AES Named 2026 CIO 100 Award Winner for Third Consecutive Year

The AES Corporation (AES) today announced it has been named a 2026 CIO 100 Award winner for its innovative GridSim AI platform, marking the third consecutive year the company has received this recognition from the CIO 100 Awards. 

GridSim AI advances disciplined, data-driven decision-making within an increasingly complex renewable energy landscape. Building on AES’s prior award-winning digital platforms, GridSim AI enables a shift from reactive to predictive project development empowering teams to prioritize opportunities earlier and protect capital.

Now deployed for two years, GridSim AI delivered measurable results in 2025, including avoiding $11.2 million in costs and guiding $5.5 million in high-confidence investments. The platform has established a scalable and repeatable framework that supports growth and strengthens project evaluation across AES’s global portfolio.

By applying standardized advanced analytics at select stages of the project development lifecycle, AES can make more informed decisions earlier and prioritize high-value opportunities and exit lower-probability investments. This capability represents a strategic shift, embedding data-driven discipline into portfolio planning and execution.

“GridSim AI has become an integral part of how we evaluate and advance development opportunities,” said Alejandro Reyes, AES Chief Digital Officer. “Its scalability across markets and repeatability across projects ensures consistent, rigorous assessment of project risk and value.”

“The CIOs we're recognizing this year aren't just keeping the lights on—they're driving the business,” said Richard Smith, Head of Event Content for the CIO 100 Awards & Conference. “AI, data, security, and cloud capabilities are now deeply interconnected, and the 2026 winners demonstrate what it looks like to manage them holistically and effectively.”

To learn more about the CIO 100 Awards and view the full list of winners, visit CIO 100 Awards.