WINNING BIG

Planner 5D Brings Spatial AI to the Smartest Home in History

Most apps stop at a pretty render. Planner 5D actually rebuilds your room. The 2026 AI Excellence Award winner is using spatial reconstruction on regular phones to create editable digital twins, basically turning every renovation into a software problem instead of a measuring-tape problem.

When the World's Most Conservative Companies Bet Everything on AI

What happens when the most risk-averse enterprises become the most aggressive AI adopters? Anton Dam, SVP of Product AI at Optro, is watching it happen in real time. His company is helping half the Fortune 500 turn internal audit from a reactive compliance function into a genuine strategic advantage — and the secret is something you might not expect.

Why AI Training Data Integrity Is the Cybersecurity Blind Spot Nobody Is Talking About

Most AI teams obsess over model performance and infrastructure, yet a quieter risk hides inside the human data layer. Siobhan Hanna, SVP and General Manager of Welo Data, just won an AI Excellence Award for NEMO, the framework her team built to spot fraud before it ever touches a training set. Here is why it matters for every founder, operator, and AI leader right now.

Only 1% of Enterprises Are Ready for Agent-to-Agent. That's About to Be a Problem.

Most major companies still run on 1980s IVR technology, and a new wave of voice AI is coming faster than anyone expected. Parloa CMO Latane Conant breaks down why only 1% of enterprises are ready for the agent-to-agent future, and what it really takes to fix the broken front door of customer service.

AI Beyond Insights: How Reclaim Health Is Actually Putting Money Back in Your Pocket

Nataly Youssef, CEO and Founder of Reclaim Health, joins the Winners' Circle to discuss how their AI Excellence Award winning platform automatically recovers healthcare dollars that employers and employees are already entitled to but never receive. She explains why AI should do work for people rather than create more work, and how Reclaim turns insights into actual dollars recovered.

The End of Shoes Following You Around the Internet: How Contextual AI Is Fixing Digital Advertising

Kartal Goksel, CTO of Seedtag, joins the Winners' Circle to discuss how their AI Excellence Award winning Liz AI is transforming digital advertising through neuro-contextual targeting. He explains why ads that match the moment you are in actually resonate with your brain rather than creating that cognitive friction we have all learned to ignore.

Breaking the Grid Bottleneck: How Battery-Integrated Chargers Are Accelerating EV Infrastructure

The grid is the bottleneck. Not the cars, not the technology, not even the capital. Alex Urist, co-founder of XCHARGE North America, has spent years watching promising EV charging projects stall for 52 to 72 weeks waiting for transformer drops. His company built a solution: battery-integrated DC fast chargers that bypass the queue and get charging infrastructure deployed in three months.

How Enterprise AI Innovation Conquered Highly Regulated Industries in 2026

The 2026 We Love Tech Awards just wrapped, and the winners came from places nobody expected to lead on AI: hospitals, banks, government, and the world's biggest consulting firms. Co-host Evan Kirstel and Russ Fordyce break down the EY scale story, the rise of "token maxing," and why trust is now the defining AI competency. Real winners, real ROI, real workflows.

Augmented Intelligence in Healthcare: How Sagility's Nurse Assist Is Transforming Prior Authorization

Healthcare is highly regulated, deeply complex, and running on legacy systems built over decades. Yet the prior authorization process cannot wait. Madan Moudgal, Chief Digital Officer at Sagility, has spent nearly 40 years at the intersection of technology and healthcare. His team built Nurse Assist, an AI solution that cuts clinical review time in half while ensuring humans remain in control of every critical decision.

Creating the Wow Experience: How SysAid Blends AI and Human Touch in Customer Support

When a customer tells you that your support department gave them a "wow experience," you frame that quote and share it with your entire team. That is exactly what Asaf Goldstein, Senior Director of Global Customer Care at SysAid, did. The company has spent 25 years in IT service management, but the last few years have transformed how they deliver support by blending AI capabilities with irreplaceable human empathy.

You Can't Fake Life: How Verifast Is Solving the Trust Problem in Rental Housing

Credit scores measure your propensity to pay based on history. They say nothing about your actual ability to pay right now. That distinction matters enormously for the roughly 45 million Americans who are credit invisible or unscorable, including immigrants, recent graduates, and anyone who grew up in a cash economy. Tim Ray, Co-Founder and CEO of Verifast, is building AI-powered identity and income verification that lets these financially solid people prove who they are and what they can actually afford.

Building a C-3PO for Your Spend: How SIB Is Transforming Procurement with Private AI

Most companies have not done a top-to-bottom audit of their spend in over 15 years. Shannon Copeland, CEO of SIB, is changing that with SpendBrain, an AI platform that builds private semantic ontologies for each client. The system catches invoice errors, identifies savings opportunities, and eventually learns to proactively surface problems before anyone asks, all while keeping data completely walled off from everyone, including SIB itself.

Why Chasing Stolen Cars Was Always the Wrong Strategy

The automotive security industry spent decades selling tracking devices that chase stolen cars. Titan Secure won by recognizing that's backwards - stop the theft before the vehicle moves and you save customers from catastrophic loss, emotional trauma, and thousands in out-of-pocket costs insurance won't cover.

