VentureBeat announced the winners of the seventh annual Women in AI Awards at VB Transform in San Francisco on June 25. 

The awards recognize and honor the women leaders and changemakers in the field of AI. The nominees were submitted by the public and chosen by a VentureBeat committee based on their commitment to the industry, their work to increase inclusivity in the field and their positive influence in the community. 

Winners were presented with awards by VentureBeat’s senior AI writer Emilia David and myself (associate managing editor).

“We’re thrilled to be here to present the seventh annual Women in AI awards,” David said in her opening remarks. “We want to offer praise for all the people who are behind the scenes and helping transform the industry.”

AI Entrepreneur: Bringing AI out of the lab and into the real world

This award honors a woman who launched companies now showing great promise in AI. Judges considered factors such as business traction, technology and impact in the AI space.

This year’s winner is Natalya Lopareva, CEO and founder at Algorized. Her technology, originally developed from research at the University of Zurich, helps locate people after earthquakes and can now help save lives in various applications. 

“At Algorized we utilize AI for people sensing, so we enable physical AI, we are at the intersection of human and machine,” Lopareva said in her acceptance speech. The award went to her entire team and all the amazing women working at the company.

>>See all our Transform 2025 coverage here<<

AI Research: Fueling the next wave of transformative AI

This award honors a woman who has made a significant impact in AI research, helping accelerate progress either within her organization, as part of academic research or impacting AI generally.

This year’s winner is Lindsay Richman, CEO at Vibrissa AI (formerly Innerverse AI). Richman and her team are focused on sensor and biometric data and their applications. They are developing research around longevity, cellular orchestration, mitochondrial health and biophotonics.

“A vibrissa is actually a whisker, a hair, that actually detects vibration,” Richman said in her acceptance speech. “And my company had done a lot of work in sensor research and finding ways to use vibrations to record events to hopefully do a lot of sensor-based recording without a lot of hardware that currently slows processes down.”

She said she was thrilled to be back at Transform and “support so many great people, including great women, at this conference.”

AI Mentorship: Building up the next generation of women in AI

This award honors a female leader who has helped mentor other women in the field of AI, providing guidance and support and/or encouraging more women to enter the field.

This year’s winner is Suruchi Shah, engineering manager for the model serving team at LinkedIn. She spearheads the development of cutting-edge infrastructure for large language model (LLM) serving, helping revolutionize the way AI models are deployed across LinkedIn’s ecosystem.

Shah was not able to accept the award in person, however, she said in a statement after: “I’m deeply honored by this recognition — it belongs as much to the brilliant women I’ve been privileged to mentor as it does to me. Together we’re proving that an inclusive, supportive community is the fastest path to breakthrough AI innovation.”

Responsibility and ethics of AI: Thoughtfully building AI that leads to a better and more equitable world

This award honors a woman who demonstrates exemplary leadership and progress in the emerging field of responsible AI.

This year’s winner is Stephanie Cohen, chief strategy officer at Cloudflare. She is leading efforts to redefine the economic model of the internet, and creating a sustainable future for content creators, publishers, AI companies and the internet at large.

Cohen could not accept her award in person, but she sent in a video acceptance, saying she was honored to be recognized. “Here at Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better internet, and a better internet is one where we are using AI responsibly, and that is a world where content creators of all shapes and sizes are flourishing in this amazing world that’s in front of us with AI.”

She added after the event: “I joined Cloudflare just over a year ago to help build a better Internet. Our global network now has GPUs in over 190 cities, making AI fast and accessible to everyone around the world, and we’re building tools to help foster a future where AI innovation thrives while respecting content ownership. And as our co-founders like to say, ‘we’re just getting started’.”

Rising Star: Honoring women in the early stages of their career who demonstrate that ‘something special’

This award honors a woman in the early stage of her AI career who has demonstrated exemplary leadership traits.

This year’s winner is Arina Vlasova, CEO at DataGPT. The company offers a conversational AI data analyst that allows users to interact with their data using natural language and receive immediate, analyst-level insights. 

“This award truly means a lot to me,” Vlasova said during her acceptance speech. “DataGPT was started as a bold idea to build the world’s first AI data analyst. A lot of people questioned us. Some thought that it might be too ambitious, even beyond my and my team’s potential. But we pushed harder and today we are leading the way. What is truly meaningful in life is always hard, and what matters is to have vision, grit and to keep going. To all the women out there, go over it, lead it, build it. You’ve got it.”

We’d like to congratulate all of the women who were nominated to receive a Women in AI Award and to our winners. Thanks to everyone for their nominations and for contributing to the growing awareness of women who are making a significant difference in AI.