AI4Her Awards 2026: Celebrating Benelux Women Shaping the Future of AI

AI4ALL has announced the winners of the 2026 AI4Her Awards, recognising four outstanding women for their groundbreaking contributions to AI in health, sustainability, and innovation. Celebrated at the AI4ALL Gala in Amsterdam, these leaders are shaping the future of responsible AI

Written by Berna Syuleymanoglu

On Feb 6th, 2026, AI4ALL Gala brought together the leaders, innovators and AI advocates for an inspiring evening at ING Cedar, Amsterdam to announce the exceptional winners of the annual AI4Her Awards. Sponsored by KickstartAI and DataChef, the evening celebrated women who are setting new benchmarks in leadership, impact and diversity in the field of AI.

The 2026 Gala also featured a special address from Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau, Techleap co-founder and Special Envoy, keynote speeches from Bianca Zwart, Chief Strategy Officer at bunq, and Carina Kozole, Chief Risk Officer at ING.

What AI4Her Awards Stand For

The AI4Her Awards recognise Benelux-based women working in artificial intelligence whose contributions demonstrate real-world impact, ethical leadership and a commitment to inclusion. As a deliberate and strategic response to the gender disparity in tech and AI, AI4ALL strives to recognize and amplify women pioneers through the AI4Her Awards.

Each category of awards reflects a critical area where AI can drive positive change:

Health – honors women using AI to make healthcare smarter, safer and more human.

Future – spotlights emerging women leaders, 30 or under, whose work signals the next wave of AI innovation.

Earth (sponsored by Kickstart AI) – celebrates women using AI for sustainability, climate resilience and biodiversity protection.

Legacy (sponsored by DataChef) – recognises women who have made long-lasting contributions in the field of AI while championing inclusion and creating inspiration.

Winners were chosen from a strong field of remarkable candidates, announced in advance of the ceremony. You can explore the full shortlist of brilliant candidates here.

Meet the 2026 AI4Her Awards Winners:

AI4Her Health Award — Prof. Marlies Schijven

Professor Marlies Schijven, a practising surgeon at UMC and the Netherlands’ first Chief Medical Information Officer, was recognised for her pioneering work in digital surgery. Her AI-enabled surgical “Black Box” technology is now used in operating rooms across Europe, generating insights that improve patient safety, training and clinical outcomes. Her work exemplifies how AI can enhance healthcare while remaining firmly human-centred.

“My biggest concern is my fellow doctors, nurses, people in the healthcare system,” Prof. Schijven said whilst collecting her award. “I think if we can use AI responsibly to protect our workforce, then we are really making a difference. And that is what I’m trying to do.”

AI4Her Future Award — Liana Hakobyan

Liana Hakobyan, Marketing Strategy Lead at Iris.ai and founder of The AI Habit, is on a mission to make AI accessible and actionable. Through clear content and strategic frameworks, she helps businesses and individuals adopt AI with confidence and clarity.

“It means a lot to win the AI4Her Future award as I am being recognized for the work that I do and love. Every day I try to promote more practical use-case-based applications for marketers.”

AI4Her Earth Award (sponsored by KickstartAI) — Dr. Rimma Dzhusupova

Dr. Rimma Dzhusupova, founder of ExplorAI and an AI compliance expert, received the Earth Award for her work applying AI to large-scale sustainability challenges. With deep experience in energy transition and green hydrogen projects, she focuses on making AI safe, compliant and usable at industrial scale, ensuring technology supports environmental progress responsibly.

“First of all, winning an award, especially the AI4Her Earth award, is a huge recognition. I am working with building risk assessments of AI in critical infrastructure. Perhaps at first you don’t really connect it to sustainability straightaway, but even small adjustments thanks to AI are saving a huge environmental footprint”

AI4Her Legacy Award (sponsored by DataChef) — Marzieh Fadaee

Marzieh Fadaee, Head of Cohere Labs, is a global leader in multilingual AI. Her work helps ensure language models serve diverse communities while addressing bias in AI systems, alongside her commitment to mentorship and inclusive research practices.

Although Marzieh was unable to attend the Gala in person, she shared a post-event message: “For me, this moment reflects the deeper importance of science. At its heart, it is a celebration of the rigorous and persistent work that steadily expands human understanding. I hope the work we’re doing helps push the progress of science in AI toward something more inclusive, more thoughtful, and ultimately more beneficial for everyone.”.

About AI4ALL Gala

The AI4ALL Gala serves as the annual moment where AI4ALL celebrates its community and raises funds to support its mission to empower all of society to shape and use AI responsibly.

Beyond the AI4Her Awards ceremony, the night was about bringing together a vibrant community of builders, thinkers and allies who are united by a shared vision of creating something good.

As the AI4All co-founder Oliviana Bailey reflected, the night’s theme, The Power of Us, went far beyond simply allies gathering in the same room. “Real change happens when people with different perspectives, experiences, and roles come together and ask, ‘What can we build?’”, she said – words that captured the spirit of the night.

All in all, the Gala buzzed with energy, from conversations that ranged across bold ambitions, shared challenges, and career dreams, to spontaneous brainstorming and laughter. Between these moments and the powerful keynote speeches, the evening was about more than AI, it was about supporting one another, celebrating progress, forging connections, and showing up fully, dressed for the moment, ready to be part of something larger.

“Real change happens when people with different perspectives, experiences, and roles come together and ask, ‘What can we build?’”

Oliviana Bailey, co-founder, co-CEO of AI4ALL

Want to be part of what’s next? Learn more about AI4ALL’s upcoming Circle events, the Entrepreneur Program, Educate Learning Nights, and the Mentor Program. Join our movement shaping AI’s future together.