The Process Nobody Prepares For: How EstateExec Is Modernizing Estate Settlement

Everybody dies, and somebody has to deal with the aftermath. Dan Stickel built EstateExec after serving as executor for both his parents' estates and discovering that even his Harvard degrees and CEO experience did not prepare him for the confusion. The company has pioneered AI-powered estate settlement software that provides step-by-step guidance customized to your state, your jurisdiction, and your specific situation.

How QuickFi is Fixing Small Business Lending By Putting It Where It Actually Belongs

QuickFi just won the 2026 BIG Innovation Awards for something pretty remarkable: making it so small businesses can actually get equipment financing without wanting to tear their hair out. Their embedded lending platform is changing how 33 million American small businesses access the capital they desperately need.

How Winning Business Awards Transforms Employee Morale and Retention

Most companies think about awards as a PR tool. The ones that really get it understand that winning an award does something just as important inside the building. This post looks at the research connecting external recognition to employee morale, retention, and the kind of culture that makes people actually want to stay.

Business Awards vs. Rankings: Which One Actually Wins for PR and Brand Reputation?

There is actually a real debate in PR circles about whether rankings or business awards do more for your brand. This post breaks down how each option works, what the data says about brand reputation impact, and why more smart marketing teams are leaning one direction. Spoiler: third-party credibility matters more than ever right now.

Quality First: How HaystackID® Built AI for eDiscovery Without Cutting Corners

Most companies treat AI like an easy button. HaystackID® treats it like a precision instrument. Aaron Pribil abd Todd Haley have spent five years testing AI systems in eDiscovery before rolling them out to clients. Their approach prioritizes quality over speed, governance over shortcuts, and validation over assumptions. The result is 90%+ recall rates and 60-70% time savings for legal teams handling massive document reviews.

The Content Explosion Meets Global Scale: How Vistatec Combines AI and Human Expertise

The content explosion is real, and global brands are struggling to keep up. Vistatec has spent 30 years helping the world's largest companies localize content, and now their AI powered platform orchestrates humans and machines to process tens of thousands of jobs weekly across 250 languages. CMO Simon Hodgkins explains why AI alone cannot maintain brand trust and why the vendor relationship has fundamentally changed from provider to integrator.

The Real ROI of Business Awards: What It Costs and What You Get Back

Entering a business award is an investment, and your CFO is going to ask what you got for it. This post breaks down the real costs to apply, walks through recognition ROI case studies from US companies, and gives you a framework to make the numbers work in your favor before you ever submit a nomination.

How Casca Slashed Small Business Loan Approvals From 90 Days To 3 Weeks

Lukas Haffer built Casca to automate small business lending for banks, transforming 90-day loan approvals into three-week decisions and helping America's 33 million small businesses escape predatory lenders charging over 100% APR.

Lead People, Manage Projects: The Transformative Leadership of Lori Tompos

Lori Tompos, Herizon Award winner, West Point graduate, Desert Storm veteran, and founder of Avail Consulting, has built her career around a powerful leadership principle: lead people, manage projects. In this Winner’s Circle feature, she explains why micromanagement damages trust, why people leave managers more often than jobs, and how leaders can build stronger teams through competency, confidence, and compassion. The article explores Lori’s journey from mastering the Patriot missile system during Desert Storm to helping organizations develop better communicators and more human-centered leaders. It also covers the growing importance of empathy, critical thinking, psychological safety, and high human skills as AI reshapes the modern workplace.

What Is the ROI of an Employee Recognition Program? Your Complete Guide to Costs, Returns, and Making It Work

Building the business case for an employee recognition program is harder than it should be. This post does the work for you - covering realistic setup costs, the research on what recognition programs actually return, and practical moves to get the most out of every dollar you invest in appreciating your people.

Democratizing Great Communication: How Prezent Is Transforming Life Sciences Presentations

Almost everybody creates presentations, but very few people are good at it. Vikram Venugopal, SVP at Prezent, has spent decades teaching life sciences teams how to communicate effectively, and now his company serves 45 of the top 50 pharma companies with an AI native platform that understands the difference between a clinical trial chart and a sales graph. The mission is simple: democratize great business communication so that drugs get to patients faster.

9 Practical Ways to Turn Good Work Into an Award-Worthy Entry

So, this piece breaks down what strong entries actually do well, from proof and structure to supporting files and internal prep. In fact, it is built for busy marketers and agency teams that want better odds without wasting weeks on a shaky nomination, and it gives them a repeatable framework they can reuse across programs.

The $80 Billion Barrier Most Marketers Are Ignoring

Steve Rotter is on his fourth CMO role, this time at DeepL, and he says language is the barrier most companies are still ignoring. On The Winners' Circle, he breaks down why specialized AI models beat general-purpose ones by a wide margin, how 44,000 blind tests prove it, and what a truly borderless business looks like when translation is no longer the bottleneck.

The AI Platform That Finally Answers: Did You Get a Good Deal?

