Pursuant to Decision No. 1185/QD-UBND dated April 6, 2021 of the City People’s Committee on approving the Program to support the development of enterprises and information technology – communication products in the period 2020-2030; Plan No. 3567/KH-UBND dated May 20, 2025 of the City People’s Committee related to the implementation of activities to support innovation and development of information technology – communication products in 2025, the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City presides over the organization of the Ho Chi Minh City Artificial Intelligence Challenge 2025 (AI Challenge 2025). The contest is organized in coordination with Ho Chi Minh City National University, Department of Education and Training, Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union, City Information Technology Association and the Center for Youth Science and Technology Development as the standing unit of the Organizing Committee.

Closing Ceremony and Awards Presentation of the AI Challenge 2025

On the morning of November 27, 2025, the Award Ceremony of the Ho Chi Minh City Artificial Intelligence Challenge 2025 was held at the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Creative Entrepreneurship. At the ceremony, 41 excellent teams from both groups were awarded prizes, of which Group A had 29 teams (01 First prize, 01 Second prize, 01 Third prize, 05 Encouragement prizes, 21 Potential prizes) and Group B had 12 teams (01 First prize, 01 Second prize, 01 Third prize, 03 Encouragement prizes, 06 Potential prizes).

Speech by Mr. Vo Minh Thanh – Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology – Head of the Organizing Committee

The Ho Chi Minh City AI Challenge is an annual competition organized since 2020, an important initiative to promote research and application of artificial intelligence (AI) in practical fields, supporting the construction of smart cities. The competition has created an attractive academic playground for young people and students, and from 2023, it will be extended to high school students. Over the years, the competition has constantly innovated, expanded its scale, diversified its topics, and improved its quality, clearly reflecting the development of the AI ​​field in Vietnam.

AI Challenge 2025 is implemented in two groups including Group A for students and youth and Group B for high school students. The main topic in 2025 is “Virtual assistant supporting information query from multimedia large data warehouse”. In the final round, there were 80 teams participating, including 56 teams in Group A and 24 teams in Group B. The representative of the OpenCubee group won first prize in the competition in Group A, contestant Mai Vinh Nguyen – a student majoring in artificial intelligence at the University of Information Technology, City, happily shared“The main purpose of coming to the AI ​​Challenge this year is to learn and improve ourselves. We did not expect to win first prize, which was our first year participating in the competition. I feel very happy and also somewhat relieved, because the rankings were released at noon and we were quite far from the top, so we have made a spectacular comeback. The purpose of our project is to create a system that helps users access videos and images in a large amount of data. I think it is a very practical and necessary goal for society.”

Awarding First Prize to Groups A and B of the AI Challenge 2025

Awarding Second Prize to Groups A and B of the AI Challenge 2025

Awarding Third Prize to Groups A and B of the AI Challenge 2025

Closing Ceremony and Awards Presentation of the AI Challenge 2025

Awarding the Encouragement Prize to Groups A and B of the AI Challenge 2025

The Ho Chi Minh City Artificial Intelligence Challenge 2025 has shown the remarkable growth of the AI ​​research and application community in Vietnam, especially among students. The products and solutions participating in the competition not only demonstrate high technology content, but also open up the possibility of practical application in communication, information management and serving urban life.

The Organizing Committee acknowledged and highly appreciated the efforts of all contestants, accompanying units, experts and judges who contributed to the successful season, and affirmed that they will continue to expand the scale and raise the level of the competition in the coming years in the direction of promoting innovation and digital transformation of the City. Representative of the Organizing Committee, Mr. Vo Minh Thanh – Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City emphasized “We also hope to continue to inspire passion for research and application of artificial intelligence, this is a field that in recent times in the world and in Vietnam we have also focused on and thus will continue to train human resources for this field, for the City in particular and Vietnam in general in the near future. And so through this competition, we also hope that the contestants will continue to nurture their dreams and will become experts in this field in the near future.”

After 6 years of organization, the competition has attracted strong participation from the community, with the number of teams increasing from 217 teams in 2020 to 797 teams in 2025, the total number of contestants reaching nearly 4,000 people from more than 200 units at home and abroad. In particular, the expansion of the target group of high school students from 2023 has contributed to raising awareness and early detection of young talents in the field of AI, while increasing the competitiveness between the teams. Intensive training sessions with guidance from domestic and international experts have helped contestants improve their skills and become more confident in the competition rounds.

In addition to the growth in scale, the competition also achieved many important achievements. Excellent entries were presented at the SoICT international conference, affirming the quality and stature of the event. The competition not only created practical application solutions but also contributed to building a vibrant AI community in Vietnam, connecting researchers, students and businesses. The total prize value of more than 1 billion VND along with opportunities to exchange and learn from experts has attracted great attention from society and young people.