Participants competed against others in their respective countries: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. The winner of each national competition has now qualified for the Nordic AI Cup final, which will take place during the Nordic AI Meet in Reykjavík on 14–15 October.
During the four-day competition, participants worked on three different challenges:
- Survival Simulator: Building an AI agent that could adapt and survive in harsh wilderness conditions.
- Drone Flyby: Using computer vision to detect objects in drone footage and control the camera’s zoom level.
- Medical Appointment: Using speech and language technology to understand recorded conversations between clinicians and patients.
More than 430 participants registered for the competition. A total of 112 teams submitted at least one attempt for validation, and 82 teams reached the final evaluation.
Iftikhar Amiri wins in Norway
Iftikhar Amiri, a master’s student in industrial economics at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), finished at the top of Norway’s national leaderboard. He has now been named Norway’s winner of the Nordic AI Cup 2026.
“Three very different problems in just four days. It was intense, but that’s exactly what made it so fun,” said Amiri.
I didn’t expect to win when I started, so it’s a great feeling.” - Iftikhar Amiri
As Norway’s national winner, Amiri receives a prize of NOK 40,000 and will represent Norway in the Nordic final.
Solve Sæbø, Rector of NMBU, congratulated Amiri on his achievement.
“I would like to congratulate Iftikhar on winning the Norwegian part of the Nordic AI Cup. It is fantastic that one of our students can now call himself the Norwegian AI Cup Champion,” said Sæbø.
We have many highly talented students at NMBU, and this is yet another example. On behalf of NMBU, I wish Iftikhar Amiri the best of luck in the Nordic final in Iceland.” - Solve Sæbø
The other national winners are Elysa’s Secret from Denmark, Brew & Booze from Sweden, Hannah Family from Finland and Cybotrix from Iceland. The five winners will meet in Reykjavík to compete for the overall Nordic AI Cup title.
“I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited,” Amiri said. “I’ll do my best in Reykjavík.”
More information is available on the Nordic AI Cup website and its competition page for Norway.