2026 Winners & Finalists

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AI Academic/Researcher of the Year

Mohammed Bennamoun, The University of Western Australia
Hoang Dinh, University of Technology Sydney
Sophia Duan, La Trobe University
Sonja Frolich, Adelaide University
Amir H Gandomi, University of Technology Sydney
Chadni Islam, Edith Cowan University
Shahroz Tariq, CSIRO
Fatemeh Vafaee, UNSW Biomedical AI (Vafaee Lab)
Feng Wang, Swinburne University of Technology
Justin (Jia) Wu, Macquarie University

AI Consultant of the Year - Enterprise

Zoe Banning, IBM
Samson Blackburn, Avanade
Sam Burrett, MinterEllison
Dalvin Chien, Mills Oakley
Vijhai Grayan, AvePoint
Sean Gurney, Data#3
Amreet Prasad, BDO
Ramon Rodriguez, Acquire Intelligence | Applied AI Australia
Lily Xia, EY
Poonam Zham, IBM

AI Consultant of the Year - SME

Douglas Adams, Xact Accounting
Mark Byrne, Headspring
Matthew Eddy, Everingham Legal
Jarryd Holmes, Bolder Digital
Amantha Imber, inventium.ai
Chris Kourloufas, Coras
Bart Puszko, Blue Seas AI Consulting
Yiya Sun, Optimise AI Consulting
Nicholas Urry, Dexterous AI
Garth Walker, Iugo

AI Female Leader of the Year - Enterprise

Renae Anderson, UniSuper
Zoe Banning, IBM
Sarah Bell, MRI Software
Chelsea Gordon, MinterEllison
Jemma Hirst, Grant Thornton
Bobbie MacDougall, Lendi Group
Juliana Malta, Carbon Group
Aria Nguyen, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers
Lily Xia, EY
Poonam Zham, IBM

AI Female Leader of the Year - SME

Sarah Barnbrook, Away from Keyboard Inc.
Brooke Hall-Carney, LK Law
Levanna Lam, Law Lawyers & Associates
Hailey Mason, Evatto
Ramona Roach, Ethika Group
Judy Sahay, ID/Ai
Alice Tang, Amplify AI Group
Natalia Tapia, Gradstack
Melanie Wind, Perci Health
Dr Nici Sweaney, Ai Her Way

AI Leader of the Year - Enterprise

Dr Sharif Abuadbba, CSIRO
Emad Alhajjeh, Equifax Australia
Zoe Banning, IBM
Courtney Blackman, FARBLACK Advisory (Formerly Lander & Rogers)
Shane Dzartov, NAB
Dan Hart, University of Sydney
Stephen Hunt, Slack
Luke Kendall, Gadens
Ben Swindale, Grant Thornton
Dinesh (Dino) Velusamy, Wurth Australia

AI Leader of the Year - SME

Jacob Carswell-Doherty, Jake McKinley
Ahson Kamal, Accelevate
Alexander Laureti, LMS Advisory
Tim Lillyman, XPON
Stephen Manning, FinChat
Matthew McNair, Boyce
Lambros Photios, Adaca
Kelvin Ross, KJR
Brad Ryan, i-screen
Damien Waugh, Unified Lawyers

AI Software Engineer of the Year

Samson Blackburn, Avanade
Cooper Corbett, Tilt Legal
Daniel Fitzmaurice, Aurecon
Tim Gaul, Pathfindr
Lawrence Hunt, Maurice Blackburn
Lucien Koefoed, Codex
Jeremy Morris, LegalVision
Harold Quinones, Luminance
Taimoor Shabih, The Industry Platform
Vincent Yeung, Leidos Australia

AI Innovator - Accountancy Services

AI Dojo
Dext
Elfworks
Jazoodle
National Accounts
NeX Automate
Precision Tax & Accounting
Smart Business Solutions
TaxEase360 Australia
Tax Guru AI

AI Innovator - Aerospace Sector

Esper Satellite Imagery
Starbound Space Solutions

AI Innovator - Banking

Apate.ai
de.iterate
DoxAI Australia
Evolve Broker

AI Innovator - Cyber Security

Anomali
Apate.ai
BCyber
CyberHeed
Exabeam
Horizon3
KnowBe4
Secure Code Warrior
The Digital Safeguard Centre
TrendAI

