ET AI Awards & Conclave 2025: And the winners of the Functional Excellence Awards are…
Unlike conventional business and tech events, this first-of-its-kind platform combined high-level policy dialogue, enterprise insights, frontier research conversations, and a rigorous awards process under one roof. It brought together leaders, enterprises, policymakers, researchers, and technologists who don’t just talk about AI’s potential, but actively build India’s AI stack and deploy AI at meaningful, population scale.
Intensive deep dives, panels, and fireside chats during the day set the tone for the awards ceremony in the evening. The ET AI Awards consisted of four major categories: Leadership Awards, Innovation & Impacts Awards, Special Awards, and Functional Excellence Awards. And it was the last that highlighted something critical in today’s AI context: execution.
This category recognised organisations that have moved AI beyond pilots and proof-of-concepts into measurable impact. Winners across industries demonstrated how AI can be embedded into everyday operations to drive intelligence, efficiency, and resilience.
Emerging from rigorous evaluation processes, the winners were drawn from over 1,000 nominees and assessed by knowledge partner EY and a nine-member jury chaired by Vishal Sikka, Founder-CEO of Vianai Systems.
Here is the complete list of winners in the Functional Excellence category at the ET AI Conclave & Awards 2025:
- AI for Business Intelligence and Analytics: ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd
- AI in Tech and Data Science Excellence: Attentive.ai
- AI for Sales and Customer Experience: Exotel Techcom
- AI in Marketing and Product Innovation: Hindustan Unilever Limited
- Generative AI for Content and Creativity: Floating Tiger Films
- Best Use of AI in Business Operations: Blue Machines AI
- AI-Driven Cybersecurity: Jio Platforms Ltd
- AI-Powered Automation and Robotics: NewSpace Research & Technologies Private Limited
- AI for Data Annotation: iMerit
What stands out about the category winners is the breadth of application. AI is driving smarter underwriting decisions, enhancing customer interactions, optimising marketing strategies, securing digital infrastructure, automating robotics systems, enabling creative storytelling, and strengthening the backbone of data ecosystems.The diversity of use cases signals that AI in India is now being woven into workflows, and the Functional Excellence winners represent the builders ensuring that AI delivers value on ground. Together, they underscore a decisive moment for Indian enterprises, one where intelligence is no longer optional, and execution is the new differentiator.
The ET AI Conclave & Awards 2025 is driven by BYD and has L&T Finance as NBFC partner; Snowflake as AI data cloud partner; EY as evaluation partner; T-Hub as ecosystem partner; Zoho as technology partner; and Indri as celebration partner. Vahdam India, Vaaree, Natch, and Andamen are the event’s gifting partners.
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