MICROSOFT BUILD AI 2026
Microsoft
📌 About the Event
Microsoft Build AI is a highly competitive, execution focused hackathon tailored exclusively for experienced working professionals in India. Running entirely online for 8 weeks, this sprint moves past high-level ideation to challenge engineers to deploy production-grade, resilient solutions using the Microsoft AI Stack.
ℹ️ PORTAL OVERVIEW
- Format: 100% Online (Hosted on HackerEarth).
- Target Audience: Professionals with 3+ years of work experience (India Only).
- Team Size: 1 to 3 members (Strictly 1 team per participant).
- Prize Pool: ₹6,00,000 cash rewards + global showcase exposure.
- Core Tech Stack: Azure AI Services, Azure AI Foundry, GitHub Copilot, Copilot Studio, Semantic Kernel, and AutoGen.
🎯 THE 6 CHALLENGE TRACKS
- Theme 01: AI at Work (Productivity Reimagined): Building smart assistants, knowledge-sharing hubs, or automated workflows that reduce manual friction and cut through chaotic corporate communications.
- Theme 02: Security (The Agentic Future): Developing defense and monitoring architectures to protect autonomous systems against emerging threat vectors like prompt injection, adversarial misuse, and identity spoofing.
- Theme 03: Agentic Web: Engineering autonomous agents capable of navigating messy interfaces, pulling web data, and executing multi-step operations without human intervention.
- Theme 04: Data & Insights: Architecting analytics pipelines that ingest raw, unstructured data and output deep, automated pattern discoveries.
- Theme 05: Agent Swarms: Orchestrating multi-agent environments (planners, retrievers, validators) to coordinate and execute complex, distributed workflows.
- Theme 06: Production Function (AI-Native CI/CD): Rewriting the software engineering lifecycle with automated testing, self-adapting quality gates, and project management tools built from scratch for AI-led delivery.
📅 CRITICAL TIMELINE & MILESTONES
The sprint is currently active in its primary execution cycle:
| Phase | Milestone | Window |
| 01 | Registration & Portal Launch | May 5, 2026 |
| 02 | Ideation & Building Phase | May 5 – June 7, 2026 (Active) |
| 03 | Evaluation Period | June 8 – June 18, 2026 |
| 04 | Finalists Announced | June 19, 2026 |
| 05 | Grand Finale Pitch | Late June 2026 |
📝 MANDATORY DELIVERABLES & GUIDELINES
All submissions must provide four distinct artifacts to avoid immediate disqualification:
- Project Deck (PDF): Max 10 slides detailing the problem, systemic architecture, and AI integration flow. (Named:
TeamName_Deck.pdf). - Demo Video (Max 3 Mins): A live prototype walkthrough uploaded as an unlisted YouTube link. Slideshows or pitch-only videos will be rejected.
- GitHub Repository: A public repository featuring clean code and a detailed markdown README covering setups, dependencies, and team roles.
- Live Interaction Link: A functioning deployment URL with test credentials that remains accessible for at least 30 days post-deadline.
📊 JUDGING CRITERIA
- System Architecture & Engineering Quality (25%)
- AI Integration & Intelligence Design (25%)
- UX, Communication & Presentation (15%)
- Prototype Readiness & Scalability (15%)
- Problem Depth, Market Understanding & Fit (20%)