Forrester’s Data & AI Impact Award recognizes organizations that demonstrate excellence in using data and AI to improve decision-making and drive measurable business outcomes. We asked applicants for exemplary data and AI initiatives built around the pillars of scale, enablement, and trust.  Award-caliber submissions showed enterprises who progressed beyond isolated projects to treat data and AI as products that are observed, reused, and measured against business outcomes.  

Once again, we were thrilled by the number of strong submissions received from across industries. A few standout trends emerged across entries: enterprises are now embedding AI into operations, products, and customer experiences; they are investing in training and AI literacy; they are building reusable and scalable AI capabilities; they are strengthening core data platforms; and they are establishing robust data governance and stewardship practices. 

Scale, Enable, Trust: Inside UnitedHealthcare’s Award-Winning AI Program 

UnitedHealthcare stood out among this year’s submissions as the most mature enterprise-scale AI program that demonstrated strong execution with 1) governed data product; 2) feature store and model lifecycle; and 3) shared runtime and safety architecture. The healthcare company showed progression in maturity – moving beyond pilots, models, and isolated use cases to build out an AI-enabled healthcare operating system that spans the member experience – and a robust long-term roadmap that will sustain its momentum. 

At the center of this transformation is Avery, an AI-powered digital assistant embedded in the UnitedHealthcare website, app, and contact center that helps members navigate benefits, claims, clinical care, and prescriptions. It’s built on a foundation of governed data products, reusable data pipelines, and 330 AI-powered skills which power a simpler member experience across key channels. Avery expanded from supporting 6.5 million members to 20 million in a single release window, demonstrating both its reach and operational impact.  

Avery serves as a reminder that AI success requires more than technology systems to produce appropriate outputs; it also demands embedded trust mechanisms such as model cards, curated datasets, and human oversight processes implemented at every stage of the AI lifecycle. Furthermore, UnitedHealthcare established an AI Review Board to provide consistent safeguards and checks before and after deployment. With these processes, practices, and safeguards in place, Avery achieved a quality pass rate that represented some of the strongest trust-related outcomes among this year’s submissions. 

UnitedHealthcare took a human-centric approach to AI adoption. The organization invested in AI literacy programs that empowered employees to confidently incorporate AI into daily work. Human advocates also played a critical role in validating and refining the AI-generated responses delivered through Avery, creating a feedback loop that improved output quality and helped ensure alignment with member needs. For the calls that still require a human touch, Avery supports advocates by surfacing relevant answers to member’s questions directly within existing workflows. Avery enables advocates to spend less time navigating systems and more time supporting and connecting with members. 

Looking ahead, UnitedHealthcare’s roadmap focuses on evolving Avery from a Q&A assistant into an agentic agent capable of helping members complete multistep healthcare tasks. Potential future capabilities include assisting members with selecting a plan, scheduling virtual visits, filing an appeal, and other activities, all with the appropriate consent and oversight in place. UnitedHealthcare also plans to expand its governed data foundation, creating a unified system that uses member feedback to continuously improve models, retrieval systems, and data products.  

Congratulations again to UnitedHealthcare for being named the 2026 Data and AI Impact North America winner. By combining governed data products, responsible AI practices, and a human-centric approach, UnitedHealthcare demonstrates how AI can move from experimentation to enterprise-wide transformation in a highly regulated industry. 

Honoring Our Finalist: Providence Global Center  

​Providence Global Center demonstrated exceptional vision, execution, and impact in their submission. Guided by a strategy that brings AI-enabled decision intelligence where healthcare work happens, they transformed clinical and operational decision-making across the organization. Their capability-led, outcome-driven maturity model embeds AI into software engineering workflows, accelerating the delivery of new solutions, and into business workflows, reducing administrative burden and restoring caregiver capacity for direct patient care. Governed, human-in-the-loop agents assist employees with healthcare processes rather than just answer questions, with responsible AI governance safeguarding patient safety, trust, and compliance at every stage.

Meet The Winner At Technology & Innovation Form East 

Join us at Forrester’s Technology & Innovation Form East in New York from November 4 – 5, where you’ll hear directly from Hans Hage, Chief Product Officer, Optum Enterprise Digital Product, about how the enterprise turned AI into a discipline at UnitedHealthcare and built Avery.  

We’re inspired by the ways that data and AI teams are catalyzing effective decision-making to drive business outcomes for their organizations. If you’re inspired, start thinking about your story and submission for the 2027 Data & AI Impact Awards!

Share