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Last week, Build First facilitated our first company-wide AI hackathon of 2026.
You might be thinking, “I’ve heard of hackathons before. It’s when product and engineering leaders show up and build stuff.”
Well. That was the old way.
In the AI age, anyone can build.
So at an AI hackathon, every single person (sales, marketing, operations, finance, and legal) walks away with a functioning mini-app.
Yes, the product and engineering leaders often blow us all away with their demos. But the point is this: Everyone is a developer now.
Last week, Build First facilitated our first company-wide AI hackathon of 2026.
You might be thinking, “I’ve heard of hackathons before. It’s when product and engineering leaders show up and build stuff.”
Well. That was the old way.
In the AI age, anyone can build.
So at an AI hackathon, every single person (sales, marketing, operations, finance, and legal) walks away with a functioning mini-app.
Yes, the product and engineering leaders often blow us all away with their demos. But the point is this: Everyone is a developer now.
Most of us grew up with software handed to us. We got very good at filling out forms, matching keywords, and shaping our work to fit the constraints of tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, QuickBooks, Squarespace, and Instagram.
We learned how to adapt ourselves to software. What we didn’t do was stop to ask a a couple of different questions:
If you could redesign this tool from the ground up, made specifically for you, what would that look like?
What if every document, spreadsheet, email, and workflow you’ve ever created could train technology on your specific needs?
If web2 tech taught us how to turn databases into workflows, then AI is teaching us what comes next: How to make sense of messier, more human information.
No matter how many blog posts or LinkedIn think pieces you read on AI adoption, this isn’t a shift you can understand intellectually. You have to engage with it. Experiential learning.
That’s what makes hackathons so powerful. They create a collective moment of upskilling, tapping into the peer-to-peer nature of learning while building a shared vocabulary and a safe space to experiment.
Some companies respond by tracking AI usage and mandating more of it. But that’s a bit like trying to motivate students to learn by threatening a pop quiz. (As any teacher knows, compliance doesn’t exactly unlock intrinsic motivation...)
What I’ve seen instead is this: People adopt AI fastest when they have a reason to build. One tied to a problem they personally care about solving.
That’s why some of the most powerful first builds I’ve seen aren’t work-related at all. I’ve watched people create career coaches to guide them through tough moments, or mini-apps to motivate their kindergarteners to practice piano.
All it takes is one “aha” moment. One realization that a problem squarely in your domain is also one you can solve yourself with AI. As organizational leaders today, it’s your job to coach your team into discovering what that “magic aha moment” will be for them. After you do, I bet they’ll be a lot more motivated to follow your lead and pick up new tools at work.
For me, that moment came last year when I realized I could use AI to help my kids experience museums in an entirely new way, through age-specific, AI-generated audio stories. For you, it will be something else entirely.
An AI hackathon isn’t about shipping a perfect product. It’s about learning how to see your own work as something you can shape with AI and getting an “at bat” at building something small from end-to-end. And then (if you’re brave enough), doing a real-time demo live in front of your peers.
This the start of what it feels like to reclaim a little bit of technological agency.
And as many of my most AI-native developer friends will tell you, that feeling is addictive. For the first time, you’re given permission to experiment, play, and build. Not by someone else’s rules, but by your own.
If you’re AI-curious and hope to catalyze a Build First mindset of AI adoption to your team or organization, let’s talk.
Most of us grew up with software handed to us. We got very good at filling out forms, matching keywords, and shaping our work to fit the constraints of tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, QuickBooks, Squarespace, and Instagram.
We learned how to adapt ourselves to software. What we didn’t do was stop to ask a a couple of different questions:
If you could redesign this tool from the ground up, made specifically for you, what would that look like?
What if every document, spreadsheet, email, and workflow you’ve ever created could train technology on your specific needs?
If web2 tech taught us how to turn databases into workflows, then AI is teaching us what comes next: How to make sense of messier, more human information.
No matter how many blog posts or LinkedIn think pieces you read on AI adoption, this isn’t a shift you can understand intellectually. You have to engage with it. Experiential learning.
That’s what makes hackathons so powerful. They create a collective moment of upskilling, tapping into the peer-to-peer nature of learning while building a shared vocabulary and a safe space to experiment.
Some companies respond by tracking AI usage and mandating more of it. But that’s a bit like trying to motivate students to learn by threatening a pop quiz. (As any teacher knows, compliance doesn’t exactly unlock intrinsic motivation...)
What I’ve seen instead is this: People adopt AI fastest when they have a reason to build. One tied to a problem they personally care about solving.
That’s why some of the most powerful first builds I’ve seen aren’t work-related at all. I’ve watched people create career coaches to guide them through tough moments, or mini-apps to motivate their kindergarteners to practice piano.
All it takes is one “aha” moment. One realization that a problem squarely in your domain is also one you can solve yourself with AI. As organizational leaders today, it’s your job to coach your team into discovering what that “magic aha moment” will be for them. After you do, I bet they’ll be a lot more motivated to follow your lead and pick up new tools at work.
For me, that moment came last year when I realized I could use AI to help my kids experience museums in an entirely new way, through age-specific, AI-generated audio stories. For you, it will be something else entirely.
An AI hackathon isn’t about shipping a perfect product. It’s about learning how to see your own work as something you can shape with AI and getting an “at bat” at building something small from end-to-end. And then (if you’re brave enough), doing a real-time demo live in front of your peers.
This the start of what it feels like to reclaim a little bit of technological agency.
And as many of my most AI-native developer friends will tell you, that feeling is addictive. For the first time, you’re given permission to experiment, play, and build. Not by someone else’s rules, but by your own.
If you’re AI-curious and hope to catalyze a Build First mindset of AI adoption to your team or organization, let’s talk.
1 comment
Hackathons aren't just for engineers anymore Last week, we hosted our first Build First company-wide hackathon. 300 people from one company (across all functional domains) all built something from 0-MVP in just a 2.5 hour build session. This is the best way to learn. And it's a ton of fun too. If you work at an organization that might benefit from something like this...hit me up. We're taking bookings.. :) https://hardmodefirst.xyz/from-software-user-to-maker-why-ai-hackathons-work