Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – Next Alliance, the Italian consortium for technological innovation, has announced the shortlist of 15 finalist projects for the Next Alliance Awards 2026, selected by a technical and multidisciplinary jury from the submissions in the three competing categories: Gen AI, AI Creative, and Web3 & Immersive. The Next Alliance Awards, as stated in a statement, "are an initiative sponsored by Le Village by CA Milano, an open and dynamic innovation ecosystem where startups and businesses collaborate to grow the companies of the future and support them on their innovation journey."
The award ceremony will be held on October 19th at the Blue Note in Milan, as part of the NextGems gala evening: the event that brings together startups, businesses, investors and innovation leaders to create and seize new investment opportunities.
The shortlist of finalists by category includes: – 8 Wave Agent Studio: Platform for creating and managing enterprise AI agents that automate customer support, purchasing, and training, integrating data and systems with human confirmation before each action; – ESH Forge: Brings the logic of industrial production to software development: a repeatable and tracked process from specification to release, with AI-generated code always reviewed by a human; – LexHero: Gen AI environment integrated into Consolle Avvocato: a true AI workspace that supports lawyers in drafting and managing documents directly on the document and in the context of the case; – LuxAvatar: First application of the Syntheos conversational avatar platform in a vending machine: the avatar analyzes the face, recommends and allows the user to try on glasses models, managing the entire purchase without any other intermediary; – Neurocast: AI model trained on functional magnetic resonance imaging data that predicts, before launch, how the public will react to a commercial, a billboard, or a piece of music; – YUXME: Online accounting management and tax assistance platform that combines AI and dedicated accountants, simplifying electronic invoicing and compliance for flat-rate taxpayers, SMEs, and professional firms.
For the AI Creative Category: – Apple AirPods Pro: Commercial generated entirely with AI tools, with an immediate and ironic visual storytelling on active noise cancellation in a domestic context; – Fiat Pandina.
FIAT's first AI-crafted commercial for the launch of the Pandina Hybrid: a workflow that combines Generative AI, 3D CGI, and VFX for an interplanetary adventure, with visual consistency and product precision; – The Empty Place: Institutional campaign by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Assogiocattoli on child safety in cars, which combines an emotional concept with a digital hub for the purchase and correct installation of child seats; – Agentic is a crazy battleship: First openly agentic advertising campaign, conceived, produced, and published by an AI that pokes fun at itself; – Ray-Ban.EXE (Dystopian anime short film launched at the first Ray-Ban pop-up store in Seoul, on the themes of courage and the search for identity); – TOKYO, 2088 (RebelOTT) Sci-fi cinematic teaser set in a dystopian Tokyo in 2088, created entirely by a single author with GenAI, demonstrating a new audiovisual production model.
For the Web3 & Immersive Category: – DANSITE, which combines contemporary dance, virtual reality, and cultural heritage, transforming site-specific performances into immersive experiences that can be enjoyed over time; – Fire Xperience: A Mixed Reality fire simulator, developed with the XR Observatory of the Polytechnic University of Milan; – Heritage – Generative Family Wealth: A platform for the generational transfer of family wealth, which combines decision-making psychology, generative AI, blockchain, and finance to transform wishes and objectives into a shared decision-making architecture.
The 15 finalist projects will now face the final evaluation phase by the jury, which will award the podium (gold, silver, bronze) in each of the three categories.
The category awards are accompanied by special recognitions: AI for Impact, for the Gen AI project with the greatest positive impact on society; Web3 Visionary, for the boldest vision in the application of Web3 & Immersive technologies.
"This year's shortlist confirms the quality and maturity of Italian projects in the Gen AI and Web3 fields: an important signal for the entire Made in Italy technological innovation ecosystem," said Andrea De Micheli, President of Next Alliance.
Projects are evaluated by a technical and multidisciplinary jury according to six shared criteria: innovation and technique, impact and usefulness, technical quality, user experience and design, market potential, strategy and vision.
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