EXCELLENCE AWARD 2026

SMEs know that without artificial intelligence, they will lose momentum. Most companies have long understood that processes, business models, and products need to be rethought through AI. Nevertheless, many hesitate to launch concrete projects or face the challenge of sustainably anchoring successful AI initiatives within the company.

Anyone who calls themselves an AI expert or AI solution provider today is far from being able to guide medium-sized companies responsibly and effectively. Conversely, not every AI application is automatically a success story for digital transformation.

This is precisely where the Venture AI Excellence Award comes in. It provides orientation in a market where reliability, impact, and substance can no longer be measured by marketing promises alone. The award honors individuals, startups, and companies that demonstrably develop, deploy, or put artificial intelligence into practice with proven success, thereby making a measurable contribution to the AI transformation.

This includes AI experts and advisors, startups with AI products or AI services, established providers of AI solutions, as well as companies that have successfully implemented, scaled, or responsibly anchored AI in their own operations.

What matters is not whether an applicant sells, develops, or applies AI themselves. What matters is whether the submitted evidence demonstrates quality, impact, a sense of responsibility, and practical relevance.

Qualified application

Experts, startups, and companies express their interest and submit a structured application.

• Performance profile
• Reference projects
• Contact persons
• Data responsibility and governance information

What we review
We are checking whether the application is complete and plausible, whether there is a real AI connection, and whether the submitted documentation allows for a reliable assessment. Both AI solutions and AI services as well as successful internal AI applications, transformation projects, and the organizational integration of AI will be evaluated.

How we test
We carry out a formal preliminary review and, if necessary, clarify any open points by asking questions. Only qualified applications are forwarded to the jury for technical evaluation.

Technical review by an independent jury

In the second step, an independent jury from practice, technology, research, and the SME sector evaluates the submitted applications.

Evaluation criteria:

• verifiable customer success
• professional and technological
• Excellence
• Implementation strength
• Mittelstands-Fit
• Data handling, security, and regulation

Overall evaluation dimensions:

• Data Privacy & Compliance
• Ethics
• Sustainability
• Maturity / Experience

How we test
The jury evaluates on an evidence-based approach using the submitted information and evidence. If necessary, references are examined in more detail or discussions are held for context.

Presentation of the award and annual re-curation

If an application meets the requirements, the federal association awards the corresponding award:

• Expert Excellence Award
• Startup Excellence Award
• Corporate Excellence Award

The award winners will receive the official seal, the federal association's certificate, visibility as curated partners, and access to the federal association's network.

The award is neither a ranking nor a competition for the loudest AI story. It is a quality seal for verifiable substance: honors go to those who demonstrate, using reliable documentation, that AI is applied or enabled responsibly, effectively, and in a way that is relevant to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Annual re-curation
To ensure the award provides lasting guidance, the selection process is regularly reviewed: award winners update their information, and in the event of relevant changes or questions, we delve deeper into the assessment. This is how the significance of the seal remains current and reliable.

Cooperation partner

Senate of AI Transformation

Curators

Terms and Conditions

The goal of the award is to highlight and promote outstanding, responsible, privacy-compliant, sustainable, fair, and scalable AI solutions and services, as well as exceptional contributions by AI experts.

§ 1 Organizer
The sole organizer is the German Federal Association for AI Transformation (Bundesverband für KI-Transformation e.V.), Leopoldstraße 31, 80802 Munich

§ 2 Eligibility to Participate
1. Eligible to participate in 3 categories:

• Startups that develop, deploy, research, or offer products, platforms, or services in the field of artificial intelligence,
• Established companies (corporates) that develop, use, or offer AI solutions or AI services,
• AI experts / individuals / research groups conducting research in the field of AI.

2. The minimum age is 18 years. Only companies and individuals based in Germany are eligible to participate.

3. Employees of the organizer and persons directly entrusted with the execution of the award are generally excluded from participation.

§ 3 Assessment criteria

1. The following criteria will be evaluated:

• Trustworthiness
• Sense of responsibility
• Data protection compliance
• Compliance
• Fairness
• Non-discrimination
• Transparency
• Scalability
• Relevance to practice
• Information on the area of application
• Risk analysis
• Human oversight
• Sustainability
• Degree of innovation

These criteria are evaluated regardless of the type of AI and regardless of whether it is developed, applied, researched, or offered.

3. There is no examination or validation of the technical security, error-free nature, or legality of the submitted AI systems.

§ 4 Prerequisites for submission

1. The submitted topic must be structured and submitted with evidence:

• Personal or organizational details,
• Contact person
• Description of the submitted AI solution or AI service,
• Information on Data Privacy & Compliance,
• Information on ethical aspects,
• Information on sustainability and social impact,
• Information on maturity level, experience, and reference projects,
• Representation of the degree of innovation.

2. Additional documents (e.g., presentations, guidelines, references, design documents, etc.) can be uploaded online via the application form.

3. Participants are not obligated to provide functional live systems, productive environments, or other technical access. The evaluation is generally based on the submitted documents, descriptions, demonstrations, or test environments provided, if applicable.

4. The submitted documents should not exceed 30 pages.

5. Participants are responsible for ensuring that all information provided is complete and correct.

6. The association reserves the right to verify the information provided at any time. The submission of fabricated projects, key figures, references, or evidence is inadmissible and will lead to immediate exclusion from the award.

Only 1 application may be submitted per eligible entity.

