Perform Partners has been shortlisted in three categories at the Yorkshire Tech Awards 2026, recognising our work across responsible AI, education technology and technology delivery.

We have been named finalists for:

• AI & Data Initiative of the Year
• Tech Team of the Year
• EdTech Initiative of the Year

The Yorkshire Tech Awards celebrate achievement across Yorkshire’s technology community, recognising the organisations and people developing, adopting and delivering technology across the region.

For Perform Partners, being recognised across three categories is particularly meaningful because each reflects an area where our teams are helping organisations deal with challenges that are becoming increasingly important: adopting emerging technology responsibly, turning innovation into practical value and helping people navigate significant technology change with confidence.

AI & Data Initiative of the Year: helping organisations adopt AI responsibly

AI is creating significant opportunities for organisations to improve productivity, make better use of information and rethink established ways of working.

Moving from opportunity to responsible adoption requires careful consideration of the environment in which AI will operate.

For organisations working with sensitive data or within regulated sectors, questions around security, privacy, data governance, ethics and accountability carry significant weight. Leaders also need clarity around the role people will continue to play, the decisions that should remain under human control and how new ways of working will be understood and adopted.

Our AI & Data Initiative of the Year shortlist recognises Perform Partners’ work helping organisations navigate these considerations while finding practical applications for AI.

This means bringing together technology, governance and organisational change from an early stage. Clear safeguards create confidence around what AI can and cannot do, while involving the people affected helps organisations understand how the technology will work within real roles, processes and responsibilities.

For clients, this creates a stronger foundation for investment. AI opportunities can be assessed against genuine organisational needs, risks can be understood earlier and implementation can progress with greater confidence across leadership and delivery teams.

The shortlist reflects the kind of AI adoption we want to support: useful, responsible and designed around the environment and people it needs to serve.

EdTech Initiative of the Year: technology that creates value for educators

Education technology has enormous potential, particularly when it gives skilled people more time to focus on the parts of their work where their expertise creates the greatest value. Our EdTech Initiative of the Year shortlist recognises work with Basingstoke College of Technology, where responsible AI has been used to address a very practical challenge around educator workload and wellbeing.

Working with the College and its wider technology partners, Perform Partners supported the development of Fixter, a teacher-led AI assessment tool designed around the professional requirements of further education.

The initiative demonstrates the value of involving educators directly in technology change. Teachers helped shape how the approach developed, ensuring that their professional knowledge, concerns and day-to-day experience informed the solution rather than being considered after implementation.

The result is technology designed to support educators while keeping professional judgement and accountability firmly in their hands. Teachers using Fixter have been able to reclaim up to five hours each week, creating additional capacity for teaching and student support while reducing the amount of personal time absorbed by marking.

For organisations considering AI or other emerging technologies, the wider lesson is valuable. Sustainable adoption develops when the people expected to use the technology understand its purpose, trust how it works, and can influence the change around them.

Tech Team of the Year: delivery expertise that helps change move forward

Significant technology change places considerable demands on internal teams. People may be dealing with unfamiliar technology while maintaining live services, managing existing priorities and making decisions that could influence the organisation for years to come. Specialist skills may only be required at particular stages, while the level of support needed can change considerably as knowledge and confidence develop.

Our Tech Team of the Year shortlist recognises the role Perform Partners teams play in helping clients navigate that environment.

Our approach brings experienced delivery, technology and change capability alongside the knowledge already held within the client organisation. We help establish clarity around the work, bring specialist capability where it adds value and work closely with internal teams so that ownership remains where it belongs.

This is particularly important when organisations are undertaking a type of change they do not deliver regularly. Experienced support can help teams anticipate dependencies, understand the implications of decisions and respond when new information changes the route forward.
It also creates space for people to adapt.

At Perform Partners, we talk about helping people transition through change safely. In practice, this means making complex change understandable, giving people opportunities to contribute and building confidence as new technology, processes and responsibilities are introduced.
Our teams scale around the requirement. Some clients need substantial delivery capability around a major programme. Others need a small number of specialists to provide clarity or capability at a particular point. As internal capability grows, our involvement can reduce accordingly.

This flexibility is part of how we maintain delivery excellence across our work. The aim is to give clients the support they genuinely need while strengthening their ability to carry the change forward.

Recognition within Yorkshire’s technology community

Being shortlisted for three Yorkshire Tech Awards gives us an opportunity to recognise the clients, partners and Perform Partners colleagues behind this work. For our Leeds-based business, there is additional significance in receiving that recognition within Yorkshire.

The region has a strong and increasingly connected technology community, bringing together established organisations, growing businesses, universities, public bodies, practitioners and technology partners. Perform Partners continues to play an active role within that ecosystem while delivering work for organisations across the UK.

Our three shortlist places reflect different areas of that work, from responsible AI and EdTech to the quality of the teams delivering complex technology change.

They also reflect a principle that has remained consistent throughout our work: technology creates greater value when organisations understand the problem they are solving, make informed decisions and bring their people through the change with them.

The Yorkshire Tech Awards 2026 ceremony takes place in December at New Dock Hall in Leeds, bringing together organisations and people from across Yorkshire’s technology community.
We are proud to have reached the shortlist in three categories and grateful to everyone whose expertise, trust and hard work contributed to the recognition.

For organisations considering their own technology or AI priorities, the work behind these nominations also provides a useful reminder that the quality of the outcome is shaped by the decisions made long before implementation begins.