The engagement zone remained packed — with games, quizzes a dog robot leaping around, and a “Leave a Mark” wall covered in scribbled notes about people’s AI journeys
Hyderabad: T-Hub on Saturday buzzed with conversations about artificial intelligence (AI), career transitions and the race to stay relevant in tech. Nothing dramatic. This was the first edition of the AI & Data Fest by Codebasics, a Hyderabad-based platform known for simplifying AI for its 1.2 million-strong online learner community.
This time, it wasn’t just on screens. It was real people, real booths and real questions.
There were no empty corners. While sessions ran in parallel, the engagement zone remained packed — with games, quizzes a dog robot leaping around, and a “Leave a Mark” wall covered in scribbled notes about people’s AI journeys.
Harish Kumar from Codebasics explained their vision: keeping the energy informal, even playful. “We didn’t want it to be another serious event. That’s why we brought in photo booths, robots and games. But we also did things that matter—like helping people fix their LinkedIn,” he said, pointing at the LinkedIn optimisation booth.
“Most people treat their profile like a checklist — name, job, done. But that’s not enough anymore. Recruiters check your LinkedIn before even looking at your résumé,” said Aditya Goel from Codebasics. When someone asked what to do if they hadn’t brought formals for their photo, he smiled, “We’re using AI to fix that. It’s an AI fest, after all.”
His booth remained full from morning till high tea. Everyone had the same question: how do I look more ‘credible’ online without pretending to be someone else?
One visitor was Akhilesh, an AI and ML student from Osmania University. He had wandered in with a friend, queued up for his LinkedIn headshot, and then took an LLM quiz. His badge read “Captain Prompt” after winning the spin-the-wheel ML game.
Industry veterans were there too. Potturi Ravi, director at a Hyderabad-based AI firm, came to listen. “You attend these things to meet people who are building, not just talking. I spoke to folks working in banks, using AI to speed up KYC. You don’t hear that stuff on webinars,” he said. He reflected on the industry’s pace. “Every week, there’s a new model or an agent. You need to keep up.”
On the sixth floor, a workshop on building a live AI agent ran at full capacity. Elsewhere, a session on “What Sets You Apart When Everyone Has AI” packed every chair. At any given time, at least four sessions were happening in parallel. No one seemed to mind the chaos.
The agenda stretched from 10 am to nearly 8 pm, but no one looked tired. “You could say we’re all just dating AI right now,” someone joked. “It’s exciting. But we’re still figuring it out.”