Infinity Loop has built something procurement teams have actually wanted for years: an AI platform that answers the fundamental question of whether you got a good deal or not. By training machine learning on real negotiation outcomes across industries, the platform scores every contract, identifies savings opportunities, and provides specific strategies with benchmark data, saving procurement managers 80 to 90 percent of their prep time.

Rethinking Pharma Marketing: How EVERSANA Built an 80/20 AI Model That Actually Works

EVERSANA has completely rethought pharmaceutical marketing by building an AI platform that targets 80 percent automation with 20 percent human expertise for high value decisions. What used to take months and involve 50 to 60 people touching a project now happens in weeks with 5 to 10 specialists, delivering 30 percent cost savings while actually enabling personalization that pharma compliance has historically made impossible.

How ACM Research Is Cutting Semiconductor Waste By 50% To Feed The AI Chip Boom

Jim Straus at ACM Research is betting big on bringing semiconductor manufacturing home to American soil after watching his company grow revenue by a staggering 50% year-over-year for the past six or seven years. The AI boom is driving what industry analysts are calling an unprecedented "giga cycle" in semiconductor demand and the ACM team are pioneering panel-level packaging technology that eliminates the massive waste inherent in traditional round wafer processing by switching to square panels, achieving up to 50% cost reductions while meeting the insatiable demand for AI chips that now represent nearly half of all global semiconductor revenue.

Why Your Best Marketing Move Might Be Spending Less on Google and Meta

Amol Waishampayan has been building Full Throttle AI since 2018, long before AI became a buzzword, and he has a pretty clear-eyed view of where most mid-market advertisers are getting it wrong. On The Winners' Circle, he walks through household-level identity, why spending less on paid search can actually improve your paid search results, and what the difference between AI-enabled and AI-powered really means for your tech stack.

Inside the Innovation Machine: How Axalta Delivers No Compromise Sustainability

Axalta Coating Systems has built what CTO Dr. Robert Roop calls an innovation machine, winning a historic six BIG Innovation Awards in a single year. The 160 year old coatings leader proves that performance and sustainability are not at odds, with products that reduce energy use, emissions and waste while simultaneously improving performance, durability and aesthetics.

What Judges Really Look For in Award Nominations

So, this post shows what judges actually notice when they score a nomination, and why polished language alone never carries the day. In fact, it is built for marketing leaders and agency teams that want to write for the scorecard, not for internal applause, with sharper proof, cleaner structure, and stronger trust signals.

Best Practices for Building an Award Application Plan That Actually Works

So, this post walks through the planning side of awards, from picking the right categories to building a timeline that your team can actually manage. In fact, it is meant for marketers and PR teams that want a repeatable system, not a panic sprint, and it shows how one submission can feed broader content and credibility goals.

10 Smart Moves That Make Award Applications More Likely to Win

So, this article covers the internal and external tactics that make submissions stronger before they ever hit the judging queue. In fact, it is a practical guide for teams that want steadier wins and fewer last-minute surprises, with advice on customer proof, metrics, editing discipline, and turning each nomination into durable third-party validation.

The Transformation Company That Transformed Itself: Inside Bizzdesign's Three-Way Merger

Most transformations fail at the start. Nick Reed of Bizzdesign has seen it happen repeatedly: organizations spend months trying to find the data needed to plan the initiative, stakeholders leave workshops thinking they are aligned when they are not, and unforeseen dependencies surface that blow up business cases. His company just completed a three-way merger of competitors, tripling in size while running a transformation business. The irony is not lost on him.

How BDO Saved a Million Hours With AI (And Why They're Just Getting Started)

When BDO's RAID team set out to bring AI into one of America's largest accounting firms, they didn't start with a product. They started with a conversation. Zak Fay and his crew of ferocious learners built nine robust, purpose-built solutions in under a year, and supported BDO’s enterprise AI tools that saved over a million hours, and got over halfof the firm using AI every week. Here's how they did it without losing the human in the equation.

Why Most Companies Are Just Clicking a Button and Hoping Their AI Chatbot Is Secure

Most companies click a button in their cloud provider hoping their AI chatbot is secure. Fuel iX won by recognizing red team security testing cannot scale when expert availability lags behind daily AI application launches - so they automated comprehensive vulnerability detection with AI that identifies risks human testers miss.

How to Improve Your Chances of Winning Industry Awards Without Resorting to Hype

So, this piece is about improving your odds, not gaming the process. In fact, it shows how stronger planning, proof, and positioning can make your next entry easier to judge and much harder to ignore, with practical moves that help teams turn good work into credible recognition and reusable market proof.

The AI Sales Agent That Learned to Sell Like the Best Humans

Humara has actually cracked the code on AI sales by studying how the best human salespeople perform and then training virtual agents to mirror those exact techniques. The company is seeing conversion rates up to 23 percent and customers adding 24 percent more products per transaction, proving that the art of selling can indeed be taught to machines when you really understand the psychology behind it.

