Capital One India: Driving innovation with a country-wide Hackathon and AI Summit

The buzz around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) was palpable at the sprawling ballroom where more than 250 attendees gathered for the fifth edition of Pinnacle, the Capital One India AI Summit. The summit was the culmination of a month-long nationwide hackathon, Capital One Launchpad, which garnered a whopping 5,000+ registrations across India and brought together some of the finest technical minds exploring the AI landscape and building innovative solutions.

Capital One, which serves more than 100 million customers across a diverse set of businesses, was founded 25 years ago on the belief that no one should be locked out of the financial system. Dedicated to helping foster a world where everyone has an equal opportunity to prosper, Capital One India Launchpad, the flagship innovation challenge, provided a platform where bold ideas met real-world impact, powered by data and intelligence.

Launchpad: Hackathon for the Greater Good

Designed to engage, empower, and collaborate with the next generation of AI/ML innovators, Launchpad focused on one of India’s most vital sectors: agriculture, the backbone of the economy.

With a prize pool of Rs 12 lakh, it explored how AI-powered agentic prototypes and solutions could potentially empower farmers and other members of the agricultural sector to make more confident, timely, and informed decisions as they battle disparate challenges, including irregular weather patterns to soil density, every day on the field.

A diverse set of participants, from first-time coders to seasoned developers, participated in Launchpad and developed RAG-powered agentic AI solutions, bridging the gap between modern agricultural knowledge and farmers’ real-world needs by providing instant, personalized answers in a farmer’s local language.

Fourteen teams qualified as finalists and travelled to Capital One India’s office in Bengaluru and displayed their innovations to an esteemed panel of judges comprising the bank’s India and US leadership team and external members. Three teams were declared winners, and felicitated at the AI Summit, Pinnacle.

Pinnacle-AI Summit

The 5th edition of Pinnacle, the Capital One India AI Summit, convened a dynamic mix of tech leaders, pioneering researchers, and entrepreneurs to explore the future of AI and ML.

Held in Bengaluru, the summit kickstarted with a welcome address by Yatindra Nath, Managing Vice President, Capital One India. The keynote address was delivered virtually by Prem Natarajan, Executive Vice President, Chief Scientist and Head of Enterprise AI at Capital One US.

Speaker sessions delved into transformative topics such as AI and cybersecurity, building an AI-ready organization, dos and don’ts of building enterprise agents, AI developments and prospects, among others. From engaging speaker sessions and panel discussions to a Gemba walk, the summit fostered vibrant discussions and networking opportunities. It concluded with a prize distribution ceremony, felicitating the Launchpad winners.

As the day ended, the conversations around AI and ML gave way to a clearer takeaway: Capital One India’s determination to nurture an innovation ecosystem.