Kentico Opens its Site of the Year 2026 Awards as First Major DXP with a ‘Best Use of AI’ Category

As an industry analyst, CMS geek, and all-around digital design nut, I’m fortunate to review and sometimes judge various awards competitions. It’s one of the best parts of my job because I get to look at what people and agencies make – and do it through a number of different lenses. 

Yes, it often involves a deep dive into architectures, but it also means I get to play with digital experiences. Who doesn’t love exploring an exquisite mobile UI or ogling over a stunning homepage template? 

There’s simply no replacement for how we – as humans – can be inspired by good design. But when you combine an awards competition with compelling stories about complex migrations and multichannel applications, you get a range of impressive submissions that go beyond just the visual appeal.

Kentico has been running its annual Site of the Year competition since 2017, and I’ve covered it in the past. The platform highlights some “swoon-worthy” projects built on Kentico, demonstrating the flexibility and extensibility of what’s possible when partners push the boundaries.

The DXP just announced its Site of the Year 2026 program last week, offering an updated awards structure that reflects the direction of modern digital experiences. This edition consolidates ten vertical categories into six while introducing a slate of new bonus awards like “Best SaaS Project,” “Best Multichannel Project,” “Best Upgrade Project,” and “Best Migration Project.”

There’s one more, and it’s arguably in the spotlight: Kentico has added a “Best Use of AI” award to the roster, the first of its kind from a major category vendor.

This is a smart move – and it complements the awards program in an area where many partners and enterprises are doubling down. According to Kentico, the new category will recognize and celebrate the work of brands and teams in deploying agentic and generative AI in production.

It also aligns to the capabilities Kentico has been shipping across its Xperience by Kentico, AIRA, and the Agentic Marketing Suite. I recently broke down the platform’s rollout of four specialized agents that operate as a virtual marketing team, and you can read my analysis here.

"Awards programs should be a mirror of where the industry is actually moving, not where it was two years ago," said Petr Klouda, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Kentico. "Agentic AI is no longer experimental; it is in production, shipping real outcomes for real customers. With Site of the Year 2026, we are putting that work on the leaderboard, alongside the SaaS, migration, and consolidation projects that are reshaping how organizations operate. The partners and customers building this future deserve to be recognized for it." 

A New Awards Structure for a Changing Industry

It goes without saying that AI is rippling across the CMS and DXP toolscape and transforming everything. Still, the value of websites remains steadfast, even as they evolve to serve both humans and agents. 

Kentico’s Site of the Year competition is an opportunity to celebrate the efforts of the people behind these amazing experiences. It highlights the partners and customers who continue to elevate design and harness Xperience by Kentico to deliver uniquely inspiring results. As AI shifts the horizon, these practitioners are leveraging its capabilities to explore what’s next.

The 2026 Site of the Year program introduces three changes to reflect the realities of how leading digital teams are working today. As mentioned, Kentico has consolidated the vertical structure from ten categories to six, clustering industries with a natural alignment. This includes: 

• Government, Associations & Education
• Sport, Entertainment, Travel & Tourism
• Financial Services
• Healthcare
• Industrial Manufacturing
• B2B & Consumer Brands

One important change: commerce is no longer a standalone category, and will be evaluated within the industry that each project aligns with. 

The five new bonus awards hit every vertical and reflect the focus of modern digital experience. This includes agentic and generative AI integration, true SaaS implementations, multichannel and consolidation projects, in-place version upgrades, and migrations from competing platforms. And bonus awards aren’t exclusive, meaning a single project can win both a vertical category and one or more bonus awards. 

Site of the Year 2025 Set a High Bar

You can read my review of Kentico’s Site of the Year 2025 competition, which featured ten category winners and twenty honorable mentions across financial services, commerce, education, hospitality, healthcare, government, B2B, manufacturing, and nonprofit sectors. Submissions came from North America, EMEA, and APAC.

For me, there were certainly some standouts. For example, LeShuttle Freight’s elegant, high-performance, multilingual experience was top-notch. In addition to simple, intuitive navigation, it has a tricked-out, real-time service update that provides critical visibility for time-sensitive logistics. The mobile experience is also lightweight, prioritizing the right elements in the UX. 

You can also read my review of the Bob W.  and Oppenheimer projects, and why they really made the grade. The full list of winners is available on the Kentico Awards page. 

2026 is already taking shape

Kentico’s 2026 Site of the Year competition is already underway, with early entries crystallizing the value and impact of its new award categories. According to Kentico, every project that wins Site of the Month automatically qualifies for Site of the Year consideration, and thus far, the projects encompass work that would have been difficult to place in last year's structure. 

For example, Integra LifeSciences, a global medical technology leader specializing in neurosurgery and surgical solutions, is a model project for the new “Best SaaS Project.” With a hard deadline driven by an impending CMS sunset, Integra worked with Kentico partner BizStream to migrate to Xperience by Kentico delivered as SaaS.

Additionally, Tesco Mobile Ireland, a consumer mobile brand, replatformed from a custom e-commerce build onto Xperience by Kentico. Delivered by Granite, the new site features a native phone comparison tool, a bundling and add-on checkout flow, and prepaid top-up functionality.

Criteria and timeline

Kentico’s “Site of the Year” entries are evaluated across four key pillars: 

• Design and user experience
• Content & engagement
• Technical excellence & performance
• Complexity & fuctionality

For more granular detail, you can visit the 2026 Awards website.

As for the schedule, Site of the Year 2026 follows the Site of the Month–based qualification model that was introduced in 2025. 

Kentico has a complete timeline on the awards website. Submissions open on January 1st, and the international Kentico judging committee will evaluate finalists in tournament-mode knockout rounds in January 2027. Winners will be announced the first week of February 2027.

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