More than 30 professionals and businesses have taken home top honours at the Australian AI Awards 2026, recognising achievements across the country’s rapidly growing artificial intelligence sector.
The third annual Australian AI Awards took place in Sydney on Friday, 30 October, celebrating the country’s leading AI innovators and their contributions to the sector.
Presented by Momentum Media, with industry partner Island, the awards program highlighted artificial intelligence's growing influence across the Australian economy while recognising the individuals and organisations driving its development.
A total of 36 winners emerged from a pool of 305 finalists across the prestigious awards program.
Click here to see the full list of winners.
The ceremony brought together professionals from across the country to recognise the achievements of their industry colleagues and peers.
The black-tie gala also offered an opportunity to connect with senior figures and leaders from across the Australian economy.
AI professionals recognised
This year’s program featured 36 award categories, comprising 11 individual awards and 25 group categories.
Recognition spanned a broad range of fields, with AI consultants, emerging talent and academics celebrated alongside businesses in cybersecurity, mortgage broking, real estate, healthcare, information technology, defence and aerospace.
Among the individual winners, Erfan Hesami from Airmaster secured the AI Rising Star of the Year - Enterprise award, while Zoe Banning from IBM was named AI Leader of the Year - Enterprise.
Jacob Carswell-Doherty from Jake McKinley took home the prestigious Excellence Award.
In the group categories, Telstra received the Best Application of Responsible AI award, while Nuvento was recognised for Best Use of AI – Sustainability.
The real estate and property investment sectors were also represented, with 19 businesses nominated across the AI Innovator – Real Estate and AI Innovator – Property Investment categories.
InvestorKit was named AI Innovator - Property Investment, while Intellistrata took home the AI Innovator - Real Estate award.
The awards were held amid accelerating AI adoption across the business landscape, driven in part by the increasing accessibility of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT.
Australian Bureau of Statistics research showed that almost half of businesses had reported adopting new technologies, including AI, to improve efficiency.
During 2024–25, adoption rates were highest in information, media and telecommunications, at 38 per cent. Professional, scientific and technical services and financial and insurance services followed, with both sectors recording 24 per cent.
The Australian AI Awards recognised people, businesses, and solutions using AI to drive change and deliver innovation across their industries.
Delivered by Momentum Media alongside event stakeholders and a panel of leading AI professionals, the program followed a comprehensive judging framework designed to assess and benchmark Australia's leading AI talent and businesses.
Every entry underwent an extensive audit, with demographic and other details assessed against the eligibility requirements for the relevant category.
A panel of experienced professionals and business leaders then evaluated finalist submissions against each award's criteria.
The judging panel consolidated scores for each entry, and the highest-scoring submission in each category won the award.
To find out more about the Australian AI Awards, click here.
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