2026 Award Categories & Finalists
AI Visionary
The AI Visionaries Awards celebrate customers who are building the secure, resilient, and high-performance foundation required to transform AI potential into tangible business outcomes.
Finalists:
AI Visionary Award
- NH Bank
- Sharon AI
- Reliance Jio
- Luckios
Future-Proofed Workplaces
The Future-proofed Workplaces Award honors customers modernizing work environments, ensuring secure access, immersive collaboration, hybrid work, and innovations in smart building tech and secure networking.
Finalists:
Workplace Innovator Award
- Ashahi Beverages
- Gyeonggi Province
Modernized Infrastructure Maestro Award
- PT Freeport Indonesia
- Woven by Toyota, Inc.
- Virgin Australia Airlines
Digital Resilience
The Digital Resilience Award honors customers excelling in security, reliability, and performance with advanced threat prevention, connectivity, and observability for optimized services and user experience.
Finalists:
Observability Visionary Award
- Woven by Toyota, Inc.
- AGL Energy
- EBOS Group
Assurance Avenger Award
- Optus
- The Hong Kong Jockey Club
- HCLTech
Cybersecurity Defender Award
- M Bank JSC
- Olympus Corporation
- NEC Corporation
Sustainability Changemaker
The Sustainability Changemaker Award honors organizations using Cisco’s solutions to reduce environmental impact, drive sustainability, and lead in energy management and clean energy.
Finalists:
- Dexcom Malaysia
- Adani Airports Holding Limited
Cisco Insider of the Year
The Cisco Insider of the Year celebrates the customer with the greatest impact on the Cisco Insider community, recognized for mentorship, advocacy, and supporting others through events and case studies.
Finalists:
- Peter McKenzie, Chisholm Institute
- Ashiesh Sharma, BT Group
- Elvis Chong Tzy Chun, Bursa Malaysia Berhad
CX Customer Hero of the Year
The CX Customer Hero of the Year Award honors the customer with the strongest outcomes from Cisco Customer Experience, including those in AI-Ready Data Centers, Future-Proofed Workplaces, and Digital Resilience.
Finalists:
- Toshiro Hikita, Woven by Toyota, Inc.
- Jihoon Park, Amorepacific
- Anil Tembhe, State Bank of India
- Richard Galayani, Woolworths Group
AI-Readiness
The AI Readiness Awards celebrate customers transforming their organizations to power AI workloads seamlessly across clouds, on-premises, and edge, using Cisco's advanced solutions.
Winners:
- NTT-West - AI Infrastructure Innovation Award Winner
- KDDI Corporation - CX AI Trailblazer Award Winner
Future-Proofed Workplaces
The Future-proofed Workplaces Award honors customers modernizing work environments, ensuring secure access, immersive collaboration, hybrid work, and innovations in smart building tech and secure networking.
Winners:
- Adani Airport Holdings Limited - Workplace Modernisation Award Winner
- LTM - CX Visionary Workplace Award Winner
Digital Resilience
The Digital Resilience Award honors customers excelling in security, reliability, and performance with advanced threat prevention, connectivity, and observability for optimized services and user experience.
Winners:
- TPG Telecom Limited - Digital Resilience Distinction Award Winner
- HCLTech - CX Distinguished Digital Resilience Award Winner
CX Customer Hero of the Year
The CX Customer Hero of the Year Award honors the customer with the strongest outcomes from Cisco Customer Experience, including those in AI-Ready Data Centers, Future-Proofed Workplaces, and Digital Resilience.
Winner:
- David Van Niekerk, Reserve Bank of Australia
Cisco Insider of the Year
The Cisco Insider of the Year celebrates the customer with the greatest impact on the Cisco Insider community, recognized for mentorship, advocacy, and supporting others through events and case studies.
Winner:
- Daniel Hosking, NEC ANZ
