Hackaton is Demant’s global innovation competition, aimed at fostering new ideas and solutions through technology and innovative solutions. 
 

In November, Demant celebrated the Hackaton Finalist Event, a global competition that underscores innovation as one of the driving forces of the Group. This year’s edition was focused on creating innovative solutions for Demant’s Hearing Care business area to enhance the value of products and services for both Hearing Care Professionals (HCPs) and users. In this context, the participants were challenged to use the Google Cloud Platform technologies and its AI capabilities to deliver working prototypes aimed at shaping the future of Hearing Care. 

Out of the thirteen participating teams, five standout projects were selected to advance to the Final event, where they were presented to a jury panel of senior leaders at Demant. 

The winning idea
The winning project, “Hearing Care End User Voice Bot”, developed by Thomas Kaulberg, Senior Principal Enterprise Architect at Demant, was recognized for its creative application of AI technology to solve a real-world challenge.

Thomas’s solution reimagines the traditional chatbot by enabling speech-based interactions, making it particularly accessible for elderly users and praised by the jury for addressing a clear need.  

“The idea came from my 81-year-old father,” Thomas explained. “He finds typing on a smartphone difficult but has no problem speaking or listening. I wanted to create a tool that would simplify communication for users like him, while also providing a better support experience.”

Thomas hopes the project will pave the way for integrating more AI-driven solutions to benefit Demant customers and hearing aid users. 

“AI tools will come in different forms and provide different usage experiences to meet user needs. I am sure voice-bots will also play a role in this landscape and my hope is that this submission could give us some experience with this type of AI solution”, he concludes.