§ 5 Exclusion grounds / Liability of participants

1. The organizer can exclude applications if:

• it is demonstrably or reasonably assumed that essential information is incorrect,
• third-party rights, statutory provisions or regulatory requirements are violated,
• the application contains discriminatory, unlawful, or ethically unacceptable content.

2. Participants are responsible for ensuring that they are eligible to participate in the competition and that no third-party rights conflict with this, e.g., copyright, patent, and trademark rights, or personal rights of third parties, as well as rights of use regarding the AI. To this extent, they shall indemnify the organizer against claims by third parties.

§ 6 Evaluation Procedure and Jury

1. The evaluation is based on transparent criteria. To the extent that terms such as „GDPR-compliant“, „trustworthy“ or „responsible“ are used, this refers in particular to the consideration of the requirements of the GDPR and, where applicable, the Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act), particularly with regard to transparency, risk management, human oversight and data quality. „Sustainable and responsible“ includes in particular the consideration of societal impacts, fairness, non-discrimination, transparency, human oversight, maturity level, scalability, practical relevance, and a reflective approach to risks in the sense of trustworthy AI.

2. The evaluation of the submitted applications takes place in a multi-stage procedure:

• a) Pre-screening by a structured, automated
  Scoring system based on the information entered in the online form.
• b) Qualitative jury evaluation of the applications that meet the defined minimum criteria.
• c) Optional: Presentation / pitch and Q&A by the jury.

3. The automated scoring system evaluates the following dimensions in particular:

• Privacy & Compliance,
• ethical aspects,
• Sustainability aspects,
• Maturity and experience regarding the solution or service.

4. The details of the scoring can be disclosed to the involved scientific partners for review and evaluation.

5. The organizer appoints a jury consisting of representatives of:

• to the organizer,
• external experts from business, practice and civil society,
• as well as scientific institutions (e.g., universities, research institutions)

6. may consist of. The specific composition is determined by the organizer and can vary from year to year. There is no entitlement to a specific composition of the jury.

7. The jury decides at its own discretion in due course, taking into account the communicated criteria.

8. The jury's decisions are final. The evaluation cannot be appealed.

§ 7 Minimum Criteria and Score

1. The scoring system generates an overall score for each application (e.g., between 10 and 50 points). The exact calculation logic (weighting of dimensions/themes) is documented.

2. Applications that do not reach a minimum score of [e.g., 30 out of 50 points] do not meet the minimum criteria and will not be considered for an award. If applicable, they may only be analyzed for internal learning and evaluation purposes. The minimum score is determined in advance.

§ 8 Prices and Advertising

1. The nature and scope of the prizes (e.g., cash prizes, non-cash benefits, consulting services, media visibility) are determined by the organizer and published in the call for entries for the respective year.

2. The winners and, if applicable, nominated projects will be notified by the organizer after the jury process has been completed.

3. The winners are entitled to promote themselves externally using the organizer's seal and the fact that they have won for their own purposes.

§ 9 Rights of use for submitted materials

1. By submitting their application, participants grant the organizer a non-exclusive, unlimited in territory and time, royalty-free, and transferable right of use to the submitted materials, restricted to the following purposes:

• Implementation, documentation, and evaluation of the award,
• Reporting on the award and its results,
• Presentation of the nominated and winning projects in online and offline media (e.g., website, social media, events, brochures).

This grant of rights also includes the right of adaptation, reproduction, and publication.

§ 10 Consent to Publication

The publication (e.g., on the organizer's website, via social media, and in press releases) of the last name, first name, company affiliation, and potentially other personal data will only take place with the explicit consent of the participant. This applies both to the publication of the winners' personal data and in connection with publication within the scope of the right of use.

§ 11 Confidentiality / Trade Secrets

1. The organizer, the jury, and involved scientific partners will treat the application documents confidentially and use them exclusively for the purpose of conducting and evaluating the award.

2. Participants should not disclose strictly confidential trade secrets or information whose publication or awareness by third parties could cause problems. If this is nevertheless necessary, it is the responsibility of the participants to redact or anonymize corresponding passages in documents.

§ 12 No entitlement to a reward / Cancellation /

1. There is no entitlement to the announcement of the award in the future.

2. The organizer may, in particular for good cause, modify, postpone, or cancel the award (e.g., in the event of an insufficient number of suitable applications or in cases of force majeure).

Section 13 Data Protection

1. The organizer will process personal data solely for the purposes of carrying out the award procedure (legal basis: contract / pre-contractual measures), evaluation by the jury and scientific partners (legal basis: overriding, legitimate interests), public relations and documentation (consent), and information about related events and follow-up formats (consent).

2. Application data is generally processed for the duration of the award and subsequently retained for a period of 3 years in order to:

• to document the award and its results,
• to enable evaluations and reports for internal purposes and scientific partners,
• To prepare subsequent formats.

3. Applications that are not selected will be deleted or anonymized after this period expires, unless statutory retention obligations or legitimate interests (e.g., defense against legal claims) prevent this.

Data on awarded projects and individuals may, if necessary, be retained for a longer period as long as this is required for documentation, public relations, and the long-term proof of the award.

5. As part of the application process, an automated scoring system is used which calculates a score based on specific answers (in particular regarding data protection, ethics, sustainability, and maturity level).

• This scoring serves for structured pre-selection (pre-screening) and the determination of whether minimum criteria are met.
• There is no exclusively automated decision-making with legal effect within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR; the final evaluation and selection of the prize winners is made by the jury.