NTT DATA, NEAR.AI, and Sundai LatAm Transform Peru's AI Ecosystem with Hacker Space Generating Three Disruptive Solutions

In a milestone for Peruvian technological innovation, NTT DATA, NEAR.AI, and Sundai LatAm organized an intensive Artificial Intelligence agents "hack space." The event brought together developers, entrepreneurs, and students to build innovative solutions using decentralized and distributed technologies.

Held on Sunday, November 23, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., the event resulted in three pioneering projects addressing critical issues in the Peruvian market: criminal investigation, urban parking, and informal lending.

Elite Training and Cutting-Edge Technology

The day began with a keynote by Hisao Higuchi, representative of Sundai Club—a global "AI hacker" movement born at MIT and Harvard whose members meet every Sunday to build complete applications in a single day. Sundai Club, which has held over 60 consecutive hackathons and boasts 250 active members, brought its accelerated innovation methodology to Lima for the first time.

Juan José "JJ" Miranda, Director of the Blockchain/Web3 & Quantum Innovation Center at NTT DATA, introduced the keynote speaker, Dr. Sergey Astretsov, an expert in product and AI from NEAR.AI (the NEAR Foundation’s confidential computing initiative). Astretsov—who holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master’s in Mathematics and Computer Science from Moscow State University—guided participants through the capabilities of NEAR.AI and the latest trends in decentralized AI agents.

"NEAR.AI and NEAR Protocol represent the future of decentralized AI, where data sovereignty and privacy combine with confidential and distributed computational power," Astretsov explained during his presentation.

Three Solutions Transforming Industries

Following team-building dynamics and intensive technical mentoring sessions with David Osorio Laboriano, Eduardo Salvador Ñique, and David Ernesto Mendieta Saldarriaga from the Innovation Center team, three powerful projects emerged:

ShadowMind: Revolutionizing Criminal Investigation

This confidential multi-agent system tackles an efficiency crisis where 60–72% of investigative time is wasted on non-analytical tasks. With 102 million annual cases in Peru (ranging from simple theft to organized crime) and an operational gap where clients demand results in under 72 hours while reality takes 5–12 days, ShadowMind allows private detectives to input evidence, query data, and link cases within a confidential network. Its AI chatbot facilitates real-time analysis of kidnappings, disappearances, and organized crime, transforming the management of sensitive data in criminal investigations.

ParkinGo: Solving Urban Parking Chaos

Facing a deficit of 45,000 parking spaces in Lima’s premium districts and hourly rates reaching S/10–15 ($2.70–$4.00 USD), ParkinGo offers a mobile-first platform featuring natural language search powered by NEAR AI. With innovative features like Tinder-style swiping to explore garages, proximity ranking via Google Maps, unique QR access codes, and integrated payment through Mercado Pago, the solution optimizes the scarce 12,000 public spaces available in Miraflores, San Isidro, San Borja, and Surco.

UpdAI: Democratizing Control Over Informal Loans

In response to the 212,000 Peruvian families affected by "gota a gota" (loan sharking) loans—which carry annual interest rates exceeding 500% in a market worth S/1.78 billion—UpdAI is a Telegram conversational bot powered by NEAR AI that automatically records informal loans. The application interprets natural language messages to identify amounts, parties, and transaction types, providing transparency and accountability without the barriers of formal credit.

Commitment to the Innovation Ecosystem

"This event represents our firm commitment to innovation and the development of the Web3 and AI ecosystem in the country," stated Juan José Miranda. "At NTT DATA Peru, we believe these learning spaces have the potential to transform how we interact with technology. That is why we are investing in initiatives like these hack spaces to empower Peruvian developers, giving them the tools needed to build the future of the internet of value—distributed and sovereign."

The hack space concluded with team presentations, networking sessions, and giveaways. It demonstrated that in just nine hours of intensive work, multidisciplinary teams can generate viable technological solutions for real-world problems. The projects utilized the full NEAR.AI and NEAR Protocol stack, including decentralized AI capabilities, confidential computing, smart contracts, and distributed storage.

About the Organizations

• NTT DATA: A global leader in business and technology services with revenues exceeding $30 billion, serving 75% of Fortune Global 100 companies.

• NEAR Protocol: A Layer 1 blockchain platform facilitating decentralized applications with an emphasis on usability, scalability, and AI features.

• Meta Pool: A liquid staking protocol built on NEAR that allows users to stake assets efficiently while maintaining liquidity.

• NEAR.AI: NEAR’s verifiable AI platform that enables the execution of models and agents with total privacy using secure hardware.

• Sundai LatAm: The Latin American affiliate of Sundai Club, the global AI hacker movement dedicated to building complete apps every Sunday.