As the Data Innovation Summit 2026 hums with the energy of over 3,000 professionals at Kistamässan, Stockholm, we have reached a pivotal moment in this year’s program: the announcement of the winners of the rebranded Data and AI Readiness (DAIR) Awards.
For five years, these awards have served as a benchmark for excellence. This year, by integrating the ceremony into the heart of the summit, we’ve highlighted a fundamental truth in the Nordic ecosystem. Data and AI are no longer peripheral experiments; they are the engines driving our region’s most resilient organizations.
After an intensive selection process by our panel of 17 industry-leading judges, we are proud to announce the visionaries who are setting the standard for 2026.
Data and AI Transformation Excellence Award
Winner: Skatteetaten (The Norwegian Tax Administration) Execution at scale is the hardest frontier in data. Skatteetaten has demonstrated how to create enterprise-wide transformation, aligning strategy, governance, and people to embed AI into the core of their operations.
This is a recognition to our whole company. We described everything we did and how we are tackling things in a bigger public organization that is subject to very strict laws and compliances and rules, and I think that this big effort is what won. – Filippo Remonato for Hyperight.com
Their journey sets a new Nordic benchmark for how a large-scale organization can move with agility and data-driven purpose. 
AI-Driven Business Excellence Award (Private Sector)
Winner: Nordea In the competitive landscape of financial services, Nordea has successfully moved beyond the “AI pilot” phase to deliver tangible, measurable business value.
In 2023 we realised that this is going to be a thing so in the fall of 2023 we set the vision that we need to build something that could be accessible to all the people in Nordea. Started with a vision, piloting, implementation and onboarding. And in 2025 in the spring, we started to bring people to the platform.
– Mattias Fras, Noordea, for Hyperight.com
By strategically integrating AI into business functions to enhance efficiency and customer experience, they have proven that AI is a cornerstone of long-term sustainable growth.
AI-Driven Business Excellence Award (Public Sector)
Winner: The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen) Public service innovation requires a delicate balance of responsibility and ambition.
By using ML and what we know about accidents and roads to create predictive analytics that will serve people, save lives and make people come back to their loved ones every day. – Anders Eggum for Hyperight.com
Statens vegvesen has utilized AI and analytics to enhance decision-making and public safety, proving that data-driven innovation can deliver profound societal impact while increasing operational transparency.
Data Management Innovation Award
Winner: PostNord Group Innovation is only as strong as the foundation it sits on. PostNord Group takes home this award for implementing a modern data management strategy that prioritizes quality, accessibility, and trust.
The whole idea was to basically enable all the people in the organization to do data analytic by themselves, and I think we have succeeded in that. – Akhil Dogra, PostNord
Their approach to data architecture has not only improved ROI but has accelerated the adoption of AI across the entire enterprise.
Technical AI Innovation of the Year
Winner: Saab AB Technical excellence is about pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Saab AB has introduced a technically novel innovation that has influenced the broader industry landscape.
The agent can actually takeover the pilot wants it to takeover.
If you think about self-driving cars, that is one thing. But this is jet fighter aircraft that is so hard for even humans to do. But with AI you can really parse all the sensors in a way that is really hard for humans and really perform in super-human scales in driving the aircraft. – Anders Arpteg & Oliver Öhrstam Lindström
Moving from experimentation to a recognized standard, their work represents the very best of Nordic technical ingenuity and scalability.
Lifetime Achievement in AI
Winner: Virginia Dignum There are few individuals whose work has shaped the ethical and technical landscape of AI as profoundly as Virginia Dignum. As a world-renowned researcher and a leading voice in Responsible AI, Virginia has spent her career ensuring that as we build more powerful systems, we do so with human values at the center.
This will inspire me to continue working and continue making clear that AI it is not just about the technology; it is about the people, it’s about the impact that we can make for the wellbeing of all of us. And I think that this award makes me even more inspired to continue in this field.
– VirginiaDignum for Hyperight.com
Her contribution to the Nordic region’s maturity and her tireless mentorship of the next generation of practitioners is unparalleled. This award is a token of gratitude for a career that continues to redefine the boundaries of purposeful innovation.
A New Standard for a Data-Driven Region
With the complete rebranding, these awards create even more impact, and these winners represent more than just individual success stories; they are a collective signal that the Nordic region is moving from “Readiness” to “Results”. Shortlisting and winning a DAIR Award is a testament to an organization’s culture, its technical prowess, and its leadership’s vision. To our winners: you are defining the future.
We congratulate the 2026 champions. Their success stories will be featured in our upcoming post-event reports and interviews right here on Hyperight.com.
