Forward Networks Wins AI Award for Digital Twin That Builds Trust

SANTA CLARA, CA – March 25, 2026 – Forward Networks, a leader in network modeling technology, has been named a winner in the 2026 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards for its Forward AI feature set. The award, presented by the Business Intelligence Group, recognizes the company's pivotal work in grounding artificial intelligence in mathematically verifiable data, a crucial step toward making AI safe and reliable for managing the world's most complex and critical enterprise networks.

The recognition highlights a significant shift in the technology landscape, moving beyond the hype of experimental AI to reward practical, accountable deployments that deliver measurable results. By leveraging its proven network digital twin platform, Forward Networks is addressing a core challenge facing global enterprises: how to adopt AI for network operations without introducing unacceptable risk.

The High-Stakes Gamble of AI in Networking

As organizations have expanded into hybrid and multi-cloud environments, the networks underpinning their operations have grown exponentially complex. Managing this sprawling digital infrastructure has become a monumental task, pushing human capabilities to their limits. In response, the industry has turned to artificial intelligence and automation as the logical next step to improve efficiency, reduce downtime, and bolster security.

However, applying AI to critical infrastructure is a high-stakes proposition. Unlike consumer-facing AI applications, an error in network operations can trigger catastrophic outages, data breaches, or financial losses. The effectiveness of any AI system is fundamentally dependent on the quality of the data it uses, and in the world of networking, incomplete or probabilistic data can lead to disastrous assumptions. This is the problem Forward Networks was created to solve.

"We founded Forward Networks to solve a problem the industry had learned to live with. Before Forward, it was hard for network and security teams to know with certainty how a complex network would actually behave," said Nikhil Handigol, co-founder and chief AI officer of Forward Networks. "At scale, assumptions break down, and that risk compounds as organizations move toward automation and AI. A mathematically accurate digital twin changes that by providing a verified foundation teams can trust, so they can operate, automate, and adopt AI with confidence."

Building a Foundation of Verifiable Truth

At the heart of Forward Networks' award-winning solution is its network digital twin. This is not merely a static map but a dynamic, mathematically precise software replica of an organization's entire production network. The platform ingests configuration and state data from every device—across multi-vendor hardware and major cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud—to create a comprehensive behavioral model. This model acts as a single source of truth, allowing IT and security teams to analyze, predict, and verify network behavior without touching live equipment.

Forward AI builds upon this foundation, functioning as an agentic system that allows teams to interact with their network using natural language. Instead of relying on inference or statistical guesswork, Forward AI reasons over the complete, behaviorally accurate data within the digital twin. It can answer complex questions about network paths, verify security policies, or validate proposed changes, providing answers that are not just probable but provably correct. This ensures every automated action is grounded in precision and validated by guardrails, dramatically reducing the risk of human and machine error.

This approach stands in stark contrast to more generalized AI systems that may offer insights based on pattern recognition alone. By providing a verifiable model of the network, Forward's technology enables a new class of trustworthy AI operations where every outcome can be inspected and understood before it is implemented in the real world.

Translating Precision into Profit and Protection

The value of this trust-based approach is not theoretical. According to a recent IDC report, the average Forward Networks customer realizes US$14.2 million in annual benefits. These gains are driven by concrete improvements in operational resilience and efficiency. The report found that customers experienced an 83% reduction in productivity loss from unplanned downtime, a 71% acceleration in network deployment times, and a 34% increase in the efficiency of incident response teams.

The company's customer list, which includes global leaders like Goldman Sachs, PayPal, IBM, and Dell, further demonstrates the technology's effectiveness in the world's most demanding IT environments. These organizations rely on Forward Networks to reduce risk, ensure compliance, and prepare their infrastructure for the next wave of digital transformation.

The significance of this real-world impact was a key factor in the AI Excellence Awards. "AI has arrived! 2026 is about execution, accountability, and results," said Russ Fordyce, Chief Recognition Officer for the Business Intelligence Group. "Forward Networks stood out because its work in Digital Twin Technology reflects where the market is headed: practical AI that solves real problems, earns trust, and delivers measurable value. This recognition highlights a team that is not just participating in the AI shift, but helping define what meaningful progress looks like."

Charting a Course in a Competitive AIOps Sea

Forward Networks operates in the increasingly crowded and competitive market of AIOps (AI for IT Operations) and network automation. While many major networking incumbents and specialized software vendors offer solutions aimed at simplifying network management, Forward's focus on a foundational, mathematically precise model provides a key differentiator. Rather than primarily focusing on reactive anomaly detection, the company's platform enables proactive verification and simulation, allowing teams to prevent outages before they happen.

This emphasis on a verifiable data foundation is becoming increasingly critical as more organizations look to deploy autonomous systems. The award from the Business Intelligence Group serves as a powerful validation of this strategy, signaling a broader industry maturation from AI experimentation to the demand for accountable, enterprise-grade AI solutions.

As Handigol noted, the award reflects a deeper relationship with the companies that run the world's most critical networks. "Being recognized with the AI Excellence Award for the Digital Twin Technology is a meaningful validation of that work, and we're deeply grateful, but more than anything, it reflects the trust that the IT leaders running the world's most critical networks have placed in us."