How Albert won the Danish AI Championship solo – with AI as his teammate

For the past few years, the Danish AI Championship has been won by a team of four. This year, it was Albert. On his own.

In September 2026, Albert Steenstrup took first place in the Danish edition of the Nordic AI Cup, with AI coding agents as his only teammates. A month later, he finished third in the Nordic final in Reykjavík.

Day to day, Albert is writing his master’s thesis in Data Science at the IT University of Copenhagen (ITU) and works as a Student Assistant in Data Science at kompasbank. This is the story of how a hobby project ended up on the podium – and what it says about how quickly AI is changing the way we work.

From spreadsheets to an AI champion

Albert Steenstrup is writing his master’s thesis in Data Science at the IT University of Copenhagen and works as a Student Assistant in Data Science at kompasbank.

His interest in data did not start at university. It started during a gap-year job, where he found himself working with an Excel sheet containing several million data points.

It was really fun to be able to model and transform data into something useful. And then to see that the people we were working with could actually use it.

When he is not coding, he climbs, plays padel, goes to sauna sessions and spends time with his girlfriend. In fact, he managed to fit in most of it during the competition weekend itself.

What is the Nordic AI Cup?

The Nordic AI Cup is an AI competition for bachelor’s, master’s and PhD students, formerly known as the Danish AI Championship. Ambolt AI launched the Danish championship in 2021, and in 2026 it expanded to all five Nordic countries for the first time (NORA). In Denmark, it is run by Ambolt AI together with the Danish Data Science Academy and the Pioneer Centre for AI.

Albert heard about the competition through a climbing friend who had won it a few years earlier as part of a team.

Can the Danish AI Championship be won alone?

Yes. Albert Steenstrup won the Danish edition of the Nordic AI Cup 2026 as a solo competitor, and according to the organiser, it is the first time an individual has made the podium.

Previous winners have been teams of four or more. That is why Albert never expected to win when he signed up.

Because the teams in previous years had been so strong, I honestly didn’t know that winning on my own was a real possibility. It was only during the competition that I realised I actually had a chance.

For him, the win is a sign of how fast the field is moving.

It’s pretty wild that the world – especially in this field – has developed so much in just one year that you’ve gone from needing a team of four people to being able to do it on your own. And that it can actually be an advantage.

He was not the only one. Several of the other Nordic national winners also competed solo this year.

How are AI coding agents changing the way we work?

Albert used AI coding agents as sparring partners, replacing the discussion and coordination a team would normally spend time on.

In the past, it was probably an advantage to split the work between several people. But because AI coding agents have become such good sparring partners, it can almost be faster not to have all that back-and-forth communication between people.

Albert’s weekend is a small snapshot of a trend that is moving fast. In 2025, 31% of developers in Stack Overflow’s annual survey were using AI agents. By April 2026, that figure had almost doubled to 59% (Stack Overflow). AI has gone from being a tool you ask questions to a colleague you hand tasks to.

Four days, little sleep and one shot

It was intense. The competition ran from Thursday to Sunday, and sleep was cut short.

I think I got a bit more sleep than some of the others. But less than you normally would. Definitely.

The first two challenges went surprisingly well. The last one was in an area he had never worked in before. On the final day, he was in second place, waiting for the result of his last submission. It took three hours, and he was one of the last to hear back.

Incredibly nerve-racking.

This was where the agents could not help. Deciding when a solution was good enough for that single submission was down to him alone.

Robbers and money bags in Reykjavík

Albert took third place in the Nordic final in Reykjavík, where the five national champions met.

The final was a reinforcement learning challenge called Robot Robbers. Participants had to train AI agents to steer five robbers through a city, collect money bags and avoid getting caught. Once again, with just one attempt.

For Albert, though, the most memorable part was the people.

It was really great to meet the others. They’re all incredibly talented and come from very different backgrounds. It was inspiring to compete against some of the best in the Nordics.

What is a data scientist doing in a bank?

At kompasbank, Albert works on anything from improving the bank’s AI infrastructure to automating tax reports. No two weeks are the same.

AI is not a side project at kompasbank. It is an integral part of how the bank is built.

With Albert’s skills and background, plenty of doors are open – so why kompasbank?

At a smaller company, you can take on a lot more responsibility if you reach for it. At bigger places, you’d probably be a smaller piece of a big puzzle. I think it’s fun to be a bigger piece of a smaller puzzle.

For Albert, this means that what he learns does not just end up in a drawer – it is put to use straight away.

And in the real world, projects have to last a lot longer than at university:

At university, it’s mostly three-month projects. At kompasbank, we have to build something that lasts much longer. That’s been a big learning experience.

The competition and the job have also rubbed off on each other. At kompasbank, he works with the same AI coding agents and tools he used to win. And what he learned during four hectic days, he is now using more and more at the office.

In a bank, getting the balance right between machine and human matters even more. AI can make the work faster and more robust. But when it comes to customers and money, there still needs to be a person behind the key decisions.

That takes people who both understand the technology and take responsibility for it. Thomas Ulrich, CTO at kompasbank:

AI is built into the way we do banking. The fact that Denmark’s AI champion chooses to work here shows that you don’t have to be the biggest to work with the latest technology. Albert learns from us, and we learn at least as much from him.

Just go for it

Just go for it. That goes for both the competition and the student job.

I didn’t enter because I thought I had a chance. But even if you think there are lots of reasons why you can’t win, give it a go anyway. You might just get lucky.

And for anyone considering a student job at kompasbank:

If you want to be somewhere with lots of great people, an open culture, and responsibility if you want it, then it’s the right place.

Congratulations on the win, Albert. We cannot wait to see what you build next.

Sources: NORA, Nordic AI Cup 2026: Bringing Nordic AI Talent Together (2026); Stack Overflow, Getting ready for 2026 results: a look back on developer survey findings (30 September 2026); IT Brief, Stack Overflow survey finds developers wary of AI tools (2026).