Zapier, the AI-first automation platform known for connecting thousands of apps, has unveiled the winners of its 2025 Zappy Awards. The annual program celebrates professionals who are not just automating tasks—but reimagining how work gets done using AI-powered workflows and Zapier Agents.
“What blows me away about this year’s winners is how they’re pairing human creativity with AI,” said Philip Lakin, Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier. “You don’t just save time; you unlock new possibilities.”
Reimagining Work Across Industries
The 2025 winners span 10 categories, demonstrating the impact of automation in fields ranging from marketing and sales to non-profits and HR. Key honorees include:
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AI Solution Innovator of the Year: Charlie Hoehn of Author.Inc. revolutionized book publishing with a system that enables entrepreneurs to produce nonfiction books in days, achieving nearly 70% profit margins.
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Marketing Automator of the Year: Andrew Harding at Slate built a lead-generation Zapier Agent delivering over 2,000 leads in its first month with a nearly 50% cold email response rate.
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Sales Automator of the Year: Isaac Smith of Klue created a centralized sales operations workflow used over 8,000 times in eight months, saving 900+ GTM hours.
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Customer Support Automator of the Year: Nick Paliughi at Freshysites transformed ticket triage for 2,800 WordPress sites using AI to prioritize and contextualize support requests.
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Operations Automator of the Year: Jocelyne Mendez of BioRender implemented a 51-step workflow that cut accounts receivable resolution time by 69%.
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HR Automator of the Year: Kathy Lam at StackAdapt automated payroll and forecasting data flow, reducing errors and freeing her team for strategic work.
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IT Automator of the Year: Dan Dorato-Hankins of Vector Media used Zapier to manage core lifecycle and helpdesk workflows with minimal oversight.
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Non-Profit Automator of the Year: Deborah Mader at Lahaina Community Land Trust digitized disaster relief applications into Salesforce, maintaining relational integrity.
Other winners included John Rippy of Drive Social Media, recognized for Project Phoenix, an AI sales engine that halved web development time and tripled sales content creation speed.
Automation Without Code
The awards highlight a significant trend: you don’t need to be a developer to build complex automation. From operations specialists to marketing managers and non-profit leaders, these professionals designed multi-step AI workflows that generate measurable business impact.
Why It Matters
Zapier now connects over 8,000 apps and has powered more than 250 million AI tasks. The Zappy Awards showcase the growing role of AI in redefining workflows, emphasizing creativity and practical impact over technical coding skills. Winners reported reduced resolution times, thousands of qualified leads, and transformative changes in how work gets done.
“The 2025 Zappy Awards show that automation can unlock entirely new ways of working,” Lakin said. “These professionals are proving that AI and human ingenuity together can create results that were impossible before.”
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