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Prestigious international annual awards program honors standout AI companies and solutions
SYDNEY — June 25, 2025 — Willow, an AI-driven digital twin platform revolutionizing building and infrastructure management, today announced that it has been selected as winner of the “AI Startup of the Year” award in the 8th annual AI Breakthrough Awards program conducted by AI Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global artificial intelligence (AI) market today.
Willow applies advanced AI and digital twin technology enabling organizations to reduce energy use, meet sustainability goals and improve asset performance when building, operating and maintaining facilities. Willow’s SaaS platform unifies siloed data across IT, OT and IoT systems and translates that data into real-time, actionable intelligence. Combining AI, digital twins and a robust knowledge graph, Willow creates a contextualized operational view that models both the physical and logical structure of facilities.
Beyond data visualization, Willow’s AI encodes domain expertise through “Willow skills” that model facility-specific best practices, enabling continuous learning and reduced human intervention. From campuses to complex airport ecosystems, Willow’s technology addresses reducing HVAC energy use, predicting equipment failures, improving conveyance uptime and optimizing entire real estate portfolios.
“We are incredibly honored to receive the ‘AI Startup of the Year’ award from AI Breakthrough. The built world is one of AI’s largest untapped frontiers and our mission is to redefine the management of buildings, creating an environment where infrastructure dynamically responds to the needs of its occupants and surroundings,” said Bert Van Hoof, CEO of Willow. “With a market that spans every facility on the planet, we feel uniquely positioned to lead a new era of smart infrastructure — one that’s responsive, resilient and ready for what’s next.”
The AI Breakthrough Awards shine a spotlight on the boldest innovators and most impactful technologies leading the charge in AI across a comprehensive set of categories, including Generative AI, Computer Vision, AIOps, Agentic AI, Robotics, Natural Language Processing, industry-specific AI applications and many more. This year’s program attracted more than 5,000 nominations from over 20 different countries throughout the world, underscoring the explosive growth and global importance of AI as a defining technology of the 21st century.
“Willow is redefining what’s possible in AI by building intelligence into the very fabric of our physical world,” said Steve Johansson, managing director, AI Breakthrough. “Willow delivers measurable value today, with energy and maintenance savings, emissions reductions and productivity gains. By transforming static infrastructure into intelligent systems, they help organizations future-proof their assets, accelerate sustainability and better serve the people and communities within them.”
The Willow Knowledge Graph, built on the world’s most comprehensive ontology for the built world, models 1.61 million digital twins and processes more than 10 million telemetry points in real time. Willow merges composite AI such as ML, symbolic AI, and graph reasoning, along with causal AI, going beyond correlation and enabling better forecasting, diagnostics and prescriptive decision-making. Willow also uses Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with LLMs grounded in customer data and domain-specific knowledge.
Willow Copilot AI assistant provides real-time, contextually relevant support using natural language, enhancing workflows across engineering, operations, and facility management. In addition, Willow integrates with more than 75 systems including building management systems (BMS), computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), and IoT devices.
Willow is at the forefront of revolutionizing the built world through AI connectivity and digital twin technology. Its platform not only optimizes operations but also enhances the sustainability of facilities. Trusted by significant players across various sectors, including education and transportation, Willow strives to create a more responsive and sustainable built environment. For more information about Willow, visit www.willowinc.com.
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AI Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in Artificial Intelligence technologies, services, companies and products. The AI Breakthrough Awards provide public recognition for the achievements of AI companies and products in categories including Generative AI, Machine Learning, AI Platforms, Robotics, Business Intelligence, AI Hardware, Computer Vision and more. For more information visit AIBreakthroughAwards.com.
Tech Breakthrough LLC does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our recognition programs, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with award designations. Tech Breakthrough LLC recognition consists of the opinions of the Tech Breakthrough LLC organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Tech Breakthrough LLC disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this recognition program, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.