The Zappy Awards
Celebrating the builders and innovators behind the sophisticated AI automations that are transforming the way we work
2025 winners
Marketing Automator of the Year
Andrew Harding, Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships at Slate, launched a Zapier Agent that sourced over 2,000 qualified enterprise leads, identifying, validating, and logging contacts to fuel outbound with nearly 50% response rates.
Operations Automator of the Year
Jocelyne Mendez-Guzman, Customer Experience Operations Specialist at BioRender, automated Accounts Receivable tickets with a 51-step workflow that cut resolution time by 69%, improved reply speed by 39%, and boosted throughput by 50%.
Sales Automator of the Year
Isaac Smith, AI Operations Manager at Klue, developed a centralized framework to streamline AI workflows across the go-to-market team, saving more than 900 hours and powering 8,000 automation runs in just eight months.
IT Automator of the Year
Dan Dorato-Hankins, Chief Technology Officer at Vector Media, designed an end-to-end onboarding and offboarding system that saves over an hour per new hire, giving the IT team time to focus on larger priorities.
HR Automator of the Year
Kathy Lam, Talent Operations Specialist at StackAdapt, created a GPT-powered hiring logic app that scores interviews for structure and fit and alerts recruiters with the next steps, standardizing candidate reviews and reducing variance.
Customer Support Automator of the Year
Nick Paliughi, Director of Support at Freshy, automated WordPress ticket triage with AI-powered classification, drafting, and escalation, boosting throughput without adding headcount.
AI Solution Innovator of the Year
Charlie Hoehn, Co-Founder and Head of Product at Author.Inc, wired Zapier and AI into book production to move transcripts, trigger editorial workflows, and update dashboards, achieving margins near 70% in an industry where 40% is standard.
Non-Profit Automator of the Year
Deborah Mader, Systems and Operations Manager at Lahaina Community Land Trust, built a Salesforce system that transformed form data into structured records, reducing manual entry and helping families impacted by the 2023 wildfire access services quickly.
Z-Suite AI Transformation Leader of the Year
Adnan Khan, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer at Viva, fostered an AI-first culture with a Zapier-powered task board and daily sessions encouraging collaboration and automation adoption, which increased productivity and efficiency across the company.
Automation Hero of the Year
John Rippy, Chief Technology Officer at Drive Social Media, built Project Phoenix, a 95-step AI sales pipeline that drafts assets, preps pitches, and tracks impact, cutting development time by up to 50% for reps while scaling content consistently.
Learn more about these award-winning workflows
The 2025 Zappy Awards have wrapped!
The results have left us endlessly inspired by the unique and creative ways people are reimagining the way we work. Keep creating AI and automation magic, and we can't wait to see you next year!
