On May 12, 2026, the NTU Global MBA program and Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) successfully held the Final Presentation and Award Ceremony of the 2026 CHT-I International Business Innovation Proposal Competition. The event marked the culmination of months of preparation, research, and mentorship as eight finalist teams presented their business innovation proposals to a distinguished panel of judges.

This year's competition carried the theme "AI-Powered Business Innovation for Global Markets," challenging NTU students to develop scalable, AI-driven international business strategies leveraging CHT's ICT capabilities. The journey began with an Info Session on March 4, followed by an Industry Field Experience at the 2026 Smart City Summit & Expo on March 19. Each team was also paired with a dedicated CHT industry mentor throughout the process. The eight finalist proposals spanned a diverse range of topics and target markets, reflecting the multidisciplinary and global character of this competition.

The judging panel consisted of five distinguished evaluators from both NTU and CHT-I: GMBA Director Professor Bryan Jean, GMBA Professor Chin-Yuan Huang, CHT-I Vice President Bill Chiang, CHT-I Vice President Escudo Pai, and CHT-I Managing Director Daniel Kuo. The Q&A sessions were notably dynamic, with judges challenging teams on real-world feasibility and offering industry insights that extended well beyond the competition itself.

The winners of the 2026 competition are as follows:

First Place (NTD 120,000): Meridian One — Their proposal, "AI-Powered Setup & Run Service for Taiwanese Manufacturers Entering Vietnam," positioned CHT as a single-accountable ICT operator for Taiwanese factories expanding into Southeast Asia, using AI and IoT to deliver real-time visibility and post-launch support across the region.

Second Place (NTD 80,000): Show Me Your Phone — Their proposal, "CarbonJiRo (碳智郎)," leveraged CHT's submarine cable infrastructure and confidential computing capabilities to position the company as a trusted cross-border carbon data integrator for Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain, enabling a single dataset to generate six compliance reports and reducing ESG workload by 93%.

In addition, five Merit Awards (NTD 10,000 each) were presented:

• TR4NSFORMER – ComplyIQ, an AI-enabled ESG compliance service built on CHT's iEN platform, converting real-time factory energy data into verified Scope 2 emissions reports for Vietnamese metal manufacturers.
• Srikandi OneShot – CarbonPulse, an IoT and AI carbon compliance platform that auto-generates Bureau Veritas-verified CBAM declarations for Vietnamese steel and aluminium exporters.
• 哲佑彈塗妤 – HALALAI, an AI-powered halal certification assistant automating regulatory intelligence, document generation, and compliance tracking for food manufacturers entering the Indonesian market.
• 群龍得一名 – AgroSky, a drone-based AI precision agriculture platform on CHT's 5G infrastructure, enabling See & Spray services for Thai smallholder farmers and reducing pesticide use by up to 40%.
• Sunnygrown – CHT Omni-Pulse, a smart mobility platform for Thailand's EV fleet operators that recovers kinetic energy via proprietary SSERS modules and integrates with CHT's 5G/MEC City OS for real-time road diagnostics and carbon credit generation.

The 2026 edition saw a 50% increase in total prize pool to NTD 300,000 and introduced dedicated CHT industry mentors for all participating teams. Closing remarks were delivered by CHT-I Vice President Bill Chiang and NTU College of Management Dean Chialin Chen, both commending the quality of proposals and the students' ability to connect rigorous market analysis with practical, AI-driven solutions.

The 2026 CHT-I International Business Innovation Proposal Competition continues to serve as a flagship Industry Field Experience activity of the GMBA program, bridging academic learning with real-world business challenges and strengthening the longstanding partnership between NTU and Chunghwa Telecom.

(Written by GMBA student – Deborah Nguyen 阮冠穎)