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73% of companies prioritize AI over all other digital investments, with 90% of business leaders applying AI to tackle aspects of operational resilience. The possibilities of AI are endless, but executives must understand its multifaceted approach and holistic grasp, spanning technical, organizational, regulatory, societal, and philosophical aspects.

Your Guide to Generative AI | Understanding Business Use Cases and Current Examples of Generative AI Application

Artificial Intelligence
73% of companies prioritize AI over all other digital investments, with 90% of business leaders applying AI to tackle aspects of operational resilience. The possibilities of AI are endless, but executives must understand its multifaceted approach and holistic grasp, spanning technical, organizational, regulatory, societal, and philosophical aspects.
The AWS Global Gen AI Hackathon 2024 brought together 1,664 participants from 41 countries to tackle real-world industry challenges, ranging from energy management to vehicle automation. This event not only fostered innovation through Gen AI but also empowered nearly 2,000 employees with new skills, earning AWS cloud training badges. By combining diverse expertise and healthy competition, participants developed 62 proof-of-concept solutions with the potential to transform industries. Learn how hackathons are becoming powerful tools for driving corporate strategy, upskilling employees, and delivering lasting business impact.

Hackathon-Led Growth Extends Beyond 2 Weeks: The Ripple Effect of Capgemini’s AWS Global Gen AI Hackathon

Case Studies
At Onova, our interns are more than just temporary team members; they are integral to our culture of innovation, learning, and collaboration. Each intern's journey here is unique, shaped by diverse projects, challenges, and the strong support system we provide. Below, we share the experiences of three interns — Sara Guo, Riya Kumar, and Matthew Liu — who reflect on their time at Onova, offering insights into the opportunities, growth, and memories they gained.

Interning at a Fast-Paced Tech Startup: Real Experiences from Onova’s Innovation Consulting Team and Product Studio

Culture
Case Studies
Artificial Intelligence
Playbook
Culture
Trends
In today’s fast-evolving landscape, Generative AI is proving to be a game-changer across industries, from energy to aerospace. But as powerful as AI may be, achieving widespread adoption and tangible business outcomes still poses significant challenges.For Capgemini, AWS, and their innovation consultancy partner Onova, hackathons have proven to be a powerful accelerator for AI adoption, skill development, and innovation. By embracing a hackathon-led growth model, Capgemini and AWS recently embarked on a groundbreaking Global Gen AI Hackathon, focusing on targeted, industry-specific use cases that can drive real-world value.

Hackathon-Led Growth: How Capgemini and AWS are Accelerating Generative AI Adoption Through Large-Scale Virtual Hackathons

Case Studies
The AWS Global Gen AI Hackathon 2024 brought together 1,664 participants from 41 countries to tackle real-world industry challenges, ranging from energy management to vehicle automation. This event not only fostered innovation through Gen AI but also empowered nearly 2,000 employees with new skills, earning AWS cloud training badges. By combining diverse expertise and healthy competition, participants developed 62 proof-of-concept solutions with the potential to transform industries. Learn how hackathons are becoming powerful tools for driving corporate strategy, upskilling employees, and delivering lasting business impact.

Hackathon-Led Growth Extends Beyond 2 Weeks: The Ripple Effect of Capgemini’s AWS Global Gen AI Hackathon

Case Studies

Pioneering Innovation: The First Capgemini Microsoft Hackathon – The Largest Virtual Private Hackathon in the World

Case Studies
Destination Digital is designed to immerse participants in new and exciting experiences. This year, participants were introduced to a variety of challenges, a new event format, and their assigned team members and mentors.

The 4 Stages of Being a BMO DD24 Innovator

Case Studies
This year's Destination Digital event was a milestone, held at the brand-new BMO Place in downtown Toronto and BMO Tower in Chicago. To make the event more inclusive and manageable, we opted for a two-day format instead of the traditional overnight sprint. This change was pivotal in allowing participants to fully engage in the activities without the added stress and fatigue associated with an all-nighter. With many fun activities like yoga and rocket-building, participants were able to relax and work hard during the innovation sprint. We ensured that all participants could contribute their best ideas and energy!

Fostering Innovation Culture at BMO Destination Digital 2024

Case Studies
Our primary goal in designing the learning curriculum for Destination Digital 2024 was inclusivity. The T&O group at BMO encompasses many employees of varied roles, many of whom may not have a technical background or familiarity with the technology tools involved in the event. This diversity in technical and business backgrounds, while a strength, also posed a challenge in ensuring that all participants could get the most out of the learning curriculum workshops during Destination Digital 2024.

