Zapier Announces 2025 Zappy Award Winners, Celebrating Leaders Who Transform Work with AI
Ten innovators recognized for building powerful workflows that save time, boost efficiency, and reshape how businesses operate
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zapier, the most connected AI orchestration platform, today announced the winners of its 2025 Zappy Awards. The awards honor 10 professionals from a variety of industries who are breaking new ground with AI-powered automation and Agents. Their solutions are saving thousands of hours and delivering millions in business value.
"What blows me away about this year's winners is how they're not just automating tasks or using AI but completely reimagining how work gets done," said Philip Lakin, Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier. "They're showing what happens when you pair human creativity with AI and automation. You don't just save time; you unlock new possibilities."
Reimaging Work Across Every Industry
The 2025 Zappy Award winners span 10 categories, showcasing automation's impact across every aspect of business:
AI Solution Innovator of the Year: Charlie Hoehn of Author.Inc. changed book publishing. His Zapier-powered system helps entrepreneurs write and publish nonfiction books in just days, achieving nearly 70% profit margins compared to the industry's 40%.
Marketing Automator of the Year: Andrew Harding from Slate created a Zapier Agent for Lead Gen. This tool delivered over 2,000 leads in the first month after going live and achieved a nearly 50% response rate on cold email campaigns.
Sales Automator of the Year: Isaac Smith of Klue built a centralized Sales Op framework that's been used over 8,000 times in just eight months, saving his go-to-market (GTM) team more than 900 hours and streamlining repeat workflows.
Automation Hero of the Year: John Rippy of Drive Social Media built Project Phoenix, a complete AI sales engine. It cut web development time in half and tripled the speed of sales content creation for his 282-person company.
Customer Support Automator of the Year: Nick Paliughi from Freshysites transformed support for over 2,800 WordPress sites. He used AI to analyze tickets by priority, sales opportunities, and historical context.
Operations Automator of the Year: Jocelyne Mendez from BioRender created a 51-step workflow that cut accounts receivable ticket resolution time by 69%. It improved first response times by 39% and enabled her team to process 50% more tickets.
HR Automator of the Year: Kathy Lam of StackAdapt automated data flow between their applicant tracking system and Google Sheets. The automation reduced payroll and forecasting mistakes and freed up her team for more strategic work.
IT Automator of the Year: Dan Dorato-Hankins of Vector Media used Zapier as "an essential technical team member." He built advanced workflows and integrations that now handle core employee lifecycle and helpdesk operations with minimal oversight.
Non-Profit Automator of the year: Deborah Mader of Lahaina Community Land Trust designed a system that processes Insurance Gap Program applications for families affected by the 2023 Lahaina wildfires. She transformed Google Forms data into structured Salesforce records while maintaining relational integrity.
Making Advanced Automation Accessible
The 2025 Zappy Awards highlight a key trend: You don't need to be a developer to build powerful automations. This year's winners include operations specialists, marketing managers, support directors, and non-profit leaders who built complex, multi-step workflows without writing a single line of code.
These winning workflows show clear results, from reducing resolution times to generating thousands of qualified leads. Many winners reported that automation didn't just simplify their jobs; it changed how they solve problems at work.
Recognizing the Future of AI-Powered Work
Now in its third year, the Zappy Awards continue to spotlight professionals pushing the boundaries of what's possible with Zapier. Winners were chosen based on their creativity, impact, and the complexity of their automated solutions.
This year's awards introduced new categories focused on AI-powered automation, reflecting the growing role AI plays in the way businesses work. Today, Zapier connects over 8,000 apps and has powered more than 250 million AI tasks for its users.
About Zapier
Zapier is an AI orchestration platform that connects 8,000+ apps to help companies automate workflows and improve productivity. Since 2012, millions of users have trusted Zapier to automate everything from lead routing and data synchronization to customer conversations—all without writing code. By turning complex integrations into simple, point-and-click workflows, Zapier empowers teams of all sizes to focus on strategic work. From startups to Fortune 500 companies, organizations worldwide trust Zapier to streamline operations, reduce errors, and accelerate growth through intelligent automation.
Learn more at www.zapier.com.
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