Ukraine and Estonia are building AI solutions for the government of the future: winners of the AI/GovTech Hackathon announced
On 18 June, the three-day international AI/GovTech Hackathon Ukraine-Estonia concluded in Kyiv, bringing together AI engineers, developers, startups, entrepreneurs, and GovTech professionals from Ukraine and Estonia to co-create technology solutions addressing real challenges in the public sector.
The hackathon formed part of a broader cooperation framework between Estonia and Ukraine in digital transformation and artificial intelligence, stemming from a cooperation agreement between the Estonian Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. The agreement aims to develop practical AI solutions for the public sector and engage Estonian and Ukrainian entrepreneurs, technology companies, and expert communities in this process.
In his opening remarks, Vitalii Balashov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, noted that Ukraine has already established the foundations of a digital state, and the next step is to embed artificial intelligence into public services. In this context, the AI/GovTech Hackathon served as a platform for identifying solutions that could shape the future development of government 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”, said
Vitalii Balashov
According to Lauri Luht, Government CIO of Estonia, the partnership between Ukraine and Estonia has significantly deepened in recent years and already spans defence, digital transformation, and cybersecurity. The next step, he stressed, is to further strengthen cooperation between technology companies, entrepreneurs, and expert communities from both countries to jointly develop innovative public-sector solutions.
“These partnerships make it possible to combine the strengths and expertise of our two countries and jointly build new government solutions. I believe that Ukraine and Estonia can show the world how artificial intelligence can be used to create public value, strengthen transparency, and advance democracy”, said
Lauri Luht
During the matchmaking session, 86 participants from Ukraine and Estonia formed 17 mixed teams. This format enabled participants to combine diverse expertise, practical experience, and perspectives from two leading digital ecosystems to jointly develop solutions with the potential to be scaled and integrated into public services in both countries.
Representatives of public institutions from both countries defined five challenge cases for the AI/GovTech Hackathon: 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.
The teams were supported by an international group of mentors, including experts in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital governance, GovTech, product development, and entrepreneurship from Ukraine and Estonia, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA).
During the final pitching session, teams presented working prototypes of their solutions, demonstrating how artificial intelligence can help governments operate faster, more efficiently, and more proactively.
The solutions were evaluated by an international jury comprising: Lauri Luht, Government CIO of Estonia; Roman Kyslyi, Chief AI Officer of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, CEO WINWIN AI Center of Excellence; Arturas Matšenas, International E-Governance Projects Manager at ESTDEV; Nataliia Nestor, Deputy Director General for Software Operations at the National Information Systems State Enterprise; Paavo Kuiv, Cybersecurity Specialist CERT-EE; Oleksandr Vinnytskyi, Deputy CEO for IT at Prozorro; Tymur Akhmedov, Representative of the Coordination Center for Family Upbringing and Child Care; Iurii Volodymyr Blavt, Partner at Civitta and Co-founder of Challenger Accelerator.
Following the final pitches, the jury selected the winners of the AI/GovTech Hackathon Ukraine-Estonia.
First place and €7,500 went to the Strimco team, which worked on a challenge from Prozorro and presented AI-based tools designed to improve the quality of public procurement documentation.
The solution automatically analyzes procurement documentation and identifies potential errors, ambiguous requirements, or risky provisions even before the procurement procedure begins. 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 and €7,500 went to the Red Swat team, which developed an AI-based system for detecting and eliminating vulnerabilities in government software code.
The solution uses artificial intelligence to automatically detect potential vulnerabilities in government software and generate recommendations for addressing them. 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.
A Special Jury Award was jointly presented to the Estonian team ADM and the Ukrainian team Trimbita. Working independently on the proactive child rights monitoring challenge, the teams proposed complementary approaches to addressing the problem.
Recognising the potential of combining these solutions, the jury decided to support the teams in jointly developing a unified tool for early risk detection and strengthening child protection systems.
According to representatives of the organisers – the Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV) and Civitta – the main value of the AI/GovTech Hackathon lies in combining real public-sector needs, international partnership, and technological expertise to create solutions with practical implementation potential.
“For ESTDEV, digitalisation and cybersecurity are among our priority areas of work in Ukraine. Yet the most valuable aspect of this cooperation is its mutual nature – we are not only sharing our expertise, but also learning a great deal from Ukraine. The greatest value of the AI/GovTech Hackathon Ukraine-Estonia lies in the new connections it creates between Ukrainian and Estonian companies, entrepreneurs, and technology teams”, said
Toomas Tirs
“The most valuable outcome of initiatives like this is not only the prototypes created, but also the new relationships between teams that can evolve into long-term cooperation and joint products. This is how international partnerships are transformed into concrete solutions and new opportunities for both countries”, said
Ivanna Didur
The hackathon’s partners at Global Government Technology Centre Kyiv expressed confidence that the solutions developed during the event have the potential to move beyond ideas and prototypes toward practical implementation.
“At Global Government Technology Centre Kyiv, we believe in the power of open innovation and that the best solutions emerge when governments, technology teams, and international partners work together”, said
Kateryna Frolova
Following the hackathon, teams will continue engaging with partners and representatives of public institutions to further develop the most promising solutions. The organisers expect that the connections and partnerships established during the event will become the foundation for new joint Ukrainian-Estonian GovTech and AI initiatives, while selected solutions may proceed to further testing and potential integration into public services in both countries.
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.
