Cannes Neurons Awards to honor innovative AI Startups 2025

Deadline: 20 December 2024

Innovative AI startups, the Cannes Neurons Awards 2025 are calling! This year, the competition highlights your cutting-edge projects in banking & Finance, Manufacturing, retail, and healthcare. Showcase your groundbreaking solution or high-impact societal and environmental project to win a prestigious trophy in front of a panel of expert judges.

The World AI Cannes Festival (WAICF) brings together the individuals and companies currently developing the most revolutionary and impactful AI strategies worldwide.

Driven by the ambition to support and inspire the next generation of visionary leaders, this 4th edition will celebrate the future of AI, focusing on real-world applications in key sectors such as banking & finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail.

A highlight of the event, the Cannes Neurons Awards return to honor the most innovative AI startups, with special attention to the four selected strategic sectors. This year, five trophies will be awarded during their gala dinner, instead of the previous three. Additionally, an AI For Good Award will distinguish a project with significant societal or environmental impact, offering winners unique opportunities to gain recognition and accelerate their innovations.

Categories

Choose from these 5 categories:
- Banking & Finance Award
- Manufacturing Award
- Retail Award
- Healthcare Award
- AI For Good Award

Benefits

You could win:
- Banking & Finance Award winner
  - Receive a prestigious “CANNES NEURONS” trophy.
  - Choose between a booth in the startup village for the 2026 edition or three Full Passes invitations for the 2026 event.
  - Benefit from online visibility and public relations support as a winner.
- Manufacturing Award winner
  - Receive a prestigious “CANNES NEURONS” trophy.
  - Choose between a booth in the startup village for the 2026 edition or three Full Passes invitations for the 2026 event.
  - Benefit from online visibility and public relations support as a winner.
- Retail Award
  - Receive a prestigious “CANNES NEURONS” trophy.
  - Choose between a booth in the startup village for the 2026 edition or three Full Passes invitations for the 2026 event.
  - Benefit from online visibility and public relations support as a winner.
- Healthcare Award
  - Receive a prestigious “CANNES NEURONS” trophy.
  - Choose between a booth in the startup village for the 2026 edition or three Full Passes invitations for the 2026 event.
  - Benefit from online visibility and public relations support as a winner.
- AI For Good Award
  - Receive a prestigious “CANNES NEURONS” trophy.
  - Choose between a booth in the startup village for the 2026 edition or three Full Passes invitations for the 2026 event.
  - Benefit from online visibility and public relations support as a winner.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible in the Startup category for the Cannes Neurons competition, a company must:
- Be less than 5 years old as of January 1, 2025,
- Report annual revenue below 2 million euros for the year 2023,
- Employ fewer than 80 people.

Assessment Criteria

The projects will be assessed based on the following criteria:
- AI nature of the project: level of automation or intelligence in the project (automated, assisted, augmented, autonomous, etc.)
- Innovative nature: originality and disruptive potential of the proposed solution.
- Evaluation of the AI approach: quality and relevance of the AI approach chosen to address specific challenges.
- Impact and added value for end users: tangible benefits and relevance of the solution for clients or end users.
- Trustworthy AI: commitment to ethical, transparent, and responsible AI, including fairness, accountability, and data protection to foster trust among users.
- Positive impact of the AI project for the good of humanity and/or the planet (only for the AI For Good Award)

For more information, visit WAICF.