How AI Call Analytics Is Transforming the Way Car Dealerships Sell and Serve

BIG Innovation Award winner CallRevu has transformed automotive sales by bringing AI-powered call analytics to over 6,000 dealerships across North America. CEO Ben Chodor explains how analyzing 400 million calls annually helps dealers discover their blind spots, train employees through AI simulation, and ultimately sell more cars while improving customer retention.

How WEX Is Transforming Healthcare Claims from Weeks to Seconds with AI

WEX has actually revolutionized the often frustrating FSA claims reimbursement process through innovative AI technology. Senior Vice President Prashant Desale shares how his team built an end-to-end solution in just little over six months that validates claims in seconds rather than weeks, all while maintaining the accuracy and trust that regulated industries require.

Where Dirt Meets AI: Inside the Construction Revolution Powering Data Centers

Aligned Data Centers is building the physical foundation of the AI revolution across four Phoenix campuses. Construction leader Alex Walker reveals how flexibility in design, early partner collaboration, and the pivot to liquid cooling are actually reshaping how data centers get built in a market where bigger and faster are really the only constants.

Voice Screening: The Future of Fraud Detection in Financial Services

Voice screening is emerging as a powerful new approach to fraud detection in financial services, offering a faster, more accurate alternative to traditional verification methods. In this blog, Scott Moore of Clearspeed explains how the company’s technology measures involuntary neurophysiological responses in a person’s voice to assess risk in real time—requiring just milliseconds of audio. Unlike conventional AI or pattern-based systems, Clearspeed’s approach avoids bias by focusing solely on biological reactions rather than personal data or historical trends. With validated accuracy rates as high as 97%, the technology enables organizations to quickly clear low-risk cases while focusing resources on higher-risk ones. Originally developed for military use, voice screening is now being applied across insurance, banking, and government sectors. While the technology delivers significant ROI and efficiency gains, Moore highlights that the real challenge lies in rethinking legacy processes to fully leverage its capabilities. As fraud grows more sophisticated, voice-based risk assessment offers a scalable path toward faster, fairer, and more trustworthy verification.

Beyond the Hype: How 50 Billion Intent Signals Per Week Are Actually Making ABM Work

Account-based marketing has long promised precision, but execution has lagged behind the reality of complex B2B buying groups. With 5 to 15 stakeholders influencing decisions, marketers need more than strategy. They need actionable intelligence. This blog explores how Anteriad, led by VP of Product Anna Nielsen, is turning 50 billion weekly intent signals into real results. By combining intent data, firmographics, and AI, marketers can identify who is in market, prioritize accounts, and engage buying groups with relevant messaging across channels. From full-funnel orchestration to AI-driven personalization and faster reporting, the piece breaks down what actually works versus what is hype. The takeaway is simple but powerful. Better data and smarter execution lead to better customer experiences, stronger engagement, and ABM that finally delivers at scale.

Why Your Executive's Home WiFi is Your Company's Biggest Security Gap

Corporations spend billions protecting executives at work, then allow them to go home to WiFi networks with default or unchanged passwords that have been shared with dozens of neighbors and friends. BlackCloak won Product of the Year by building the first comprehensive Digital Executive Protection Platform that actually secures “the other 12 hours” of the family's day.

How to Turn Field Techs into AI-Powered Problem Solvers

Joshua Turiano and his team at Blue Stream Fiber deployed AI across their entire telecom operation, cutting support times and empowering employees with instant network intelligence. This is what practical AI implementation actually looks like in the field.

What the 2026 Best Places to Work Data Tells Us About Employee Sentiment

The 2026 Best Places to Work benchmark data is in, and the story is more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Scores held nearly flat, compensation concerns dominated open feedback, and retention signals quietly improved across the board. If you manage people, market to employers, or advise HR teams, this data is worth understanding.

From Engineering to Enterprise: How AI Partnerships Are Reshaping High-Performance Computing

This feature follows Samantha Clarke’s journey from hands-on engineering in New Zealand to leading global AI partnerships at VDURA. Clarke—recently honored with a 2025 Herizon Award—explains how the engineering mindset translates perfectly into partnership strategy, systems thinking, and relationship-led growth. She reveals why AI and HPC are now inseparable, how co-creation is replacing traditional sales models, and why the human element still anchors an accelerating AI world. Packed with insight on scaling through ecosystems, cloud-first experimentation, and mentoring women in tech, this story is a must‑read for anyone building the future of enterprise AI.

How Real Estate Firms Are Finally Making Data Actually Work With AI Agents

Real estate data was basically a nightmare until companies like Cherre started connecting everything together. Now with AI agents, that connected data is actually becoming something remarkable - turning weeks of analysis into minutes of insight.

The HIPAA-Compliant Cloud Crisis Nobody's Talking About (And How One Company Cracked It)

Marty Puranik's Atlantic.Net just won the 2026 BIG Innovation Awards for building the infrastructure healthcare needs to deploy AI securely. With 31 years in the game, they're solving the hardest problem in the industry: how to run cutting-edge AI while staying HIPAA compliant.

