Humantyze has partnered with Vero, one of Southeast Asia’s leading independent communications consultancies, to elevate the firm’s AI capabilities through a first-of-its-kind Hackathon for AI in PR. In this partnership, Humantyze will design and facilitate an intensive, hands-on program that equips Vero’s teams to move from using AI tools to building them, turning experimentation into practical solutions for real consulting and communications challenges.
Led by Humantyze CEO David Ko alongside Vero’s regional Data and Analytics lead Peerapong Pongpakdee, the hackathon will feature competitions to create best-in-class vibe coding and agentic solutions for the PR industry. The program focuses on building AI-enabled solutions that support research, strategy, content development, workflow design, and problem-solving for client consulting and business challenges.
As the AI capability partner, Humantyze brings the technical expertise and facilitation methodology to the partnership, while Vero, alongside its government relations joint venture Vero Advocacy and recently acquired creative PR agency Mad Hat Asia, provides the consulting context and real-world use cases drawn from work across the region. The collaborative format is designed to encourage cross-disciplinary learning while producing practical ideas that can be refined and applied across the business after the event.
Taking place on 6–7 August in Bangkok, the hackathon is designed to strengthen practical AI capabilities through immersive, hands-on learning for 30 team members from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Across the two sessions, participants will focus on vibe coding and agentic AI, exploring how to use AI to improve research, strategy, content development, workflow design, and problem-solving. Through the partnership, Vero, Vero Advocacy, and Mad Hat team members will develop AI-enabled solutions that enhance the firm’s work for clients.
“Exciting things happen when people move beyond just using AI tools and begin building them,” said David Ko, Founder and Lead Advisor of Humantyze. “Our partnership with Vero is about helping communications professionals develop that builder mindset through practical experimentation. By applying technical capability to real consulting challenges, participants will gain skills they can immediately apply in their work.”
“For communications professionals, developing their AI capabilities is no longer optional,” said Peerapong Pongpakdee, Data Analytics Senior Manager, ASEAN at Vero. “Our clients expect strategic advice that’s both grounded in human insight and enriched by emerging technologies. This hackathon gives our teams the opportunity to experiment, build, and learn together, so we can better understand where AI delivers meaningful value, and where our own human expertise remains essential.”
The partnership reflects Vero’s broader investment in building AI fluency and its ongoing efforts to integrate AI into its advisory services and internal operations, starting with the development of its AI Usage Policy and the rollout of proprietary AI-enabled tools like Editorial IQ™, which analyzes content for media, SEO, and GEO; PressReady™, which uses real journalist questions to prepare clients for media interviews; and Audience IQ™, which tests product details and campaign messages against eight synthetic consumer personas. Together, these build on earlier innovations such as InFluent™, Vero’s proprietary influencer marketing stack that combines data-driven analysis with strategic judgment to help identify the best-fit creators for brand campaigns.
“At Vero, we’ve always looked at emerging technologies not as replacements for talent, but as tools that make us better at what we do,” said Umaporn Whittaker-Thompson, Chief Commercial Officer, ASEAN at Vero and part of the team that developed InFluent™ in 2023. “TrueVibe™, which is a part of Vero’s InFluent tool stack, has helped drive influencer marketing success over the years. TrueVibe™ was born out of the belief that better decisions come from combining data with human expertise, and that same idea is at the heart of this hackathon.”
For Vero, the investment is as much about people as it is about technology. Building confidence with AI requires space to experiment, collaborate, and learn from peers. And with curiosity as one of the consultancy’s core values, continuous learning is treated as part of professional development.
“At Vero, we believe our greatest competitive advantage has always been our people,” said Supreeyaporn Sihawong, Chief People Officer, ASEAN at Vero. “As AI transforms the way we work, our responsibility is to ensure our teams have the opportunity to learn and grow together. This hackathon reflects our commitment to investing in our people’s future while strengthening what we bring to our clients in the present.”
