South Essex Colleges Group students shine at AI Competition 2026

Students from South Essex Colleges Group showcased innovation, professionalism and digital talent at this year’s AI Competition 2026, hosted in partnership with Sharp UK at the company’s new London office.

Selected from more than 100 entries, six finalists from the College’s Computing and Digital Technologies courses presented creative AI solutions designed to solve real-world challenges across the retail, IT and education sectors.

The competition celebrated not only the students’ technical expertise, but also their confidence, presentation skills and understanding of responsible AI implementation. Finalists impressed the judging panel with a range of forward-thinking ideas, including AI-powered retail assistants, intelligent customer service tools and automated IT support systems aimed at improving helpdesk efficiency.

The judging panel featured industry experts including Simon Warnes, Simon Jefferies, Tyron Raubenheimer and Ben Welton.

Praising the exceptional standard of work, Simon Warnes said: “The presentations were incredibly good, especially when you consider the age of the students. They all demonstrated that they had taken the competition very seriously and had put a lot of time into the slides and their AI design concepts.”

After a closely contested final, the judges announced the top three projects. Third place was awarded to Ugnius for a retail e-commerce AI agent focused on customer support and personalised recommendations. Similoluwa secured second place with EduGuide, an AI chatbot designed to help students quickly access information and guidance.

First place went to Oleksandr for his impressive IT Support Bot, developed to help medium and large organisations resolve common technical issues more efficiently. His presentation included a live demonstration alongside detailed consideration of cyber security and risk management.

South Essex Colleges Group CEO, Denise Brown said: “This competition has provided an incredible opportunity for our students to apply their knowledge in a real-world environment and showcase the creativity and innovation that exists across our digital and computing courses. We are extremely proud of all the students who took part and grateful to Sharp UK for continuing to support and inspire the next generation of digital talent.”

Reflecting on the event, Ben Welton said the competition continues to “go from strength to strength” and praised the students for making both the College and their families proud.

South Essex Colleges Group congratulates all students who participated and thanks Sharp UK for its continued partnership in helping develop future digital professionals.