From Chatbots to Colleagues: AI Agents at RealityMine Hackathon

On 16–17 September, we’re running our 6th internal hackathon — and this year, the spotlight is on one of the most exciting frontiers in technology: AI agents. These are systems that don’t just answer your questions, but take action on your behalf. 

What do we mean by “AI agents”? 

Unlike traditional chatbots, which wait for instructions and respond, AI agents take things a step further. They can integrate with your tools, make decisions in context, and complete tasks — almost like a colleague working alongside you. 

Think of an agent that can: 

• Collate information from disparate systems and make a recommended course of action, for those on-call, middle of the night moments 

• Prepare release notes and updates product documentation from software builds 

• Perform automated testing on app releases by reading release notes and proactively exploring app features 

• Help onboarding of new staff by pulling information from disparate sources and providing personalised training material 

It’s the difference between talking to AI and having AI work alongside you. 

Why now? 

Until recently, AI was often siloed into narrow applications. But thanks to advances in infrastructure and standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP), it’s now possible to securely connect AI into a company’s systems, processes, and knowledge base. That opens the door to agents that are genuinely useful in the enterprise. 

Why a hackathon? 

Our hackathons give us space to step away from day-to-day delivery and experiment with new ideas. They’re about collaboration, creativity, and having fun while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. 

This year feels like the perfect moment to focus on AI agents — not only because the technology is ready, but because it helps us build a shared understanding of what AI can (and should) do inside our company. 

What’s next? 

We’ll be sharing highlights from the event — the best ideas, the lessons learned, and what they mean for the future of AI innovation at RealityMine. Stay tuned!

About the Author

Graham Dean is Chief AI Officer at RealityMine, where he leads the responsible adoption of AI across products, processes, and teams. He joined as the company’s first engineer in 2012 and served as CTO for seven years before shifting focus to AI strategy, ethics, and governance.

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