VKTR IMPACT Awards
The 2027 program will open to submissions in August 2026.
The VKTR IMPACT Awards celebrate exceptional work in the field of enterprise artificial intelligence.
2027 Award Categories
For Practitioners
Leader of the Year: AI Champion for Business
Recognizes business executives who define the vision for AI transformation, build organizational alignment and drive measurable enterprise value through strategy, investment decisions and change management — regardless of their technical background.
Enterprise AI Technology Leader of the Year
Recognizes technology leaders who translate business ambition into reality by architecting scalable, secure, governable and production-ready AI systems — and who modernize the technical foundation required to sustain them.
For Vendors
Best AI App Builder for Business Users
Recognizes platforms whose primary function is to enable business users or semi-technical operators to create functional applications through AI-assisted, low-code or no-code workflows. Pure coding copilots and pure agent orchestration platforms are not eligible.
Best AI Agent Development & Orchestration Platform
Recognizes platforms that enable the creation, orchestration, monitoring and lifecycle management of AI agents across enterprise workflows. The primary function is to build, coordinate. and manage agents. Primary outputs of this category are agents, workflows, automations, trying to solve the following core problems: orchestration, memory, integrations / tool use, governance, cost management or ease of use. If your company’s end artifact is an agent or workflow, it belongs in this category.
Best Digital Coworker Platform
Recognizes platforms that drive productivity through employee assistance via digital cowork (digital coworkers, digital twins, AI assistants, AI agents or similar).
Best AI Data Foundation & Governance Platform
Recognizes platforms focused on data quality, ontology, semantic layer & knowledge graph management, metadata governance, evaluation and model reliability.
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About the VKTR Impact Awards
The VKTR IMPACT Awards celebrate exceptional work in the field of enterprise artificial intelligence. Honors are given to practitioners and vendors responsible for creating a notable impact either within their organization (practitioners) or for their customers (vendors).
If you want to champion your company’s internal employees you should apply for the practitioner awards.
If you want to showcase the work you’ve done on your product you should apply for the vendor awards.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the IMPACT Awards?
- The IMPACT Awards is a prestigious recognition program, celebrating exceptional work in the field of enterprise AI. Honors are bestowed on both exceptional individual practitioners and vendors.
How do I apply for the IMPACT Awards?
- Visit awards.simplermedia.com/ai to apply.
What’s new this year?
- We have added 1 new practitioner and 2 new vendor categories, for added nuance around AI-enabled CX products. The following categories are all new for 2027:
- Best Use of Agentic AI in Customer Experience
- Best Use of AI for Customer Data, Identity, or Personalization
- Best AI-Powered Self-Service or Conversational Experience
Who is eligible to apply?
- Nominees for the AI Champion for Business award should be C-suite executives or business unit leaders who championed AI adoption across the organization, secured buy-in and created accountability for outcomes.
- Nominees for the Enterprise AI Technology Leader of the Year should be CIOs, AI architects, or IT leaders who build the platforms, infrastructure, and governance frameworks that bring AI from concept to deployment at scale.
- Individuals and vendors may self-nominate for any award.
- Nominees for the vendor awards should be vendors with AI products or solutions delivering technology or tools that solve key cose business problems with artificial intelligence.
What is the difference between the practitioner and the vendor awards?
- If you want to showcase your company’s internal practices you should apply for the practitioner awards.
- Companies whose business model includes AI programs, platforms or solutions may not apply for the practitioner awards.
- If you want to showcase your product, solution or platform you should apply for the vendor awards.
What are the awards categories?
- Please scroll to the top of this page for the full list of awards categories.
Can I apply to more than one category?
- You may apply to as many categories as you wish and it is possible to win or rank in multiple categories.
Is there a cost to apply? How do I pay?
- There is no cost to apply for the Leader of the Year: AI Champion for Business or Enterprise AI Technology Leader of the Year awards.
- For all vendor awards, there is a $995 fee per application.
- A 30% discount will automatically apply as long as you register at the awards portal and create an application during the Early Bird period (August-September). This discount will apply even if you submit your application after September.
- If you plan to submit multiple applications, finalize and submit them at the same time for a discount. Use the code TWOORMORE at checkout for 40% off your total application fees.
- All application fees are payable by credit card prior to application submission. Applications are not considered final until fees are paid in full.
- If you are unable to pay by credit card, contact us.
How long does it take to complete the application?
- Applications typically take 1-4 hours to complete.
Is there a word limit? Can I include charts, photos or other attachments in my application?
- All application questions have maximum word counts. These vary and are listed on each question.
- Charts, photos and other attachments are not allowed.
Who are the judges?
- Judges are volunteer practitioners, specialists, consultants and AI experts, recruited for their field expertise.
What is the judging process and criteria?
- Judges apply through the awards portal and are vetted by VKTR prior to reviewing applications.
- Judges receive detailed instructions and a scoring rubric to assist in the review process.
- Judges agree to keep all material confidential. Certain application fields with proprietary information are not shared with judges.
- All applications are reviewed by multiple judges to minimize bias. Judges are not assigned applications from participants in their own industry and judges can recuse themselves from any application to avoid direct or indirect conflicts of interest.
How are the winners determined?
- Questions are weighted according to importance. Judge scores are aggregated to determine the final winners of each category.
- Judges only score the “category-specific questions” section of each application. Demographics information is not shared with judges and not scored.
How are the winners notified? When are the winners announced?
- Winners are notified through email once the judging period is over. The Awards Director will notify the main point of contact for each winner. Please provide alternate contact information if you are an agency or otherwise applying on behalf of an individual or company.
- Winners are announced in the spring.
How are winners recognized?
- Winners are publicly recognized in the following ways:
- Press release on VKTR, promoted through PR channels.
- As part of a longer awards article on VKTR.
- Mention on awards website.
- For Leaders of the Year, interview opportunity with VKTR Managing Editor.
What else do winners receive?
- Gold award winners receive a physical trophy as well as a digital badge for social media promotion.
- One trophy is included in your win. It is possible to order additional trophies at your cost; contact us for details.
- One trophy is included in your win. It is possible to order additional trophies at your cost; contact us for details.
- Silver award winners receive a digital badge for social media promotion.
- It is possible to order a trophy or trophies at your cost; contact us for details.
- It is possible to order a trophy or trophies at your cost; contact us for details.
- All awards participants (winners and nonwinners) receive a PDF scorecard with their score and judge comments.
How will my application data be used?
- By signing up for the IMPACT Awards, you agree to receive emails related to the awards program, including (but not limited to) reminder emails, open/close dates and finalist status. All finalists and winners will be contacted through email and may be contacted via phone for additional information. Winners’ contact information may be shared with our Events team for the purpose of coordinating your participation in our events. Winners’ addresses will be shared with our awards vendors for the purposes of awards delivery and digital badge distribution. Finalists’ and winners’ application data may be shared with our Editorial team for background information only.
Who do I contact if I have any questions?
- Please send all questions to [email protected].