AI solutions for the public sector created at the first Estonia–Ukraine joint hackathon in Kyiv

The three-day AI/GovTech Hackathon, organised by the Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV) and Civitta, brought together more than 80 IT and AI experts, developers, and company representatives from Estonia and Ukraine. With ESTDEV's support, representatives from five Estonian companies attended the hackathon, while individuals from the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA) participated as mentors. 

The teams' objective was to develop AI-based solutions addressing key challenges facing Ukraine's public sector today, including proactive child rights monitoring, AI-powered analytics for state registries, tools to improve the quality of procurement documentation, a cross-border business assistant for Ukraine and Estonia, and solutions for identifying vulnerabilities in government software and strengthening cyber resilience across digital infrastructure. 

"Estonia’s strength lies in systematic digital development, while Ukraine’s lies in the rapid and flexible implementation of solutions. Joint projects like this, will help strengthen practical cooperation between the two countries and create solutions that have a real impact," said Lauri Luht, Government CIO of Estonia. 

Vitaly Balashov, Ukraine's deputy minister for Digital Development, noted that Ukraine has already established the foundations of a digital state, and the next step is to embed artificial intelligence into public services. 

"Several years ago, Ukraine drew inspiration from Estonia's experience in building a digital state. Today, we are jointly creating the next chapter of this story — a state where artificial intelligence helps make decisions, anticipate risks, and make services more convenient for people. The AI/GovTech Hackathon is a vivid example of how international partnership can be translated into practical technological solutions," Balashov said at the opening ceremony. 

"It’s great to see so many Estonian companies here in Kyiv to work side by side with their Ukrainian colleagues. This is the best way to build contacts, long-lasting partnerships, and reach meaningful results, that have a real impact," said Toomas Tirs, ESTDEV's country manager in Ukraine. 

Winning solutions aim to improve public procurement quality and government cybersecurity 

First place was awarded to Team Strimco, which presented AI-based tools designed to improve the quality of public procurement documentation. In the long term, such a tool could help improve the quality of tender documentation, reduce the number of technical errors, and promote more competitive and efficient procurement. 

Second place went to Team Red Swat, which developed an AI-based system for detecting and eliminating vulnerabilities in government software code. In the long term, this approach could help government institutions respond more quickly to cyber risks, increase the resilience of digital infrastructure, and strengthen the protection of critical government services. 

The jury also awarded a special joint prize to two teams. The solutions developed by the joint team of the Estonian company ADM Interactive and the Ukrainian company Eleks, as well as by the Ukrainian team Trembita, demonstrated significant potential for continued cooperation. With funding from ESTDEV, the teams will continue working until the end of 2026 to develop a pilot software solution that can help identify and prevent children and young people from falling into at-risk groups. 

Strengthening Estonia’s commitment to cooperating with Ukraine 

The Estonian participants said the experience exceeded all expectations, provided numerous new ideas and contacts and further motivated them to contribute to cooperating with counterparts in Ukraine. 

Although the hackathon focused on artificial intelligence, Priit Oja, an Estonian member of the winning Team Strimco, said that for him, the keyword "Ukraine" was even more important than AI. 

"Ukraine is very close to my heart, and my goal is to help as much as possible. That's why I immediately agreed to participate when the opportunity arose," said Oja, who works at the Estonian software company SRINI. 

Regarding the solution his team developed, Oja believes it could be successfully implemented in both Ukraine and Estonia. 

"During our work, we compared how things currently function in Ukraine and Estonia and considered what could be improved. In fact, all of the teams created solutions that offered some new value. Cooperation within our team went very smoothly, and I think we found a really great solution," he said. 

Hackathon participant Rain Tüür noted that although it initially took his team longer than others to form, they succeeded in creating a very open and positive team atmosphere. 

"Our mentors were extremely helpful in helping us identify the core focus of our project. But honestly, what mattered even more to me were the new contacts and relationships with Ukrainians that emerged during those days," said Tüür, who works as a lector for the "Vali-IT!" programme at BCS Training. 

Tüür added that participating in the hackathon gave him valuable experience in returning to the role of a learner. 

"Our team consisted of people with very different and highly valuable skills, from whom I gained many ideas and a great deal of inspiration for developing my own abilities. Being a participant rather than a trainer was very eye-opening and made me reflect on how I teach things myself," he added. 

Building new connections and strengthening existing partnerships proved to be one of the hackathon's greatest added values beyond the competition itself. 

"We formed our team from members of our Estonian team and employees of our Ukrainian partner company, Eleks. We have been collaborating for a long time, but this was our first opportunity to actually come here to Ukraine," said Riho Pihelpuu, CEO of the Estonian software company ADM Interactive. 

"We have completed many projects together, but this was a great opportunity to meet face-to-face. I really appreciated our team's synergy. Estonians contributed their expertise, while I was able to support the team with my experience working on Ukrainian public-sector projects. Combining our skills and knowledge was the most exciting part," said Oleksandr Moklovych from the Ukrainian software company Eleks. 

According to Pihelpuu, cooperation with Ukraine provides an ideal opportunity for Estonian companies to refine and scale their solutions. 

"Estonia has smart and effective solutions, but our country is much smaller in scale. By combining those solutions with Ukraine's size, strong engineering education and the innovation capacity, this cooperation can be highly beneficial for both sides," Pihelpuu said. 

The AI/GovTech Hackathon is organised by CIVITTA and Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU and the Estonian Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, and supported by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Global Government Technology Centre Kyiv.