Winners named for Australian AI Awards 2026

The 2026 iteration of the Australian AI Awards was held on Friday, 30 October, at the Hyatt Regency in Sydney to celebrate and champion Australia’s AI innovation.

Produced by Momentum Media and FST Media, the 2026 Australian AI Awards celebrate the transformative impact of AI across the economy, recognising the innovators, leaders and organisations shaping the future of AI in Australia, as we edge closer to 2030.

A total of 36 winners were selected from a record 305 finalists for the prestigious awards program.

Australian professionals and businesses, spanning all industries across the nation, gathered to celebrate the achievements of their colleagues and peers at the awards ceremony.

The black-tie gala also provided a unique opportunity to network with industry leaders across all sectors of the Australian economy.

Click here to view the full list of winners.

AI professionals recognised

There were 36 categories on offer this year, including 10 individual and 25 group categories, and one Excellence Award winner.

Jacob Carswell-Doherty, principal of Jake McKinley, took home the Excellence Award after winning the trophy for AI Leader of the Year – SME earlier in the evening.

Other notable winners included: Dr Nici Sweaney from Ai Her Way (AI Female Leader of the Year – SME); Shahroz Tariq from CSIRO (AI Academic/Researcher of the Year); Erfan Hesami from Airmaster (AI Rising Star of the Year – Enterprise); Sqylark, which won AI Innovator – Start Up; Telstra, which won Best Application of Responsible AI, and Zembl, which won Best Use of Agentic AI.

Leading AI consultants, rising stars, and academics were also rewarded this year alongside cybersecurity companies, professional services providers, mortgage broking businesses, real estate agencies, healthcare companies, information technology professionals, and defence and aerospace companies.

The Australian AI Awards involves a robust awards methodology to form the backbone for assessing and benchmarking Australia’s leading AI professionals and businesses.

All submissions underwent a thorough audit process, checking demographics and other information against category eligibility criteria based on the information provided in the submission.

Finalist submissions were delivered to a panel of respected professionals and business leaders who assessed each submission against the criteria of each award category.

The combined judging scores for each submission in each category were then tabulated, with the highest-scoring submission deemed the winner.

To learn more about the awards program, click here.

Click here to view the full list of winners.