Building An Effective Learning Curriculum at BMO's Internal Innovation Sprint

Case Studies
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Thought Leadership: Hackathon-Led Growth for Rapid Business Expansion

Artificial Intelligence
We’re big proponents of hackathon-led growth – leveraging these dynamic, rapid innovation events as a key facilitator in capability building, employee engagement, and upskilling at scale. In response to the launch of Google's Gemini, Capgemini seized this opportunity to leverage hackathon-led growth, and commissioned us, Onova, to host a two-week hackathon with two main objectives: (1) Upskilling hundreds of their developers on Gemini capabilities, and (2) developing client-ready enterprise applications on top of Gemini.

Building the First Enterprise Use-Cases on Google’s Gemini Model

Artificial Intelligence
We view the GenAI stack as a four-dimensional offering to large enterprises looking to transform their organization. It’s a seamless combination of intersecting players that all unite to provide high-performing business units with the capabilities they need to succeed and thrive on generative AI.

The GenAI Stack - How Enterprises Should Take Advantage of the GenAI Revolution

Artificial Intelligence
In the landscape of conversational AI, particularly with the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), a prevalent issue is the occurrence of "hallucinations." These are instances where the AI asserts incorrect information with unwarranted confidence. Hallucinations in this context are not just occasional missteps; they are a recurrent challenge that underscores the limitations of these advanced systems. AI hallucinations can be caused by various factors, including insufficient, outdated, or low-quality training data, overfitting, use of idioms or slang expressions, and adversarial attacks. These errors present a complex problem: they can undermine the trustworthiness of LLMs. Imagine a tool that's incredibly resourceful, yet occasionally presents fiction as fact. This is the current reality with conversational AIs—they are powerful, yet imperfect, particularly in discerning and relaying verifiable truths.

The State of Hallucinations in Conversational LLMs, and What To Do About It

Artificial Intelligence
In today's fast-paced technological landscape, the challenge isn't just keeping up—it's knowing where to focus your efforts. While the concept of an idea sprint is powerful, a GenAI Idea Sprint goes beyond mere ideation. It serves as a specialized workshop that aligns leadership and uncovers strategic opportunities in the realm of Generative AI (GenAI).

Navigating the GenAI Landscape: A Blueprint for Strategic Opportunity Identification

Artificial Intelligence
It’s crucial that human operators retain control and understanding of AI operations, to mitigate risks and align the technology with ethical standards and regulations.That is the limitation of GenAI solutions, and that’s why it’s crucial to implement a human-in-the-loop for the foreseeable future.

The Limitation of GenAI Solutions | It’s Critical to Implement a Human in the Loop

Artificial Intelligence
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Organizing a hackathon is not just about creating a remarkable event—it is a crucial step toward establishing a thriving innovation ecosystem within a company. It is a journey that requires dedication, collaboration, and the involvement of numerous individuals throughout the organization.

Beyond the Finish Line: Post-Hackathon Idea Selection and Implementation

Playbooks
Creating a customized learning curriculum for an internal corporate hackathon is a vital element in maximizing the event's effectiveness. It not only promotes continuous skill development but also creates future growth opportunities for all participants.

Upskilling for the Future: Designing a Tailored Hackathon Learning Curriculum

Playbooks
A hackathon is a whirlwind of activity packed into 24 or 30 hours. In this blog, we'll delve into the key elements that make a hackathon truly unforgettable for participants.

Reimagining the Hackathon Experience: What to Expect During a 24-Hour Supercharged Hackathon

Playbooks
Our ultimate hackathon playbook is your one-stop resource for everything you will ever need to know on “how to run a Hackathon”. This playbook will guide you from the initial stages of pre-event branding and setup, all the way to the actual implementation and development of the most promising Hackathon solutions.

The Ultimate Onova Playbook on "How to run a hackathon"

Playbooks
Creating a captivating and meaningful brand for your hackathon is a vital step in capturing the attention and fostering excitement among participants. The brand sets the stage for the entire event, providing a clear focus and tone that resonates with your intended audience.

Branding and Marketing Your Hackathon in a Truly Unforgettable Way

Playbooks
The significance of a well-articulated innovation challenge cannot be overstated. It sets the tone for the Hackathon and serves as a compass guiding the direction of innovation within the company. However, crafting these challenges requires more than a cursory effort — it demands a thoughtful and organized approach. This process involves gathering key insights from business leaders and experts, and pinpointing the most significant opportunity areas or challenges facing your business. It's not just about identifying problems — it's about understanding where the greatest potential for innovation lies.

