Yanolja, a global travel tech company led by Group CEO Sujin Lee, announced that it will host its first enterprise-wide AI hackathon, “10X-THON: 2025,” on November 6–7 at the Pangyo 10X Hall in Korea. The event is designed to strengthen employees’ hands-on AI capabilities and accelerate company-wide AI transformation (AX).

Held under the slogan “AI Everywhere – The Beginning of AX,” 10X-THON is Yanolja Group’s first integrated hackathon aimed at practically validating AI adoption opportunities across the travel industry while fostering a culture of AI-driven innovation within the organization. Through the event, Yanolja plans to enhance AI fluency across teams and establish a sustainable framework for ongoing AI innovation.

The hackathon will bring together employees from Yanolja and its key domestic affiliates, including NOL UNIVERSE, Sanha IT, and Dable. Following an internal application process, 75 teams comprising approximately 360 employees have been confirmed. Participation spans not only R&D roles but also business, strategy, and sales functions, enabling broad cross-functional collaboration during the two-day, overnight competition.

Participants will leverage AI technologies to rapidly prototype ideas, validate the feasibility of new services and technologies, and experience AI-powered collaboration firsthand—translating concepts into working solutions in real time.

Official partners Amazon Web Services (AWS) and MegazoneCloud will provide comprehensive support, including generative AI tools, cloud infrastructure, and training programs. In particular, Amazon Q Developer, a generative AI-powered development assistant, will support the entire software development lifecycle—from code generation to security scanning—creating an accessible development environment that enables even non-technical participants to build AI-powered ideas with ease.

A three-stage evaluation framework will be introduced, combining AI-based assessment with expert and customer validation. In the first stage, AI judges will analyze each team’s idea for originality and feasibility. The second stage will involve real customers testing prototypes to evaluate usability. In the final stage, Yanolja Group executives and external experts will assess business completeness, commercial viability, and scalability to select the winning teams.

A total prize pool of KRW 16 million will be awarded, and projects from the top 12 teams will be reviewed for potential real-world deployment and commercialization, ensuring that AI-driven innovation translates into tangible improvements in customer experience and internal operations.

“10X-THON marks a new starting point where Yanolja Group members directly create innovation through AI,” said Junyoung Lee, CTO of Yanolja Group. “By embedding AI technologies into our culture and ways of working, we aim to realize enterprise-wide AX and sustain technology-driven growth.”