The work
The MACH AI Exchange is a peer-to-peer network and community for AI-first practitioners across the MACH ecosystem. Directors, VPs, CTOs, and architects working on AI integration paths. Brand end users, ISVs, and SIs collaborating on shared problems. It is now 130+ connections strong and growing.
Fidget Labs' founder serves as Delivery Lead for the AI Exchange, contracted through the MACH Alliance Tech Office. The role spans community programming, hackathon facilitation, ongoing engagement design, and the technical direction of the open-source projects that come out of each cohort.
What has been delivered
Two hackathon cohorts have shipped to date.
Cohort 1 (2025) ran 12 weeks into MACH X London with four teams:
- Synapse AI: B2B wholesale ordering agent
- DeepShift AI: AI-assisted platform migration
- Athena AI: B2C cross-product lookup for house-of-brands retail
- WhackAScam AI: Copyright and IP protection agent
Each team had 10-15 members ranging from senior practitioners to C-suite. Every team mixed brand end users with ISVs and SIs. All four projects are now open-source on the MACH Alliance GitHub.
Cohort 2 (2026) ran 7 weeks into MACH X Toronto with two teams:
- Ipsy: Subscription personalization through customer data
- Wegmans: Marketplace product validation agent
A third project (Trail Appliances) was also showcased at MACH X Toronto from a separate AI PC initiative.
In parallel: bimonthly AI Exchange meetings and showcases. Open-source code published to the MACH Alliance GitHub. Ongoing programming for the broader community.
What this means
The MACH AI Exchange is not a marketing program. It is the working layer of the agent ecosystem thesis. The bet is that AI in enterprise will not be one model, one vendor, or one agent doing everything. It will be a marketplace of open, connected, and composable agents. The same architectural principles that made composable a winning bet for content and commerce apply to the agent layer.
The hackathons are how that thesis gets tested in production. Real brands. Real problems. Working code at the end.
The next cohort
A new cohort is being recruited for the run-up to MACH X Amsterdam. Twelve weeks of work, peer-to-peer collaboration, and open-source delivery. Open to MACH Alliance member brands and partners interested in shipping real AI projects.
Interested in the AI Exchange or the agent ecosystem?
Fidget Labs leads the AI Exchange delivery and works directly with brands on AI enablement and composable architecture in the agent era.