Listed here are the Finalists in these sponsored categories in The 2026 American Business Awards®. The Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie placements among the Finalists will be revealed during our 24^th annual awards gala on Tuesday, June 9 in New York City. Those winners in attendance will be celebrated on stage. Tickets for the event are on sale now. Learn more about the event here.

AI Automation Leader of the Year
Finalist:
Caresource, Mason, Ohio, United States: Satendra Shukla, VP, Intelligent Automation, Facets and Guiding Care Configuration
Cloudera, Santa Clara, California, United States: Mary Wells, CMO
Google, San Francisco, California, United States: Rayn Veerubothla, VP - Partnerships
Medtronic, Reno, Nevada, United States: Rashmi Kumar, CIO
TaxSlayer, Augusta, Georgia, United States: Peter Mourfield, CTO
Zebra, New York, New York, United States: Tilak Kesavapillai, Director of Engg

AI Strategy Vanguard Award
Finalist:
IQVIA, Gilbert, Arizona, United States: Sitaram Srivatsavai, Head of Engineering
NielsenIQ, Ealing, England, United Kingdom: Daniel Machado, Global Head of Engineering & SVP Technology
SmartBear, Chelmsford, Massachusetts, United States: Vineeta Puranik , CPTO
Takeda, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States: Bhardwaj P. , Head of R&D Automation Platform

Cloud & Data Visionary of the Year
Finalist:
BCD Travel , Palo Alto, California, United States: Ajay Singh , Head Data & Analytics
IBM, San Jose, California, United States: Martin Oberhofer, VP of Data Core Products & Distinguished Engineer
Seismic, San Francisco, California, United States: Krish Mantripragada, CPO, CTO

Software Engineering Trailblazer of the Year
Finalist:
ALINE, Atlanta, Georgia, United States: Krishna Venkatesh, SVP Engineering
Arrive, Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Sandesh Bhat, Group CTO
Google, Atlanta, Georgia, United States: Venu Vanama, Lead - Sclaed PE
Master Brand , New York, New York, United States: Sachin Chaudhary , VP - Apps and Data

Trusted AI Transformation Advisor Award
Finalist:
Efficio, Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Edward MacDonald, Senior Manager | Consulting, Procurement, Technology
Hex, New York, New York, United States: Sarthak Brahma, CEO
ISG, Hartsdale, New York, United States: Prashant Kelkar, Partner, Americas Consulting and Chief Strategy Officer
ISG, Parker, Colorado, United States: Steve Hall, Chief AI Officer
ISG, McKinney, Texas, United States: Jamie Burke, Partner, Healthcare Lead