Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Technology Categories (New for 2026)
These categories recognize outstanding achievements by women and women-led organizations in the development, implementation, leadership, and impact of artificial intelligence technologies since July 1, 2024.
Information to be submitted online for entries in these categories in the 2026 competition include
1. Written answers to the following questions, describing the nominated organization’s or individual’s achievements since July 1, 2024, OR a video of up to five (5) minutes in length that answers all of the same questions:
a. Briefly describe the nominated organization or individual: history and past performance (up to 1,500 characters). Required
b. Outline the organization’s or individual’s achievements since the beginning of July 2024 that you wish to bring to the judges’ attention (up to 1,900 characters words). Required
c. Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization’s past performance (up to 1,900 characters). Required
d. Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination. (up to 1,900 characters). Optional
2. Optional (but highly recommended), a collection of supporting files and web addresses that you may upload to our server to support your entry and provide more background information to the judges. These might be planning documents, press clippings, work samples, photographs, video clips, etc.
Achievement Categories | Digital & Emerging Tech Categories | Individual Categories | Product & Solutions Categories | Organization, Team & Department Categories
Individual Categories
Recognizing women leaders, innovators, and rising talent advancing AI across industries.
X01. AI Leader of the Year (New for 2026)
This category will recognize executives, founders, or technology leaders who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in artificial intelligence since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has driven AI strategy, innovation, implementation, or organizational impact through exceptional leadership and measurable results.
X02. AI Leader of the Year – Startup (New for 2026)
This category will recognize executives or founders of startup organizations who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in artificial intelligence since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has driven AI innovation, growth, product development, or market impact within a startup environment.
X03. AI Ethics & Responsible AI Leader of the Year (New for 2026)
This category will recognize individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the ethical and responsible development or implementation of artificial intelligence since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has advanced fairness, transparency, accountability, privacy, or governance in AI systems, along with measurable impact.
X04. AI Product Leader of the Year (New for 2026)
This category will recognize individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the development and success of artificial intelligence products since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has guided product strategy, innovation, user adoption, and measurable business impact through AI-powered products.
X05. AI Researcher of the Year (New for 2026)
This category will recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to artificial intelligence research since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has advanced the field through original research, publications, technical breakthroughs, or contributions to the broader AI community.
X06. AI Rising Star of the Year (New for 2026)
This category recognizes an emerging individual who is demonstrating exceptional promise and early impact in the field of artificial intelligence. Eligible nominees are rising professionals—such as early- to mid-career practitioners, researchers, founders, or innovators—who have made notable contributions to the development, application, or advancement of AI technologies since July 1, 2024.
X07. Woman of the Year in Artificial Intelligence (New for 2026)
This category will recognize individual women, regardless of title or position, who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in artificial intelligence since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has advanced AI innovation, leadership, research, or application, with emphasis on impact, influence, and measurable results.
Organization, Team & Department Categories
Recognizing women-led organizations, as well as teams and departments, demonstrating excellence in AI strategy, development, and impact.
A. Organization-Level Categories
X08. AI Company of the Year (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the organization that has demonstrated outstanding achievement in artificial intelligence since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the organization has advanced AI innovation through products, services, or solutions, with emphasis on impact, growth, leadership, and measurable results.
X09. Startup AI Company of the Year (New for 2026)
This category will recognize startup organizations founded since the beginning of 2025 that have demonstrated outstanding achievement in artificial intelligence. Successful nominations will describe how the organization has introduced innovative AI-driven products or services, achieved early traction, and demonstrated strong growth potential and market impact.
X10. Excellence in AI Innovation (Organization-Level) (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have demonstrated exceptional innovation in artificial intelligence since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the organization has developed or applied AI in new and impactful ways, with emphasis on originality, scalability, and measurable results.
B. Team Achievement Categories
X11. Achievement in AI Innovation by a Team (New for 2026)
Recognizing a team for developing or applying AI in a novel way to solve business challenges or create new opportunities.
X12. Achievement in AI Team Collaboration (New for 2026)
Recognizing outstanding collaboration by a team in the planning, development, or execution of AI-driven initiatives.
X13. Achievement in AI Product Development by a Team (New for 2026)
Recognizing a team’s success in building and launching AI-powered products, platforms, or services.
C. Department Achievement Categories
X14. Achievement in AI Innovation by a Department (New for 2026)
Recognizing a department for developing or applying AI in a novel way to solve business challenges or create new opportunities.
Achievement Categories
Recognizing specific initiatives, implementations, or measurable outcomes driven by AI.
X15. Achievement in AI Transformation (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have successfully used artificial intelligence to drive broad business transformation since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how AI has been strategically implemented to improve operations, accelerate innovation, enhance decision-making, or transform business models across the organization.
X16. Achievement in AI-Driven Business Optimization (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have successfully used artificial intelligence to improve efficiency, productivity, and business performance since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how AI has been applied to streamline workflows, reduce costs, optimize resources, or improve operational outcomes.
X17. Achievement in AI-Powered Customer Experience (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have successfully used artificial intelligence to improve customer experience since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how AI has been used to enhance personalization, improve service delivery, strengthen engagement, or create more seamless and responsive customer interactions.