How AI Turned Customer Analytics From a Weeks-Long Manual Effort Into Instant Insights and Proven CX Outcomes

Want to know why some companies are winning at AI-driven customer experience while others struggle? Daniel Ziv, global VP, AI and analytics from Verint shares how AI is transforming call center analytics from a weeks-long slog into instant insights. The secret isn't just the AI models everyone can access, it's your unique behavioral data that creates an unbeatable competitive advantage.

The Invisible Infrastructure Problem Burning Out Healthcare Teams

Healthcare documentation is treated like an administrative afterthought until something goes catastrophically wrong. Simplify Healthcare’s Simplify Docs™ won Product of the Year by recognizing this invisible infrastructure problem and building AI that automates the entire lifecycle - from regulations to translations to compliance.

Three Circles That Get You Through Any Merger (From Someone Who's Survived Eight)

After navigating eight major mergers herself, Ruth Redding built the Change Accelerator Program to help executives and companies manage the anxiety and uncertainty of organizational transformation. Her approach combines psychological insight with practical tools like Cloverleaf's AI-powered coaching platform.

Celebrating Our 2025 All Star Judges: The Heartbeat of Fair Recognition

Meet our 2025 All Star Judges — 90+ senior technology leaders from Amazon, Google, Meta, SAP, Oracle, and more who volunteer their expertise to evaluate every BIG Awards submission. Learn why their commitment to transparent, crowd-sourced judging sets the gold standard in business recognition.

The Giants That Refused to Move Slow: 2026's Top Enterprise Innovators

The biggest companies face the biggest challenges when it comes to innovation. These 10 enterprise organizations proved that size doesn't have to slow you down. From revolutionizing cataract surgery to eliminating stored credentials forever, these winners are literally changing how entire industries operate.

Deepfakes, Supply Chain Gaps, and Non-Human Identities Push Cyber Leaders Toward the 2026 Fortress Awards

The 2026 Fortress Cyber Security Awards are open with new lanes for Agentic AI Security Platform, GenAI AppSec, and Non Human Identity, and this update, in short, fits enterprise risk far beyond PR or narrow B2B needs. Now, the post links to CISA Zero Trust, NIST AI RMF, OWASP LLM Top 10, ENISA supply chain research, FBI advisories on AI impersonation, and Federal Reserve plus FTC guidance on synthetic identity, so leaders get sources they can cite. Now, people honors cover Principal Strategist, Cyber Lead, Intelligence Lead, Technical Fellow, and The Unit, so culture and outcomes meet.

When Resources Meet Vision: 2026's Top Large Business Innovators

Large businesses have resources that startups can only dream about. But actually using those resources to innovate? That's where most stumble. These 10 winners from the 2026 BIG Innovation Awards proved that when you're big enough to matter but still hungry enough to move fast, breakthrough innovation happens. From AI hearing aids to quantum-resistant chips, they're reshaping entire industries.

The Sweet Spot: 2026's Top Medium-Sized Business Innovators

Medium-sized businesses face unique challenges - competing against enterprises with deeper pockets while staying ahead of nimble startups. These 10 winners from the 2026 BIG Innovation Awards proved that the middle ground can be the sweet spot for innovation. From battery storage systems enabling EV charging anywhere to AI predicting aircraft maintenance to PFAS remediation protecting communities, they're solving problems nobody else can.

Why Your Voice of Customer Strategy Is Probably Stuck in the Last Century

Most brands still rely on surveys to understand customers, but that approach is basically a century old. Revuze is using specialized AI to turn consumer reviews, social data, and support tickets into real recommendations that move the needle.

Precision Innovation: 2026's Top Small Business Innovators

Small businesses don't have the luxury of trying every idea to see what sticks. They need to get it right the first time. These 10 winners from the 2026 BIG Innovation Awards did exactly that. From redefining express delivery using commercial flight cargo space to engineering soybeans that signal infection weeks early, they're solving problems with precision, creativity, and urgency that larger companies can only envy.

Breaking Through: How Women Leaders Are Transforming Critical Infrastructure for the AI Era

This interview with Herizon Award winner Laurie Oswald dives into what it really takes to modernize two century old battery companies that power AI era data centers and critical infrastructure. Oswald explains how she is globalizing commercial operations, launching digital platforms, and navigating the shift from lead acid to advanced chemistries while protecting hard won reliability and brand trust. She also shares candid advice for women in tech leadership on authenticity, claiming space, building networks, and using AI to augment (not replace) sales and commercial teams. A powerful read for anyone leading transformation in complex, legacy environments.

The Multilingual Future of AI: Lessons from TCS’s Radhakrishna Banavalikar on Modernization with Meaning

Radhakrishna (Krish) Banavalikar, AI and Modernization Leader at TCS, is reframing digital transformation as a moral and architectural challenge. His research into multilingual bias and responsible AI governance bridges data mesh frameworks, compliance, and cultural inclusion. From mentoring 300+ professionals to guiding global enterprises toward traceable, explainable systems, Krish defines what responsible AI modernization looks like in practice — a balance between technical precision and human integrity.

