Introduction
We’re delighted to announce that Dr Haider Raza, Co‑founder of Sensiwise AI and Senior Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Essex, has been shortlisted for the National AI Awards 2026 in two categories: Alan Turing Innovator of the Year and Best Industry‑Specific AI Solution for the SKINTEL® project. These honours underscore the prestige of the National AI Awards and shine a spotlight on the powerful partnership between academia and industry.
The Alan Turing category celebrates individuals who advance artificial intelligence through groundbreaking research and visionary leadership. The Best Industry‑Specific AI Solution category recognises products that deliver exceptional impact within a particular sector, in this case, healthcare.
What This Recognition Means
The National AI Awards showcase organisations and individuals driving innovation and responsible AI adoption. Being shortlisted in both categories demonstrates how Dr Haider Raza bridges university research with real‑world impact. The University of Essex has long fostered innovative partnerships, and Dr Raza’s nomination highlights the vital role universities play in transferring knowledge to industry and society.
The Alan Turing Innovator of the Year award honours those who embody Turing’s spirit of intellectual rigour and excellence. Dr Raza’s work on explainable AI systems and equitable access to AI perfectly aligns with this ethos. The Best Industry‑Specific AI Solution category, meanwhile, celebrates solutions tailored to solve unique industry challenges, a description that fits SKINTEL’s impact on dermatology with The University of Essex and Check4Cancer.
Sensiwise AI and SAIRA™: Building AI Readiness Infrastructure
While healthcare breakthroughs capture headlines, Sensiwise AI is equally focused on responsible AI adoption. Many companies rush into AI without the foundations to succeed. According to The GenAI Divide STATE OF AI IN BUSINESS 2025 research, 95 % of AI initiatives fail due to organisational readiness gaps, and less than 10 % of companies using AI are fully AI‑ready. More than half of leaders believe they have under a year to act before falling behind.
To bridge this AI divide, Sensiwise created SAIRA™ (Sensiwise AI Investment Readiness Assessment): a structured framework for assessing and improving organisational readiness. SAIRA benchmarks your readiness across seven pillars: AI Vision & Strategy, Digital Data Maturity, Technology Infrastructure, Cultural Readiness, People & Skills, Process Readiness, and Ethics & Governance. Organisations complete an online questionnaire and receive a scored report, highlighting strengths, risks and priority actions.
SAIRA is not a traditional consultancy; it’s an AI health check that scales from SMEs to enterprises. It helps organisations avoid wasted AI spend, comply with regulations, and build ethical, scalable AI practices.
Why AI Readiness Matters Now
A growing body of research shows that most organisations lack the data and governance foundations needed for AI. A recent study revealed that while 57% of organisations report strong executive confidence in their AI strategies, only 28.5% are moderately prepared to deploy AI, and just 8.6% are fully AI‑ready. This disconnect between ambition and readiness leads to misaligned expectations, inaccurate insights and wasted investments.
Sensiwise AI addresses these challenges by focusing on data unification, governance and scalable infrastructure. The SAIRA framework provides a roadmap to build these foundations, turning AI vision into operational reality. By combining SAIRA with the University of Essex’s cutting‑edge research, Sensiwise AI is well-positioned to help SMEs and public sector organisations adopt AI responsibly and effectively.
Vision for the Future
Sensiwise AI’s mission is to make AI accessible, ethical and impactful. We believe that the benefits of artificial intelligence should extend beyond large tech companies to SMEs, healthcare providers and public institutions. By democratising access to tools like SAIRA and showcasing how AI can genuinely improve user outcomes, we’re demonstrating what responsible AI adoption looks like. Our long‑term vision is to enable every organisation to harness AI confidently, while upholding transparency, fairness and societal benefit.
AI Innovation in Healthcare: The SKINTEL® Story
Early detection and triage
Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers, yet early diagnosis is critical to improve outcomes. Working on Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)funded project with the University of Essex and Check4Cancer, Dr Raza’s team developed SKINTEL®, an AI‑powered teledermatology system that combines high‑quality image analysis with 22 patient metrics (such as age, skin tone and family history) to determine whether a lesion requires further investigation. This explainable model identifies more than 99% of skin cancer cases and achieves 82.5 % specificity, meaning fewer unnecessary biopsies and quicker reassurance for patients. This work has been carried out by Dr Shafiqul Islam, Head of AI, Check4Cancer, under the supervision of Dr Haider Raza, along with his academic team and Professor Gordon Wishart, Founder of Check4Cancer.
Clinical decision support
The innovation isn’t about replacing clinicians but augmenting them. SKINTEL® provides transparent reasoning to clinicians, allowing them to see why a lesion has been flagged. The system supports the existing pathway rather than becoming a “black box”, so final decisions remain under clinician control. In clinical testing, it significantly shortens waiting times and reduces the biopsy rate, while still detecting aggressive cancers at the earliest opportunity. A Knowledge Transfer Partnership between the University of Essex and Check4Cancer has already shown that their teledermatology pathway slashed waiting times and cut biopsy rates to 11 %.
Transforming patient pathways
SKINTEL® is more than a research project: it’s a decision‑support tool designed for deployment across private and public health sectors. By reliably ruling out benign lesions while detecting almost all cancers, it can optimise specialist capacity, reduce patient anxiety and improve early intervention. The project exemplifies translational AI, moving from lab discovery to scalable clinical impact.
From Research to Real‑World Impact
Sensiwise AI’s success is rooted in collaboration between academia and industry. The University of Essex has a strong track record in knowledge‑transfer partnerships, and the collaboration with Check4Cancer shows how research can deliver measurable benefits. This partnership identified novel risk factors, reduced biopsies and is now scaling to deliver teledermatology services across the UK and beyond. Dr Raza highlights that the goal was always to transform lives, not just innovate, and the results speak for themselves.
Conclusion
Being shortlisted for the National AI Awards is both an honour and a responsibility. It recognises the power of collaboration between research and industry, and it underscores the need for organisations to prepare their foundations before embarking on AI journeys.
If you’re excited by the possibilities of AI but unsure where to start:
- Explore the SAIRA page to learn how the readiness assessment works and what the seven pillars mean for your organisation.
- Visit our services page to discover how we can support your AI strategy, training and development.
- Book a consultation to discuss your AI ambitions, whether you’re in healthcare, finance, retail or the public sector.
“AI innovation is not just about building intelligent systems: it’s about making intelligence accessible, responsible, and impactful.”
We invite you to join us on this journey toward responsible AI adoption. Together, we can harness innovation to improve lives, transform businesses and build a future where AI benefits everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- What are the AI Awards 2026?
The National AI Awards celebrate individuals and organisations driving innovation and responsible AI adoption. The Alan Turing Innovator of the Year recognises people who advance AI through visionary research, while the Best Industry‑Specific AI Solution honours tailored solutions delivering exceptional impact within a particular sector. - What is SAIRA™?
SAIRA™ is Sensiwise AI’s Readiness Assessment. It benchmarks your organisation’s AI capability across seven pillars, vision & strategy, data maturity, technology, culture, skills, process and governance—and provides a scored report with recommendations. - Why do most AI projects fail?
Many organisations launch AI initiatives without the data, governance and infrastructure needed to support them. Research shows that 95% of AI initiatives fail due to readiness gaps, and fewer than 10% of companies are truly AI‑ready. Other studies reveal that while 57% of executives are confident about AI, only 8.6 % of organisations have the foundations to deploy it. - How can my organisation start its AI journey?
Begin by assessing your AI readiness. Take the SAIRA assessment to see where your organisation stands, identify priority areas and build a roadmap. From there, Sensiwise AI can support you with strategy, training and development tailored to your sector.