Innovator of the Year? There's Been a Mix-Up (But I'll Take It)

I opened my email this morning to find out I've been nominated for Innovator of the Year 2025 by the Orange County Business Journal. My first thought: pretty sure there's been a mix-up.

After the surprise wore off, I realized something important. This isn't about me. It's recognition for the wild journey we've been on at DoozerAI—and honestly, for everyone who's been part of making digital coworkers a reality.

When Gavin and I set out to build digital coworkers in 2023, we knew we were stepping into something big. But moving beyond traditional automation to create AI agents that actually work in production? That's been a journey of discovery, innovation, and—to be completely honest—figuring out what actually works in the real world.

I've been in the automation space for nearly three decades. I built a Gartner-rated enterprise process automation platform at Singularity (now Tungsten Automation). I've worked with Fortune 500 companies at Dreamworks, Qualcomm, and Activision. I studied AI at the University of Edinburgh back when neural networks were still considered weird academic curiosities.

But DoozerAI is different. This isn't about incremental improvements to robotic process automation. It's about autonomous digital co-workers that go beyond traditional automation—agents with memory, schedules, email addresses, and the ability to make judgment calls while working toward business goals.

“What gets me excited isn't just the tech—it's seeing businesses gain a real competitive edge by automating the mundane and focusing resources on what actually moves the needle.”

The real validation comes from watching our clients transform their operations. Finance teams closing their books in 2 days instead of 9. Customer service operations handling thousands of inquiries with 99.4% accuracy. Companies deploying 127 agents in 8 days and seeing their teams evolve from task executors to strategic thinkers.

This journey wouldn't be possible without our incredible team at DoozerAI. Without Gavin's vision and relentless drive. Without our early clients who trusted us when we were still figuring out how to stop our agents from emailing the BBC CEO. Without the broader AI community pushing the boundaries of what's achievable.

We're also powering the Wyland National Mayor's Challenge, processing personalized impact reports at scale while demonstrating real-world AI agent capabilities. Our technology is being used daily by organizations globally, and our insights on agentic AI have been featured in InfoWorld and CIO.com.

Being nominated alongside other Orange County innovators—companies doing incredible work across healthcare, education, sustainability, and technology—is humbling. Looking at that list of nominees, I'm reminded that innovation isn't a solo sport. It's a community effort.

Whether or not we take home the award, being recognized for driving meaningful change is incredibly motivating. The future of work is being written right now. Digital coworkers aren't science fiction—they're processing invoices, responding to customers, and generating reports while you read this.

The line between human and AI coworkers is starting to blur. We have more AI agents working for us than human employees, and we'll never tell you which are which—because if they're getting the job done, does it matter?

So thank you to the Orange County Business Journal for the nomination. Thank you to our team, our clients, and everyone who's been part of this journey. And if there was a mix-up in the nomination process—well, I appreciate the mistake. 😊

Here's to continued innovation and the amazing possibilities ahead! 🚀