Demonstrating World-Class Technical Excellence in AI Agents
Degas Ltd. (“Degas”), headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, is guided by the vision of “Changing People’s Lives, Dramatically.” Degas is pleased to announce that it placed 8th among 703 teams worldwide in the KDD Cup 2026, the official competition held in conjunction with KDD, one of the world's leading international conferences on data mining and artificial intelligence (AI). Degas competed in the “Data Agents for Complex Data Analysis” track.
Founded in 1995, KDD is one of the world's oldest and largest international conferences in data science and AI (1). The KDD Cup, launched in 1997 as KDD's official competition, is widely regarded as one of the world's most prestigious data mining competitions and is often referred to as the “World Cup of Data Science.” Previous editions have attracted teams from leading technology companies, including Baidu, Alibaba, ByteDance, NTT DOCOMO, and NVIDIA, underscoring the competition's global prestige.
The 2026 KDD Cup featured two competition tracks. Degas participated in “Data Agents for Complex Data Analysis,” which challenged teams to develop autonomous AI agents capable of solving complex analytical tasks. These agents were required to independently decompose complex questions, perform multi-step reasoning across heterogeneous data sources - including databases, documents, images, and videos—and generate accurate answers.
A total of 703 teams (1,307 participants) entered the competition. Following Phase 1, only the top 60 teams advanced to the Phase 2 Finals, where Degas ultimately placed 8th worldwide. The winners will be officially recognized at KDD 2026, to be held in Jeju, South Korea, from August 9-13, 2026.
The competition featured real-world analytical tasks spanning diverse and highly complex domains, including financial disclosures, public company data, macroeconomic statistics, mutual fund data, and medical records. Degas' top-tier performance demonstrates that its AI agent technology - developed through years of foundational research - can autonomously perform sophisticated analytical tasks across these domains. The result provides independent, third-party validation of Degas' technical capability to automate advanced knowledge work for industries such as financial services and healthcare.
Since its founding, Degas has combined satellite imagery, AI, financial technology, and agricultural data to provide financing to more than 85,000 smallholder farmers across Africa. The company has also developed proprietary geospatial foundation models with world-class performance. By integrating its newly validated AI agent technology with these existing assets, Degas aims to accelerate the development of next-generation AI solutions across multiple industries.
Kazuaki Tanida, Senior ML Scientist, Degas Ltd.
“We are delighted to have achieved this result in the rapidly evolving field of AI agents. Through this challenge, we gained practical insights into building autonomous agents capable of conducting complex analysis across diverse data sources. Going forward, we aim to combine these insights with the technologies Degas has developed to create new value and measurable impact in real-world applications.”
(1) : KDD 2026 https://kdd2026.kdd.org/
