Battle of the Builders: Spotlighting the Future of Building with Airtable

At our recent event, Airtable 2026: The New Playbook, we had some Community fun: Battle of the Builders—a live showcase designed to celebrate the people pushing Airtable to its limits and creatively applying AI to drive real impact.

These builders stepped into the spotlight to share practical, prescriptive workflows that teams could start using today. From operational backbones to AI-powered research and planning apps, each demo showed what’s possible when builders lead innovation inside their organizations.

👉 Missed the event or want the full picture?
You can watch the entire keynote, and the other breakout session “How Airtable Does Airtable” on demand now.

Below, we’re excited to recap each Battle of the Builders presentation and share their demos with the community.

🧠 Aaron Whipps — Raw Group

Creative Research App

​@aaron-whipps kicked things off with a powerful Creative Research App that uses Airtable and AI to centralize insights, streamline research workflows, and turn unstructured ideas into an actionable mood board. The build showed how AI can accelerate early-stage thinking while keeping teams aligned and focused. Check out more details here!

👥 Emilie de Neef — Voltalia

HR Management App

​@Emiliefromparis shared how Airtable Omni built an app to power HR trainings across teams and departments. Her demo highlighted how AI and automation can support everything from personalized interface pages, recommendations, and email reminders.

🏆 Matteo Cossu — CrOps Ag

Hardware → Airtable App
Crowd favorite during live voting

​@MatteoCrOps stole the show with a crowd-favorite demo that connected real-world hardware data directly into Airtable. His build demonstrated how AI-enabled workflows can bridge physical systems and operational tools—earning him the top spot in live audience voting. Congrats Matteo! 

🏛 Chris Moore — Museum of Pop Culture

Museum Contractors App

​@Chris_Moore walked us through a purpose-built app supporting contractor management that could be applied to anyone working with contractors. The demo showed how Airtable can flex to support highly specific operational needs, helping teams manage vendors, timelines, and accountability, all in one place.

🗺 Ben Beisswenger & Sahana Arkalgud — Doris Duke Foundation

Horizon: An Org-Wide Planning App

​@BennyB and ​@sarkalgud closed out the session with Horizon, an org-wide planning app designed to bring visibility, alignment, and strategy together. Their demo showcased how Airtable can serve as a single source of truth for planning across teams, powered by AI and built for scale. Check out more from the team in Ben’s post here!

Celebrating Builders, Creativity, and What’s Next

Battle of the Builders was created to spotlight the people building at the edge of what’s possible with Airtable, and this group delivered in every way. Their demos weren’t just impressive; they were practical blueprints for teams looking to build smarter, faster, and with AI at the core.

If you haven’t already, be sure to watch Airtable 2026: The New Playbook on demand to see how these workflows fit into the bigger picture of what teams should be building now.

And to all our builders: thank you for sharing your work, your ideas, and your creativity with the community. If you have an app you’d like to share, post it on social media and tag us - @airtable and #airtable - we’d love to celebrate what you’re building!