From Survey to Strategy: How AI Transforms Best Places to Work Data Into Action

Employee surveys have always been powerful tools for understanding company culture. Until recently, though, they were also maddeningly difficult to use effectively. The Best Places to Work Awards are changing that equation by combining rigorous, research-backed surveys with modern AI that turns thousands of employee responses into clear, actionable insights in hours instead of weeks. If you're already investing the time to participate, you're sitting on one of the richest data assets you'll collect all year - and AI makes unlocking it faster than ever.

Why Human Relationships Still Rule in Business Results

In an era obsessed with automation, many teams are learning that more bots and more dials do not automatically mean better results. When every touchpoint feels robotic, buyers tune out. Tools like PhoneBurner and ARMORⓇ spam protection show that the real win is combining smart tech with respectful, human outreach that boosts answer rates and live conversations without feeling spammy. As Chris Sorensen notes, it is about using software to hit quotas in a more human way. Ultimately, strong relationships, not automations, are what turn activity into trust, loyalty, and meaningful business outcomes.

The Intimacy Economy: Why SMS Marketing Is Actually Getting More Personal, Not Less

SMS is becoming the most personal and effective business channel. Amanda McGuckin Hager, TrueDialog CMO and CRO and a 2025 SAMMY Award winner, explains how cultural shifts away from calls and email make text the trusted bat line for customers. Strict 10DLC authentication, easy opt in and opt out, and per message costs keep spam low and engagement high. TrueDialog integrations with Teams, Salesforce, and Dynamics embed texting in daily workflows, while revenue tools must treat SMS as a strong close signal. As RCS enriches messaging, protecting intimacy matters. The playbook: respect consent, integrate seamlessly, and send only timely value.

Lessons from Daria Leshchenko: Building a Global B2B-AI Powered Service Business

Unpack what shrinks down to three core lessons from Daria Leshchenko: build your business from the ground up, centre people then process, and use B2B AI to scale while keeping humans at the heart. Her story of taking a one-client support desk to a 2,000-strong global service provider offers entrepreneurial leadership lessons that apply across domains—from tech ventures to awards programs and services. If you’re building something that matters, this piece gives frameworks to follow, signals to watch and questions to ask.

Inside BrightCHAMPS With Founder and CEO Ravi Bhushan

BrightCHAMPS founder and CEO Ravi Bhushan is rethinking K-12 schooling for an age of intelligence on demand. His company, now active in 30+ countries, blends coding, financial literacy, robotics, communication, and generative AI along with STEM-accredited traditional academics, supported by AI tutors and Agentic AI systems that personalize learning and monitor quality at scale. The result is higher retention, growing global enrollment, and a new kind of classroom where curiosity is the main engine. This conversation explores what skills still matter when AI can answer almost anything and how to raise children who are both empowered and grounded.

The Human Side of Innovation: Sophie Reymond on AI, Mentorship, and Building CoworkHer

Herizon Award winner Sophie Reymond is redefining what it means to lead in communications. As founder of SRPR, she’s helping tech and biotech companies embrace AI in public relations without losing authenticity. As co-founder of CoworkHer, she’s creating a mentorship community for women ready to grow and connect. In this Winner’s Circle conversation, Sophie shares her journey from burnout to building balance, her pragmatic optimism about AI, and why empathy is still the strongest technology we have.

The Data Whisperer: How AWS’s Harshit Kohli Turns Generative AI into Real Business Change

In this Winner’s Circle conversation, AWS’s Harshit Kohli unpacks how generative AI in cloud computing is changing everything from data management to decision-making. He explains why AI isn’t a magic wand, how data quality drives real impact, and why education is the missing piece in adoption. Harshit’s grounded perspective blends optimism with practical insight, showing how enterprises can start small, stay compliant, and scale confidence—not just technology. His message is simple: AI won’t replace humans, but humans who understand AI will replace those who don’t.

AI: The Gifts That Keep on Giving

AI productivity tools are transforming the way we work, making it easier to automate tasks, boost creativity, and collaborate more effectively. From OptimizeGEO’s white glove account management to Hume AI’s emotional intelligence insights, these tools are perfect for anyone looking to stay ahead in 2025. Whether you’re a marketer, sales pro, or just someone who wants to get more done, there’s an AI tool here for you.

Building Trustworthy AI in Healthcare: Insights from Narendran (Naren) Santhanam of Counterpart Health

Counterpart Health’s Director of Analytics and Winners’ Circle All-Star Judge Narendran (Naren) Santhanam explains why explainable AI is essential to building trust in healthcare. He shares how he moved from mainframes to cloud analytics, how to balance innovation with compliance, and why integrating data from across the healthcare ecosystem is critical for AI adoption. Naren also discusses what makes award nominations stand out to him: measurable real-world outcomes. Learn more on his Judge Profile.

Maggie Doyne’s BlinkNow Model Is Redefining What Sustainable Compassion Looks Like

When 19-year-old Maggie Doyne met children breaking stones in Nepal, she couldn’t have known she was about to launch one of the world’s most admired community models. Her BlinkNow Foundation has grown from a rented home into a self-sustaining campus that educates hundreds of children, empowers women, and inspires global replication. Through her leadership, Doyne proves that compassion, when structured and sustained, can change entire communities — one small act at a time.

