When more than 380 members of the Product & Technology team gathered in India, the goal wasn't simply to run an AI hackathon. It was to help employees see how AI is transforming the future of work and what that means for innovation at Deltek.
While AI is often discussed through the lens of technology, its real impact comes from how people learn, adapt, and innovate with it. As AI continues to reshape how we work, those opportunities are helping employees build new skills, experiment with new tools, and apply AI in more meaningful ways.
Last month, that commitment came to life through the P&T India Reconnect 2026. Held in Goa, India, this four-day event delivered collaboration sessions, leadership interactions, values-inspired team building, and a Product Innovation Expo featuring ideas from across the organization.
For Dinakar Hituvalli, Deltek's Chief Product & Technology Officer, the event was an opportunity to bring Deltek's AI transformation closer to the people who will help shape it.
"I didn't want the transformation to be something that's driven by a small AI team that's isolated or something that's dictated from the top," Dinakar shared on a recent episode of the Deltek Podcast. "I wanted our team to experience it firsthand."
That philosophy became the foundation for the P&T India Reconnect and reflects a broader belief that innovation happens when people are empowered to learn together.
Reunite: Bringing Diverse Perspectives Together
Throughout the week, engineers, product managers, architects, AI specialists, and business leaders came together to tackle challenges they don't typically solve side by side.
Rather than focusing solely on technical innovation, the event created space for employees to learn from one another and collaborate across functions. What emerged reinforced a lesson that's becoming increasingly important in the age of AI: human collaboration matters more, not less.
When asked about the event's outcomes, Dinakar responded, "The best ideas and the best output came from people where we combined domain expertise, customer understanding, engineering skills, and AI skills."
For a company that serves customers managing some of the world's most complex and mission-critical projects, that combination of expertise is what drives meaningful innovation.
Reimagine: What Becomes Possible
As one part of the broader P&T India Reconnect experience, the AI Hackathon gave teams a focused opportunity to turn collaboration into real business impact. Unlike previous hackathons, teams weren't asked to invent hypothetical solutions. Instead, they were challenged to solve real business problems using AI-enabled approaches.
The results exceeded expectations. Teams developed working solutions at a pace that challenged traditional assumptions about how quickly software can be designed and built.
For Dinakar, the experience validated something he believes will define the future of work:
"When you give very talented people access to tools, remove some of the regular constraints that they operate with, and give them permission to experiment, they accomplish things in days that probably would have taken weeks or months."
The lesson wasn't simply about speed. It was about helping employees rethink how work gets done and empowering them to approach challenges in entirely new ways.
Reignite: Creating a Culture of Continuous Learning
Perhaps the most important outcome of this year's India Reconnect wasn't what happened during the event. It was the mindset the experience helped create.
As AI continues to evolve, learning can no longer be viewed as something occasional or role-specific. It has become a core part of professional growth.
That's why Deltek continues to invest in AI fluency programs and opportunities that help employees build confidence using emerging technologies in ways that align with their roles and responsibilities.
The goal isn't simply to use AI more. It's to create a culture where experimentation is encouraged, curiosity is valued, and employees continuously challenge themselves to think differently.
As Dinakar explained, "We want experimentation to be normal. We want people to challenge existing processes. We want small teams to accomplish things that previously required much larger teams."
At Deltek, innovation has never been about technology for technology's sake. It's about helping our customers solve complex challenges while creating opportunities for our people to grow, adapt, and thrive.
That's why the enduring lesson from the P&T India Reconnect isn't that 36 teams built innovative AI solutions. It's that nearly 380 employees came together to learn, collaborate, and challenge what's possible.
Because while AI is changing the future of work, one thing hasn't changed: Innovation starts with people. And when talented people are empowered with new skills, trusted to experiment, and united around a shared purpose, extraordinary things can happen.
