In brief: Digital Jersey’s third 48-hour AI Hackathon has concluded with a pharmacy supply chain platform taking the overall prize. Fifteen teams competed for a £10,000 award, producing prototypes tackling everything from medicine shortages to the preservation of the Jèrriais language.
Fifteen Teams, One Weekend, One Big Cheque
Developers, designers, entrepreneurs and first-timers gathered on a Friday evening for Digital Jersey’s latest 48-hour AI Hackathon, the third such weekend-long event focused on artificial intelligence, following a similar competition last year and a Junior Hackathon for younger innovators earlier in 2026. With a £10,000 prize on the line, the brief was deliberately left open, inviting participants to tackle any challenge facing the island, from healthcare and financial services to the visitor economy.
Industry mentors supported the teams throughout the weekend, and participants were given access to open data sets to assist their development work. By Sunday, all fifteen teams were presenting their creations to an expert judging panel. The range of problems addressed was impressively broad, according to Bailiwick Express, covering OECD Common Reporting Standards, financial advice, recruitment, traffic planning and support for disabled visitors.
The Winners: Medicines, Mèrriais and the Future of Jersey
The overall winner was Maria Madalyna’s project, Anlgma, a supply chain management platform for pharmacies designed to predict medicine shortages and ensure Jersey patients can continue to access treatment. It is the kind of practical, unglamorous problem that rarely makes headlines but matters enormously to anyone who has ever been told their prescription cannot be filled. Winning the overall prize and that £10,000 pot, it was judged the most compelling solution of the weekend.
Two further projects were recognised in special categories. Charlie Morgan’s JerriAI, a friendly AI language partner helping islanders learn and practise the island’s endangered Jèrriais language, took the Best Working Prototype award. It is a quietly significant entry: Jèrriais has been in decline for generations, and the idea that artificial intelligence might help reverse that trend is both novel and rather heartening for anyone who cares about Jersey’s distinct cultural identity.
The Most Innovative Use of AI award went to Mark McNally for CodeRock, a simulator of potential futures for Jersey that uses AI to identify solutions to challenges the island may face down the line. Think of it as a crystal ball with better data and fewer mystical claims.
What the Hackathon Says About Jersey’s Tech Ambitions
Charlie Miles, innovation manager at Digital Jersey, was enthusiastic about the breadth of participation. “Our latest AI Hackathon brought together a broad spectrum of people, all looking to make a difference to our island using AI,” he said. “It was inspiring to see so many great ideas go from concept to prototype over just 48 hours.”
Miles also made a point worth dwelling on: “The projects demonstrated that AI doesn’t provide the ideas; people do. Technology now gives local talent the ability to turn their knowledge and creativity into practical solutions that tackle real challenges and help shape the island’s future.”
It is a sensible corrective to the breathless hype that surrounds artificial intelligence in much public discourse. The hackathon format, with its tight deadline and real-world focus, tends to cut through the noise and produce ideas grounded in genuine local need rather than theoretical possibility. A platform predicting medicine shortages in a small island jurisdiction with limited supply chain resilience is exactly the sort of application that could have tangible benefits for ordinary residents.
Source: Bailiwick Express