Winning Awards: A Proven Strategy to Build Authority on GEO

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) reshapes discovery: AI prioritizes verified authority over keywords. Prestigious awards act as high-value trust signals, boosting inclusion in AI answers, voice/chat results, and recommendations. Winners who publish structured proofs—badges, certificates, case studies—earn durable visibility, credibility, and growth. In the GEO era, awards are essential strategy today.

Prove the ROI of That Business Award Before Your CFO Asks

Winning a BIG award comes with more than a trophy — it delivers a full content and brand visibility package valued at over $6,000. Here’s how to pitch it to your boss.

Unlocking the Future of IT Spend: Paolo Sellari and Tangoe’s FinOps and Cloud Optimization Journey

On the Winners’ Circle Podcast, Paolo Sellari, Director of Product Management at Tangoe, explains how the company leverages $34 billion in IT spend intelligence across 206 countries, reduces cloud costs by up to 40 percent, and tackles challenges like shadow IT and AI-driven expenses. He highlights why FinOps maturity matters, how automation delivers agility, and why the true cost of AI is underestimated.

Top 10 Technology Awards for 2026

Technology is where creativity, data, and design collide. This list of 10 Technology Awards for 2026 — led by the We Love Tech Awards — highlights programs recognizing innovation, influence, and industry-changing ideas.

Top 10 Best Places to Work Awards for 2026

Company culture drives business success. This list of 10 Best Places to Work Awards for 2026, led by the BIG Best Places to Work Awards, spotlights programs recognizing organizations that put people and purpose at the center of their growth.

Top 10 Business Awards Programs for 2026

Recognition remains a cornerstone of credibility. This list of 10 Business Awards for 2026, led by the BIG Awards for Business, showcases programs rewarding leadership, innovation, and impact across industries.

Top 10 Women in Business and Leadership Awards for 2026

Women’s leadership is reshaping global business, and recognition helps make that transformation visible. This list of 10 Women in Business and Leadership Awards for 2026, led by the Herizon Awards, spotlights programs celebrating impact, innovation, and progress.

Top 10 Cloud Computing and Data Center Awards for 2026

The cloud runs everything — and recognition helps identify who’s doing it best. This list of ten cloud and data center awards for 2026, led by the BIG Stratus Awards, highlights organizations driving innovation, sustainability, and security across global infrastructure.

Top 10 Sustainability Awards for 2026

Sustainability is no longer optional — it’s operational. This list of 10 Sustainability Awards for 2026, led by the BIG Sustainability Awards, highlights programs recognizing companies turning environmental and social responsibility into measurable progress.

Top 10 Sales, Marketing, and Creative Technology Awards for 2026

The line between sales, marketing, and technology has all but disappeared. This list of 10 Sales, Marketing, and Creative Technology Awards for 2026, led by the Sammys, showcases programs rewarding companies that blend data, design, and storytelling.

Top 10 Cybersecurity Awards Programs for 2026

Cybersecurity is a business priority, and the right awards highlight organizations and individuals shaping safer digital futures. This list of ten cybersecurity awards for 2026, led by the Fortress Cyber Security Awards, showcases programs that reward true innovation and defense excellence.

Top 10 Customer Service Awards for 2026

Customer service is evolving fast, and recognition helps highlight companies doing it right. This list of ten awards programs for 2026, led by the Excellence in Customer Service Awards, showcases organizations that turn satisfaction into strategy.

Top 10 Artificial Intelligence Awards Programs for 2026

Artificial intelligence isn’t futuristic anymore — it’s foundational. This list of 10 AI-focused awards for 2026, led by the Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards, highlights programs that reward businesses using AI to solve real problems and create measurable outcomes.

Top 10 Innovation Awards Programs for 2026

Innovation keeps reshaping how industries function, and the right awards can spotlight companies doing it best. This article highlights ten of the top innovation awards for 2026, including the BIG Innovation Awards, which lead the pack through transparent judging and a focus on business results.

Building Intelligent Systems with Impact: Insights from Aryyama Kumar Jana of Amazon

Amazon’s Aryyama Kumar Jana, Tech Lead for the Peregrine Initiative, shares his philosophy of building intelligent systems with real-world impact. From forecasting reverse supply chains to bridging academia and industry, Jana emphasizes responsible AI, human oversight, and scalable solutions. As a Winners’ Circle judge, he looks beyond marketing gloss to evaluate measurable impact, innovation, and future potential. He also mentors startups, urging them to focus on real problems, user experience, and iterative testing. Learn more about him on his Judge Profile.

The Future of AI in Finance: Insights from Sasibhushan Rao Chanthati of T. Rowe Price

Sasibhushan Rao (Sasi) Chanthati, AVP and Senior IEEE at T. Rowe Price and a Winners’ Circle judge, shares his perspective on AI in finance. He highlights the growing importance of small language models for fraud detection and compliance, the critical role of layered security, and the need for caution in overreliance on AI. Beyond his engineering work, Chanthati mentors veterans, reviews academic papers, and trains future technologists. His perspective reflects a balance of innovation, security, and responsibility. Learn more on his Judge Profile.