AI Innovator - Defence and National Security

Arkeus
Arms Operations Analysis
DroneShield
Greenroom Robotics
Callease AI
Operator XR
OSINT Combine
RAVEN.AI
Starbound Space Solutions
Trellis Data

AI Innovator - Energy Sector

Hydro Tasmania
Origin
Santos
Unleash live

AI Innovator - Financial Services

Bridgit
CoinJar
Docuscan
Otivo
Pivot Wealth
Prospa
rubica
UniSuper
WLTH
York St Capital

AI Innovator - Healthcare

Amica AI
Atlato
Beamtree
Cenaris
Clinrol
Doccy
Local Knowledge
OmniTx.AI
TMRW Health
Toowoomba Dental

AI Innovator - Human Resources

Access Offshoring
Clearhead
ELMO Software
Employment Hero
nXus People
PrimeSoft Global
TOA Global

AI Innovator - Industrial Sector

4AI Systems
AIBUILD
Atlato
BildGroup
Decoda
GeelongPort
NavLab (The Navigation Laboratory)
PETRA Data Science
Vittoria Food & Beverage
Western Australia Machine Intelligence Group

AI Innovator - Information Technology

Atturra
BGL Corporate Solutions
Camplify Holdings Limited
Creart Digital Media
DoubleDesk
Dynatrace
Fruition
LogicMonitor
Pioneer
V2 AI

AI Innovator - Insurance

Allianz Retire+
BizCover Australia
de.iterate
HCF
Kanopi
Konkrd
myVal
PropertyExpert

AI Innovator - Legal Practice

Ashurst Perkins Coie
Australian Migration Lawyers
Attune Legal
Faculti Lawyers
Gilbert + Tobin
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
Hicksons | Hunt & Hunt | Holman Webb
LegalVision
Maurice Blackburn
MinterEllison

AI Innovator - Legal Services Provider

Awelle
Epiq
InfoTrack
nicholii Legal Pty Ltd
LawConnect
LawVu
LawY
LEAP Legal Software
Quillio
Thomson Reuters

AI Innovator - Media and Communication Services

AwardGenie
Creart Digital Media
Digital Agency Co
EZ Agency
Sefiani, part of Clarity Global
Symphonics AI

AI Innovator - Mortgage Broking

Accurateli
Cynario
Docuscan
Finance Better
Lendi Group
LoanOptions.ai
Mortgage Choice
Quickli
Redrock Group
SecondBrain Sharp AI

AI Innovator - Property Investment

Archistar AI
BuyerLens
de.iterate
Gembrocks
Healthy Wealthy Investor
InvestorKit
Local Knowledge Property Group
Rethink AI part of Rethink Group
The Property Accountant

AI Innovator - Real Estate

AML Partners
BA ICON
Intellistrata
InvestorKit
iRealty
ListingLogic
Real Estate Ai
Rex Software
SearchX
TRACit

AI Innovator - Utilities

Beca
Origin
Unleash Live
Western Australia Machine Intelligence Group

AI Innovator – Public Sector

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), Government of Western Australia, and The University of Western Australia (UWA)
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ)
The University of Newcastle
The University of Sydney
University of Technology Sydney

AI Innovator – Start Up

Admiin
Archistar AI
Citizen Sandbox
Cybermate
DoxAI Australia
Fortifyedge.ai
LegalScout
RentRolli
Sqylark
TernaryNet

Best Application of Responsible AI

AICarer
LawY
Origin
Paxmod
PromptLeash
Prospa
Seer Data & Analytics
SkillsAware
Spero-ai
Telstra

Best Use of Agentic AI

BGL Corporate Solutions
Engage Squared
Equifax Australia
InfoTrack
LoanOptions.ai
Restive
TAFS – The Asset Finance Shop
Tech Mahindra
Thomson Reuters
Zembl

Best Use of Agentic AI – Start Up

AgenticScale.AI
Agents for Humanity by Enterprise Monkey
Backable
Cordexa
Eolas Solutions
Ground Effect
LegalScout
ORCA Opti Software
Sparrow XPL
Synap AI

Best Use of AI – Sustainability

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) and The University of Western Australia (UWA)
La Trobe University
McGregor Coxall
Nuvento

2026 winners and finalists