The significance of Artificial Intelligence today is justifiably compared to the steam engine of the 19th-century industrial revolution. The era of new information technologies has been marked by the emergence and development of large language models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, and Anthropic. Competition breeds new ambitious players, and demand cannot keep up with supply. According to McKinsey research, 92% of companies intend to increase investments in AI over the next three years. However, most also admit that it is not yet sufficiently integrated into workflows and does not deliver clear business results. The main challenge remains to create a clear vision and mechanisms that bring companies closer to AI maturity.
This makes the practical experience of professionals offering concrete, cutting-edge solutions in this rapidly evolving industry all the more valuable. The opportunity to learn about their research, projects, and results and discuss their ideas was provided by the annual international Cases&Faces Award 2025, which took place on March 9 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the format of a large-scale conference and awards ceremony. The awards recognize technological, entrepreneurial, management, and social innovation achievements. Equally important, Cases&Faces is a platform for a major conference where new ideas and alliances are born. The topics of the presentations covered the broadest range of issues. Overall, however, the topic of AI in all its applications dominated.
In this dynamically developing field, flagship trends have already emerged. The deepening integration of AI and digital transformation has ceased to be just a trend and has become a fundamental necessity for business functioning and growth. This implies not only the adoption of new technologies but also a rethinking of business processes, culture, and customer interactions.
“Most companies use AI for ad personalization and demand forecasting, while ChatGPT and other Large Language Models significantly accelerate content marketing and customer service,” emphasized Irina Golmgrein, founder of PR agency ExpertizeMe International LLC and chair of the AI cluster at RAEC.
In digital transformation, the trend toward “hyperautomation”—a combination of RPA and AI for operational optimization—persists. In marketing and sales, AI has rapidly assumed a key role: algorithms analyze customer behavior and enable dynamic pricing, generative AI tools like Jasper.ai or Midjourney create content, reducing production costs, automate routine tasks, freeing up resources for strategic work, and increasingly take on analytics and forecasting.
Corporate strategies today also largely depend on AI, and this is primarily reflected in investment trends: principal venture investments are increasingly directed toward AI startups, especially in healthcare and fintech. “The overall focus shifts to companies with strong digital infrastructure that not only utilize AI but also demonstrate the ability to optimize operations and develop innovative products and services based on it,” says Cases&Faces conference speaker Valerii Zolotukhin (USA / UAE / Germany), founder of investment holding IMPACT Capital.
AI is undoubtedly a key growth driver today, but it requires strategic implementation and experimentation. “Another crucial factor is the need to remember its use’s ethical implications and risks, not neglecting long-term responsibility in favor of rapid development and competition”, emphasizes jury member Olena Derkach (Canada), an HR leader integrating mental health into core strategies to transform workplace culture
How do these trends apply to the specific activities of entrepreneurs and business leaders? At the very least, it is no longer enough to adopt AI actively—the focus must be on developing digital maturity, including investments in digital infrastructure and the need to adapt flexibly to the rapid changes in the AI and digital technology markets. The customer should be at the center of the AI strategy, while tactical advantages lie with projects that deliver measurable business benefits and have clear ROI. Analysts suggest that small businesses should focus on ready-made SaaS solutions at this stage, while large corporations should prioritize integrating AI into core processes.
The ambitions and developments within these trends were fully reflected in the Cases&Faces Award 2025. This year, the event brought together over 1,000 submissions from 14 countries, including the USA, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, Spain, Canada, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan. The participants’ work was evaluated by international experts, including Mariia Miakisheva (Russia), CFO of Marlerino Group, a specialist in financial strategy, cost optimization, and fintech investments; Serhii Katkov (USA), a business leader with over 20 years of experience in software development and project management; and Vitalii Skrypka (Ukraine), director of a construction company specializing in construction and renovation since 2014.
The judges assessed projects across over 170 categories. The winners’ successes were overwhelmingly linked to AI in one way or another. Even a brief overview of the awarded participants shows the breadth and diversity of innovations and proposed new standards in various fields of AI application.
Among them, for example, is Jivani Zubin (USA), who received the Achievement in Product Innovation award in the Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations category. As an Engineering Manager at Meta with 20+ years of experience in global software development, he led the launch of an AI-driven ad product that generated over $3 billion and became one of Meta’s fastest-growing products. This nomination was also won by Prashant Dathwal (USA) in the Data Analytics & Big Data category.
Iurii Gusev (Poland) was awarded the Achievement in Science or Technology. Pavel Malinovskiy (USA) was named Technology Executive of the Year. He founded Pyjam, a platform enabling real-time avatar control via live video streaming. Roman Abakumov (USA/Ukraine) was recognized for Achievement in Engineering: Consumer Services. As a thermal engineer with 15+ years in energy-efficient HVAC system design, he leads large-scale projects integrating REHAU, Danfoss, Meibes, and Vaillant technologies into the public and private sectors. The victory in this category was shared with him by Mantu Singh (USA), who led the creation of an AI-powered system that reduced marketing compliance review times by 80%, processing 7 million submissions within a year, and also Ajay Chava (USA) and Saurav Sharma (USA).
Arkadiy Bdoyan (Russia/Armenia), Yurii Teselko (USA), and Mohammad Abbasi (USA) shared the victory in the “Executive of the Year” category. The latter, in particular, is a founder of Alfa 77, an educational project training 2,000+ specialists. He developed a targeting system used in 15 countries. Ekaterina Lebedeva (Russia) was named Marketing Executive of the Year.
Sudhir Kumar (USA) received the Achievement in Technology Innovation – 5G & Telecommunications award. As a Network Architect at Cisco Systems with over 20 years of expertise in large-scale IP network design and optimization, he has been future-proofing networks for AI, 5G, and cloud integration. In the same category are the accomplishments of Murali Krishna Raju Penmetsa (USA) and Shruthi Alekha (USA).
Several participants from different fields of activity were awarded the title Best Entrepreneur of the Year: Andrii Kovalchuk (Ukraine), Oleksandr Frenkel (USA), Viacheslav Honcharenko (Spain/USA), and Artem Pavlov (USA).
The Innovator of the Year award went to Maria Azatyan (Armenia), who proposed AI-enhanced fraud prevention to enhance financial sustainability and risk management, and also to Anatolii Tymoshchuk (USA) and Alisa Goliampolska (USA).
Uldana Mussabekova (Austria) was named Maverick of the Year; she developed an AI-driven automation model that transforms cybersecurity risk management in software development.
As the results of the Cases&Faces Award 2025 confirm, the primary trend highlighted by experts and implemented by business leaders and entrepreneurs is clear: AI is no longer a “technology of the future.” In 2025, it is transitioning from the experimental phase to practical application—and those who implement it consciously will gain a competitive edge.
