Forward, the leader in safer agentic NetOps and trustworthy autonomous networking at scale, today announced that Forward Predict has won Most Innovative AI Technology at The 2026 A.I. Awards. The award recognizes Forward Predict’s ability to verify the full impact of proposed network changes before they reach production, providing the critical proof AI agents need to operate safely at machine speed and scale.
Forward Predict deterministically shows the impact of proposed network changes before they touch production. Built on Forward Enterprise’s mathematically accurate digital twin of the entire production network, Forward Predict gives AI agents proof of how a change will affect network connectivity, security, and compliance at design time, before execution. If a proposed change would cause an unintended consequence, agents receive specific failure feedback and can revise and reverify the change. This closed-loop verification lays the foundation for trustworthy autonomous networking.
“Software teams test changes in staging environments before deploying them, and Networking has been waiting for its turn,” said Nikhil Handigol, Chief AI Officer and Co-Founder at Forward. “Forward Predict delivers it with AI-proposed changes tested against a mathematically accurate model of the entire production network, providing proof of the outcome before anything executes. This verification gives AI agents the foundation to propose, test, and refine changes before execution, a critical step toward trustworthy autonomous networking. We’re honored that the judges recognized it.”
Since May, Forward Predict has been deployed across financial services, media, and technology companies. These customers have reduced change risk and accelerated delivery. One global company expects Forward Predict to deliver more than $3 million in annual benefits by reducing manual effort and improving change execution.
A.I. Awards judge Jon Whittall said: “Forward Predict shows a genuinely innovative combination of AI reasoning and mathematically accurate digital-twin technology. Within a highly competitive category at The AI Awards, Forward Predict stood out by enabling changes proposed by either people or AI agents to be tested and deterministically verified before reaching production. Forward Predict provided meaningful named customer results, including a substantial reduction in onboarding time and removal of routine network-team involvement. Forward Predict presented the strongest overall balance of technical originality, production validation, measurable impact, and future industry significance. A brilliant entry.”
The AI Awards
Operated by a global cloud computing awards body, The Cloud Awards and The A.I. Awards celebrate international leaders driving the next generation of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Now in its third year, the 2026 program saw entries from organizations worldwide, spanning established technology giants to exciting new startups across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and APAC.
The awards spotlight significant advances and achievements across all areas of cloud artificial intelligence and machine learning. Technical breakthroughs in areas such as infrastructure, natural language processing and agentic AI, and specialized applications across many different industries and business use cases are awarded.
CEO of The Cloud Awards, James Williams, said: “We are extremely thrilled and proud to announce the winners of The 2026 A.I. Awards. This truly has been an outstanding program from start to finish this year, right from the stellar cast of shortlistees, through to today’s selected winners. Whereas all of this year’s entrants have brought something excellent to the table, the winners, including Forward have been able to go the extra step in showing our judges how their use of AI delivers value, and makes a real difference to its users.”
To view the full list of winners, please visit: https://www.cloud-awards.com/ai-awards/2026-winners
Availability
Forward Predict is generally available today.
To learn more about Forward Predict, visit https://www.forwardnetworks.com/predict/.
About Forward
Forward makes safe autonomous networking possible. The company’s mathematically accurate network digital twin delivers deterministic proof of how any change will affect the production network before it is made, giving organizations the behavioral insight they need to move fast, operate securely, and scale with confidence across multi-vendor environments and every major cloud, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM.
Global leaders, including Goldman Sachs, PayPal, S&P Global, IBM, and Dell, alongside other Fortune 500 enterprises, fast-growing companies, and government agencies, rely on Forward to ensure network behavior matches intent. According to a recent IDC report, the average Forward customer experiences $14.2M in annual benefits through improved efficiency and security.
Backed by A. Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, MSD Partners, Omega Venture Partners, Section 32, and Threshold Ventures, Forward is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information, visit www.forwardnetworks.com.
About the Cloud Awards
The Cloud Awards is an international program that has recognized and honored industry leaders, innovators, and organizational transformation in cloud computing since 2011. It comprises five awards programs, each celebrating success across cloud computing, software-as-a-service (SaaS), cloud security, artificial intelligence (AI), and financial technologies (FinTech). Winners are selected by a judging panel of international industry experts. For more information, visit https://www.cloud-awards.com/.
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