Observability, AI Workloads, and the Future of Responsible Engineering: Insights from Meta’s Maneet Bansal

Maneet Bansal, Meta engineer and longtime awards judge, shares his perspective on AI infrastructure, observability, and cybersecurity. He argues that AI workloads require fundamentally different infrastructure than cloud systems, making transparency and responsibility more important than ever. He also warns of blind spots in cybersecurity and stresses the need for industry wide guidelines. With AI challenges shifting daily, Bansal believes agility is the true advantage. His personal interests, from poker to books like The Courage to Be Disliked and The Coming Wave, add a human touch to his technical insights. Learn more on his Judge Profile.

Why Recognition at Work Is Strategic, Not Just Symbolic

Recognition reduces turnover, strengthens trust, and helps close the recognition gap that affects women. This blog uses professional data from Gallup, Harvard, Aon Hewitt, and Inc. to explain why workplace recognition for women is not optional but a proven business strategy.

Tariffs 2025: A B2B marketing strategy story about turning pressure into positioning

Tariffs in 2025 are reshaping B2B marketing strategies as much as balance sheets. Smart firms are reframing value, using transparency, and keeping marketing signals alive despite budget stress. This blog highlights how to adjust campaigns and messaging in the face of economic pressure.

According to LinkedIn You Can’t Build B2B Trust with a Billboard (But You Can Win It With an Award)

Business awards might seem like fluff, but they’re actually one of the most effective ways to create trust inside the B2B buying funnel. Unlike broad brand awareness or another round of paid ads, awards based on peer and customer validation provide a proof point that decision-makers actually care about. Based on insights from LinkedIn’s 2025 Influence Report and years of marketing and award experience, this blog breaks down why winning the *right kind* of recognition might be the move your pipeline has been missing.

They Didn’t Just Win. They Shifted the Whole Vibe

This year’s Sustainability Awards didn’t just reward green talk — they spotlighted businesses turning eco-innovation into serious business results. From SSA Marine’s zero-emissions transition to ClimeCo’s carbon strategy know-how, these highest-scoring nominations are showing how sustainability drives growth. The blog breaks down common threads across top companies, highlighting how transparent, data-driven ESG work gets noticed and rewarded.

Who is Your CRO? Everyone Needs a Chief Recognition Officer

Recognition isn’t a one-off compliment—it’s a business strategy that deserves its own leadership role. This blog makes the case for hiring a Chief Recognition Officer or, at the very least, building a structured recognition plan. With hard stats and soft anecdotes, Russ shares what works, what fails, and why it matters. From award wins that turn into sales leads to simple weekly shoutouts that boost morale, this piece shows how small recognition acts can spark huge returns.

7 Things to Explore Now to Make Your 2026 Marketing Way Less "Meh"

This blog lays out seven overlooked marketing moves to test before budget season kicks in. From building your own branded awards program to trying interactive content and exploring SMS campaigns, these ideas are built for directors of marketing and comms pros looking for strategic plays that actually move the needle. It's not just about being flashy — it's about using this moment to test smart.

She Made a Difference. You Noticed. Now What?

The Herizon Awards now include both $5 public shoutouts and a full annual awards program to recognize women making a difference. This blog post, written by founder Russ Fordyce, explains why this personal and impactful recognition matters — and how to get involved as a nominator or sponsor.

Chiropractic, Creativity, and Closing Campaigns: Why Unblocking Your Back Might Unblock Your Brain

Marketers are under pressure to perform creatively, consistently—and with results. But burnout, bad posture, and brain fog can throw off everything. This blog explores how chiropractic care (and a few other self-care strategies) might be the reset your body—and campaigns—need to win more often, with more clarity.

5 Easy Ways to Reconnect With Customers and Strengthen Sales Relationships

Awards programs offer an easy, authentic reason to reach out to customers. These five ideas show how teams can use recognition, insights, and shared experiences to build trust and spark meaningful conversations. Each suggestion is rated for time and budget impact to help you choose what works.

TRUST ISN’T CLAIMED. IT’S AWARDED.

Smart businesses don't just claim trust—they earn it through awards. This blog explores why winning business awards builds credibility, drives growth, and strengthens brand recognition. Whether a startup or an enterprise, awards demonstrate real-world recognition and strategically boost your business's reputation, attracting talent and opportunities.

Fortress Cybersecurity Awards 2025 Recap — Real Wins, Real Work

The 2025 Fortress Cybersecurity Awards recognized exceptional companies addressing genuine security challenges through clear strategies and measurable impacts. Notable winners included Infoblox, BNY Mellon, and Braden Business Systems for their leadership in DNS protection, financial infrastructure, and hybrid IT innovation. Judges prioritized real results and tangible examples over industry buzzwords. This recognition offers winners enhanced visibility, credibility, and strategic promotional resources. Teams working diligently behind the scenes now have a powerful platform to showcase their achievements.