Charleston, SC, March 24, 2026 – SIB today announced it has been named a winner in the 2026 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards, in the category of Financial Services. Presented by the Business Intelligence Group, the award recognizes organizations, products, teams, and individuals that are applying artificial intelligence in ways that drive real, measurable impact.

The 2026 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards honor achievement across a broad range of industries and use cases, spotlighting the companies and leaders moving AI beyond experimentation and into practical, accountable deployment. This year’s program recognized winners across 36 industries and more than 15 countries.

SIB was recognized for SpendBrain™, its AI-powered Spend Ontology platform that transforms fragmented supply chain information, data points, vendors, contracts, and invoice details into a “brain” providing perfect spend visibility. Built on more than 35 years of cost reduction expertise and 17 years of ontology development expertise, SpendBrain™ serves as a conversational decision layer, connecting how money moves through the business and improving a firm’s ability to adapt their spend to ever changing needs. After analyzing just one month of data for a Fortune 500 company, SpendBrain™ increased spend visibility, accelerated decision-making, identifying $1.5 million in annual savings across more than 3,000 locations.

Through a conversational interface powered by its private spend ontology, SpendBrain delivers on the promise of Handcraft AI™ by allowing deep human experts to teach the brain.  This turns complex spend relationships into grounded, context-aware answers. This enables SIB to sustainably surface actionable patterns, financial leakage, and help organizations manage spend with greater precision, speed, and agility.  In short, you no longer have to “pick two”; low cost, advanced and accurate, high ROI technology is here to help business leaders realize their vision.

“AI has arrived! 2026 is about execution, accountability, and results,” said Russ Fordyce, Chief Recognition Officer, Business Intelligence Group. “SIB stood out because its work in Financial Services 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.”

The 2026 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards drew a highly competitive field of global leaders advancing AI across industries. Winners and finalists included IBM (Internet and Technology), Dell Technologies (Infrastructure and Operations), Lenovo (Agentic AI), Intuit (AI for Social Good), and EY (Automation), alongside category leaders such as FICO and NVIDIA, and prominent organizations including ADP, DeepL, Experian, Genesys, NICE, and Thomson Reuters. 

Against this backdrop of industry-defining companies, SIB’s recognition highlights its emergence as a leading force in applying AI to solve complex, real-world challenges in the operational layers of spend management. 

“We are honored to be recognized in the 2026 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards for our work in Financial Services,” said Shannon Copeland, CEO of SIB. “For decades, organizations have struggled with fragmented spend data that limits visibility and decision-making. This recognition validates our belief that the future of AI lies in connecting that fragmentation into a system that learns, adapts, and creates a lasting advantage. We’re proud to help our clients move beyond cost reduction toward their true permanent spend advantage.”

The Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards celebrate the people and organizations leading the next phase of AI adoption, where innovation is judged not just by novelty, but by impact. Winners are selected based on how effectively they are using AI to improve performance, reduce friction, solve meaningful problems, and move their industries forward.