# Kong Innovator Awards 2026 Now Open For Submissions > Source: > Published: 2026-07-27 16:36:00+00:00 [[Our annual Kong Innovator Awards](https://konghq.com/events/conferences/api-ai-summit/kong-innovator-awards)Our annual Kong Innovator Awards](https://konghq.com/events/conferences/api-ai-summit/kong-innovator-awards) celebrate the people actually doing the work: the builders, engineers, and teams using Kong to solve hard problems in ways we didn't expect. Let’s be clear – these aren't participation trophies. They recognize the customers who pushed further, shipped something ambitious, and set a new bar for what's possible. Last year, [[](https://konghq.com/blog/news/2025-kong-innovator-awards-winners)___we celebrated teams___](https://konghq.com/blog/news/2025-kong-innovator-awards-winners)___we celebrated teams___ from United Airlines, BMW, HM Revenue & Customs, H&M, Siemens, SeatGeek, Seaco, and Verifone for their achievements in solving real business problems with innovative approaches. From implementing processes that reduced AI service onboarding time from weeks to days, to centralizing LLM request validation to accelerate time to market for new AI capabilities, these teams saw real results from thinking outside the box. As companies run faster into the agentic era, there are even more new challenges to solve – and the need for innovative thinking to tackle them. So this year, we’re looking for those teams that are in the trenches, coming up with creative solutions to complex problems. Have you saved your organization money by implementing intelligent routing for agents? Or implemented ways for developers to work faster, but in a way that doesn’t compromise security? The possibilities are endless and we want to hear about all of them!