X18. Achievement in AI for Marketing Effectiveness (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have successfully used artificial intelligence to improve marketing effectiveness since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how AI has been applied to strengthen audience targeting, campaign performance, personalization, content strategy, or marketing analytics to achieve measurable results.
X19. Achievement in AI for Workforce Planning & HR (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have successfully used artificial intelligence to improve workforce planning, talent strategy, or human resources operations since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how AI has been applied to support recruiting, employee engagement, workforce analytics, skills planning, or organizational effectiveness.
X20. Achievement in AI for Financial Innovation (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have successfully used artificial intelligence to drive innovation in finance since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how AI has been applied to improve financial planning, forecasting, risk analysis, fraud detection, investment strategy, or other financial processes and outcomes.
X21. Achievement in AI for Sustainability (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have successfully used artificial intelligence to support environmental sustainability since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how AI has been applied to reduce environmental impact, improve resource efficiency, support climate-related initiatives, or advance sustainability goals.
X22. Achievement in AI for Social Impact (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have successfully used artificial intelligence to create positive social impact since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how AI has been applied to address social challenges, improve access, expand equity, strengthen communities, or generate meaningful societal benefit.
X23. Achievement in Responsible / Ethical AI Implementation (New for 2026)
This category will recognize organizations that have successfully implemented artificial intelligence in a responsible and ethical manner since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how AI has been deployed with strong governance, transparency, accountability, fairness, privacy protections, or risk mitigation practices in place.
X24. Achievement in Women-Led Artificial Intelligence Innovation (New for 2026)
This category will recognize women and women-led organizations that have successfully developed or applied artificial intelligence in innovative ways since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has demonstrated leadership in advancing AI innovation through new technologies, products, services, or applications that deliver meaningful impact.
Product & Solutions Categories
Recognizing AI-powered products, platforms, and solutions developed or led by women.
X25. Best AI Platform or Infrastructure Solution (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best artificial intelligence platform, infrastructure solution, or foundational technology introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe solutions that enable the development, deployment, scaling, or management of AI systems through infrastructure, tooling, frameworks, or core platform capabilities.
X26. Best AI-Powered Customer Service Solution (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best artificial intelligence-powered customer service solution introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe solutions that use AI to improve customer support, service delivery, responsiveness, personalization, or overall customer experience.
X27. Best AI-Powered Financial Technology Solution (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best artificial intelligence-powered financial technology solution introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe solutions that use AI to improve financial services, payments, forecasting, fraud detection, investment tools, or other financial functions and outcomes.
X28. Best AI-Powered HR / Workforce Solution (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best artificial intelligence-powered human resources or workforce solution introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe solutions that use AI to improve recruiting, talent management, workforce planning, employee engagement, learning, or organizational performance.
X29. Best AI-Powered Marketing Solution (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best artificial intelligence-powered marketing solution introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe solutions that use AI to improve campaign strategy, audience targeting, personalization, content generation, performance analysis, or marketing effectiveness.
X30. Best AI Product – Business Solutions (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best artificial intelligence product for business use introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe AI-powered products designed to improve business operations, productivity, decision-making, efficiency, or performance across enterprise environments.
X31. Best AI Product – Consumer Applications (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best artificial intelligence product for consumer use introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe AI-powered products designed for individual users that improve convenience, accessibility, personalization, productivity, or everyday experiences.
X32. Best AI Solution for Social Impact (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best artificial intelligence solution for social impact introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe AI-powered solutions designed to address social, environmental, educational, healthcare, accessibility, or community challenges while delivering measurable positive impact.
X33. Best Generative AI Solution (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best generative artificial intelligence solution introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe solutions that use generative AI to create content, automate creative or analytical tasks, improve productivity, or deliver innovative user experiences across business or consumer applications.
X34. Best Subscription Platform of the Year(New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best subscription-based platform introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe platforms that deliver exceptional value through recurring-access products or services, with particular emphasis on user experience, customer retention, platform performance, growth, and innovation.
Digital & Emerging Tech Categories
X35. Achievement in Digital Transformation (Woman-Led Initiative) (New for 2026)
This category will recognize women and women-led organizations that have successfully driven digital transformation initiatives since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has led the adoption of digital technologies to improve business operations, customer experiences, innovation, efficiency, or organizational performance.
X36. Best Product in Web3 / Blockchain Applications (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the best Web3 or blockchain-based product introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe products that leverage blockchain, decentralized technologies, smart contracts, tokenization, or related innovations to deliver meaningful value, functionality, security, or user impact.
X37. Cloud / Infrastructure Innovation of the Year (New for 2026)
This category will recognize the most innovative cloud or infrastructure solution introduced or significantly updated since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe solutions that improve scalability, performance, reliability, efficiency, security, or operational effectiveness across cloud, infrastructure, or distributed computing environments.
X38. Cybersecurity Leader of the Year (Female) (New for 2026)
This category will recognize female executives, founders, or technology leaders who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in cybersecurity since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has advanced cybersecurity strategy, innovation, resilience, risk management, or organizational protection through exceptional leadership and measurable impact.
X39. Data & Analytics Leader of the Year (New for 2026)
This category will recognize executives, founders, or technology leaders who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in data and analytics since July 1, 2024. Successful nominations will describe how the nominee has advanced data strategy, analytics capabilities, insight generation, data-driven decision-making, or business performance through exceptional leadership and measurable impact.