What counts as an awarded AI solution?

When you browse the AI Solutions Hub, you'll occasionally see an entry flagged as an awarded solution. That badge is a promise: this AI solution didn't just get talked about — it actually won a credible, independently judged award relevant to insurance or digital innovation. Here's exactly what stands behind that badge, so you can trust it.

The badge means a win, not a mention

The single most important rule: awarded means won. Being nominated, shortlisted, or reaching the finals is genuinely impressive, but it is not the same as winning, and we don't treat it the same. A finalist is recorded as a finalist. Only a confirmed win — the top prize or a named category win — earns the awarded badge. (Audience or public-vote prizes count as wins too; we just label them as such.)

Which awards count

We maintain a curated list of awards, grouped into three tiers.

Tier A — clearly counts. These are independently judged, transparent, and respected in the Swiss and international insurance world. A confirmed win here earns the badge:

• Swiss Insurance Innovation Award (HZ Insurance / Handelszeitung) — the flagship Swiss prize. Its 2025 winner, Baloise's AI Concierge, is a textbook example.
• Celent Model Insurer Award — global, with a dedicated Data, Analytics & AI category.
• Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards.
• ITC DIAmond Awards (ITC DIA Europe).
• The Digital Insurer — World's Digital Insurance Awards.
• Digital Economy Award (swissICT / digitalswitzerland).
• Swiss FinTech Awards.
• Swiss InsurTech Hub Summit & Awards — 'Insurance Tech of the Year'.
• Best of Swiss Web and Best of Swiss Apps — when the awarded product is itself an AI solution.

Tier B — borderline. Analyst placements ('Leader' in a Gartner or Forrester report), vendor 'partner of the year' titles, and 'top 100' list inclusions (InsurTech100, Digital Shapers) are useful signals but aren't the same as winning a judged award. We record these as recognitions, with a moderator note — never auto-flagged.

Tier C — excluded. We deliberately ignore pay-to-play and vanity awards. The warning signs are well known: you 'win' after an unsolicited email, payment is tied to the result, the judges and criteria are never published, and there's no verifiable winners page. Internal company awards and 'as seen in' marketing badges don't count either.

The win has to be about this solution

A company-level honour — 'Insurer of the Year' — doesn't automatically make every product in that company's portfolio an awarded solution. The award has to name this solution or the specific project behind it. We match at the solution level, not the company level.

The evidence we require

Every awarded flag is backed by at least one official, working, solution-specific source that names the win. The gold standard is the award organiser's own winners or press page. Trade-press coverage of an organiser's announcement can corroborate it, but a vendor's own press release is never enough on its own. We rate each source for reliability (using the same Admiralty-style scale that powers the rest of the catalogue) and we check that the link actually loads and mentions the win.

Recency

Awards are facts with a date. We always record the year, show wins from the last five years as current, and keep older wins as clearly-dated history. We never let a 2018 win read as if it happened yesterday.

How we record awards — the checklist

• Won, not nominated? Top prize or named category win only. Finalists are logged separately.
• On the Tier A list (or Tier B with a moderator note)? No pay-to-play.
• About this exact solution, not just the company?
• Official, working source that names the win (organiser page preferred)?
• Year recorded, and within 5 years for 'current'?
• Source rated and checked in the entry's source list?

If every box is ticked, the entry earns its badge. If not, it's a recognition, a finalist note, or nothing at all — and that's exactly the point.