastructure, Tencent Cloud provides businesses across the globe with stable and secure industry-leading cloud products and services, leveraging technological advancements such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, AI, IoT, and network security. It is our constant mission to meet the needs of industries across the board, including the fields of gaming, media and entertainment, finance, healthcare, property, retail, travel, and transportation.
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