Google Cloud announced the winners of the 2024 Looker Hackathon (Vertex AI Edition), which focused on integrating Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s AI development platform, with Looker and Looker Studio. The event brought together over 160 participants from 34 countries who collaborated, learned, and inspired each other over 48 hours, resulting in the creation of 20 AI-powered applications, tools, and data experiences.
One of the projects that caught my eye was “tl;dd”, which won the “Best Hack” award. This project addresses the issue of time constraints in reviewing scheduled Looker dashboards emailed daily by replacing scheduled emails of dashboard PDFs with Gemini-generated dashboard summaries. Using a custom Looker extension, users can configure which dashboards they want to summarize and to whom they want to send the summaries. Moreover, they can include additional custom instructions and context for each dashboard to guide Gemini in creating accurate and comprehensive summaries.
I was particularly impressed with how “tl;dd” leverages Gemini’s capabilities in summarizing information and providing concise insights. This can be a significant time-saver for users who need to stay updated on the latest data and trends without having to spend hours reviewing detailed dashboards. Furthermore, the ability for users to customize Gemini summaries by providing additional instructions and context makes this tool even more valuable and adaptable to specific needs.
Overall, the 2024 Looker Hackathon (Vertex AI Edition) showcases the immense potential of integrating AI in data analytics and visualization. By empowering developers to build powerful, data-driven applications and tools, Vertex AI can help organizations make more informed decisions and improve operational efficiency.