Mastering the Art of Crafting Strong Innovation Challenges: A Comprehensive Guide

Playbooks
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You wouldn’t normally think that a creative team name could rewrite the trajectory of someone’s career. But for Charles Wilkins, this was the catalyst for an unexpected career shift. It started out as a lighthearted touch during BMO’s Destination Digital event: a quirky, pun-filled team name that was featured on the event’s Viva Engage channel. Little did Charles know that this detail would capture the attention of his director. With over 400 employees involved, across Technology & Operations, Charles’ knack for creative designs and infusing an element of fun into his work kindled something larger — a career transformation of his role within one of North America’s largest banks.

A Career-Changing Odyssey Like No Otter! 🦦 How Destination Digital Transformed Two Careers at BMO 🚀

Culture
At Onova, our interns are more than just temporary team members; they are integral to our culture of innovation, learning, and collaboration. Each intern's journey here is unique, shaped by diverse projects, challenges, and the strong support system we provide. Below, we share the experiences of three interns — Sara Guo, Riya Kumar, and Matthew Liu — who reflect on their time at Onova, offering insights into the opportunities, growth, and memories they gained.

Interning at a Fast-Paced Tech Startup: Real Experiences from Onova’s Innovation Consulting Team and Product Studio

Culture
Corporate hackathons have emerged as a powerful tool for innovation, serving as intensive, time-bound events where cross-functional teams collaborate to solve complex challenges. If you've heard of a hackathon but are unsure about what specific value or application it would bring to your company, then this article is designed for you. We’ll delve into four compelling reasons why organizations should invest in running an internal hackathon (expanding on original insights from our ultimate hackathon playbook).

Unlocking Corporate Innovation Potential: 4 Transformative Reasons to Run a Hackathon

Culture
At Onova, we firmly believe that the most impactful ideas often emerge outside a traditional office environment. That's why cottage sprints have become a cornerstone of our company culture. Now in its third iteration, this unique retreat has evolved into an indispensable part of our strategic planning process and internal innovation initiatives. From the evolution of our very own hackathon management platform Earth to the integration of new AI tools in our marketing strategies, cottage sprints have had a pivotal impact on the productivity and growth of our startup. But what exactly is a Cottage Sprint, and what makes these team retreats so special?

Innovation Meets Connection: Onova's Third and Latest Cottage Sprint

Culture
At first glance, the technology and software-based world of corporate hackathons might seem worlds apart from the intense physicality, drama and action that we see unfold on the courts of Flushing Meadows in New York, at the US Open. Yet, beneath the surface of it all, they share striking similarities, both serving as platforms where competition and pressure can help forge, shape and upskill top-tier talent, in addition to developing game-changing innovations that truly revolutionize businesses and industries.

The Power of Competition in Driving Innovation: The Link between Grand Slam Tennis and Corporate Hackathons

Culture
Finding a first-year internship can be an intimidating experience. After all, why would a professional company willingly invest time, effort, and money into an 18-year-old? When I embarked on my search for internships, I pondered, "What unique value could I offer to a company?" Graphic design became that defining factor. So, when Onova humorously posted an MS Paint meme parody stating, "We're seeking a graphic designer," I eagerly applied.

From Graphic Design to Beyond I A Journey of Growth and Interdisciplinary Exploration in My First-Year Internship

Culture
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Disney is a brand that is synonymous with innovation. Since its founding in 1923, the company has been at the forefront of entertainment and media, constantly pushing boundaries and creating new experiences for audiences around the world.

Disney: Innovation from Within | How you can learn to build an innovation culture from one of the greatest companies

Trends
This blog post covers blockchain technology and its relationship with financial services. The convergence of these two industries has created a new market segment known as decentralized finance (DeFi).

The Weakest Link in the (Block)chain: How Billions are Stolen from the World’s Most Transparent Financial System

Trends
With low barriers to entry, the beauty product industry is growing at an unprecedented rate. Alongside growth that has empowered consumers and business owners to create new products comes an environmental cost of mass production that often goes unnoticed. We interviewed Laura Burget, Co-Founder of Three Ships Beauty, and Dion Hughes, Co-Founder of HiBAR, to discuss sustainability in the beauty industry.

Can The Beauty Industry Address Its Big Sustainability Problem?

Trends
The beauty industry is valued at just over $511 billion in 2021 and is expected to exceed $716 billion by 2025. Throughout COVID-19, a period of time where many retailers have been struggling, launching a beauty brand has become one of the most popular and profitable business opportunities.

The Top 6 Beauty Industry Trends That Shaped This Decade

Trends
In today’s world, more and more people are striving to be online personalities and build a brand for themselves. This undoubtedly leads to a higher demand for content creation tools or better yet, content creation ecosystems.

The Opportunity for Creator Ecosystems

Trends
There are now 2 million active podcast shows – a huge jump from only 500 000 back in February 2018. Without a doubt, the world of audio is on the rise as this trend seems likely to continue thriving in the coming years.

The Rise of Podcasts

Trends
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