Asiacell wins five Stevie Awards
Global recognition for LAILA, CEI and Asiacell’s full-stack AI telecom ecosystem marks a major milestone for Iraq’s technology sector
These five awards, led by our two Gold Stevies, are not a tribute to Asiacell alone. They are proof that Iraqi talent can build AI solutions that match global benchmarks”— Amer Sunna, Chief Executive Officer of Asiacell
BAGHDAD, IRAQ, July 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Asiacell, Iraq’s leading provider of telecommunications and digital services, has won five honors at the 2026 Stevie® Awards for Technology Excellence, securing two Gold, two Silver and one Bronze Stevie Award across the Artificial Intelligence categories.
The five awards recognize Asiacell’s achievements in AI-powered customer service, customer-experience intelligence, network optimization and the development of an integrated AI ecosystem for telecommunications. The results place Asiacell’s Iraqi-developed innovations alongside leading technology solutions from organizations around the world.
The Gold Stevie® Award in the “Technology Breakthrough of the Year – Artificial Intelligence – Consumer Service Industries” category honored Asiacell's AI assistant LAILA for proving a pioneering model of AI-first customer service. Since launching in November 2024 as Iraq's first AI customer assistant, LAILA has handled millions of interactions in Arabic, Kurdish, and English, automating 76% of queries end-to-end; while customer satisfaction kept to be in a high score. The judges called the nomination "outstanding," noting "global-caliber performance achieved under significantly harder conditions," and described LAILA as "a benchmark example of how AI can meaningfully reshape telecom service delivery."
Asiacell received its another Gold Stevie® Award in the “Technical Innovation of the Year – Artificial Intelligence – Consumer Service Industries” category, for CEI+, an AI-powered system that measures the actual network experience of each of Asiacell's more than 20 million customers, every day. Guided by CEI+, network optimization raised Asiacell's overall quality score and cut daily user complaints. The judging panel described it as "one of the stronger nominations in the AI category," combining "technical depth, measurable operational impact, and enterprise-scale deployment" and praised it as "a brilliant application of AI to bridge the gap between network metrics and user experience."
LAILA also earned two Silver Stevie® Awards; the first as Iraq's first AI customer assistant serving customers in three languages through a single conversational interface, and the second for the advanced architecture connecting it directly to Asiacell's live systems. The judging panel called it "a world-class achievement" that "goes well beyond typical chatbot implementations," with one judge writing that its results are ones "other operators should study very closely."
Completing the achievement, Asiacell won a Bronze Stevie® Award in the “Company of the Year – Artificial Intelligence” category for building Iraq's first full-stack AI telecom ecosystem, spanning customer service, network operations, and predictive analytics. Judges said the ecosystem "sets an exceptional international benchmark for telecom innovation."
Commenting on the wins, Amer Sunna, Chief Executive Officer of Asiacell, said:
"These five awards, led by our two Gold Stevies, are not a tribute to Asiacell alone. They are proof that Iraqi talent can build AI solutions that match global benchmarks, and exceed them, in a more demanding operating environment. We have shown that innovation is not only imported into Iraq; it is made here."
“We congratulate all of the winners in the third annual Stevie® Awards for Technology Excellence for their outstanding achievements,” said Stevie Awards President Maggie Miller. “Their innovations are helping shape the future of technology across every industry, and we look forward to celebrating their success on October 28.”
More than 180 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this year’s honorees, and the winners will be honored at the awards ceremony on October 28, 2026 in Paris, France, where they will be celebrated alongside winners of the 2026 Stevie® Awards.
Asiacell's five wins came amid fierce global competition from companies representing more than 30 countries, including the world's leading technology firms, placing Asiacell among the ranks of global tech leaders and affirming Iraq's capability to produce advanced technological solutions that compete internationally.
Asiacell continues to advance its ambitious strategy, including full readiness to launch 5G services pending regulatory approvals from the Iraqi government, and expanded investment in AI platforms and digital infrastructure, contributing to a brighter digital future for Iraq and the wider region.
