
Winner
The Creative CTO: Intuitive Technology Leadership for the Modern Enterprise
James Adams
The Creative CTO helps aspiring and current technology leaders navigate one of the most complex and misunderstood roles in modern business. Drawing from decades of experience at top global firms, James Adams offers a clear, real-world blueprint for how to lead technology at scale—with clarity, creativity, and credibility. The book breaks down core responsibilities like strategy, architecture, governance, and team leadership in a way that’s accessible, practical, and deeply human. It’s especially empowering for professionals without traditional credentials, showing that curiosity, perseverance, and continuous learning matter more than titles or degrees. In a time when every organization is shaped by technology, The Creative CTO is giving the next generation of leaders the tools—and confidence—to step into the role.
Winner
SuperShifts: Transforming How We Live, Learn, and Work in the Age of Intelligence
Ja-Naé Duane
Steve Fisher
Humanity stands at a pivotal juncture, marking the transition from one age to another every 200 years, now propelled by swift technological and societal transformations that have accelerated the pace of change from decades to months. This era of rapid evolution presents a choice: to slow the adoption of new technologies, potentially monopolized by a few, or to democratize access and knowledge, fostering a shared progress. In SuperShifts, leading behavioral scientist Dr. Ja-Naé Duane and world-renowned innovator and futurist Steve Fisher highlight the various catalysts for change currently affecting individuals, businesses, and society as a whole. They also provide a model for transformation that expertly bridges the gap between theory and practice to provide a holistic view of making radical change through three lenses: you as a leader, your organization, and society.
Winner
Building Agentic AI Systems
Wrick Talukdar
Anjanava Biswas
Building Agentic AI Systems is a bestselling, field-tested guide that turns generative AI from hype into results. It equips leaders and builders with a practical playbook to build autonomous AI agents that save money, ship faster, and improve product quality.It gives patterns, checklists, and blueprints that cut rework and scale from prototype to production. Readers learn to design agents that reason, act, and self-audit, reducing risk, meeting compliance, and earning trust. Real-world cases show how to automate document processing, customer service, and analytics, yielding lower cost per transaction and higher throughput. Endorsed by industry stalwarts, including Apple’s former Chief Scientist for Siri and praised by the technology community as “game-changing,” this book fills a critical market gap, enabling faster decisions, fewer failures, safer deployments, and a repeatable path to ROI with trustworthy, human-centered autonomous AI agents
Finalist
DesignedUp: A designer’s guide on how to lead inside the tech industry
Emma Carter
DesignedUp is a practical guide for designers navigating the complex worlds of tech and consultancy, where design is often undervalued or misunderstood. It's for those that =struggle to get non-designers to see the value of their work. Sharing my own experience as a design leader in the tech industry and personal stories I've gathered from tech, business and design leaders at companies such as, Thoughtworks, frog, PwC, etc. Readers will learn how to communicate in business and tech language, build credibility, and make the value of design visible. “Thank you for all the guidance and support you shared in the pages of your book. I initially struggled in the tech consultancy when I joined, but adding your book to my journey has helped me greatly. Before each new account, I review your book and refresh my memory on how to behave like a DesignedUp leader. Thank you so much" - Senior design consultant
Finalist
Power Up Product Management: A Quick Start Guide
Allison J. Taylor
Chris Naunheimer
Readers of Power Up Product Management call it a “current, smart, and empowering” guide that “will get you moving.” Compact, actionable, and engaging, it serves as “a practical toolkit” for entrepreneurs, career seekers, and executive leaders to jump into building and selling outstanding products. Book reviewers also describe its “engaging mix of knowledge, exercises, and fun elements” helped them quickly upskill in product management, learning through real-life Silicon Valley and global stories from expert authors.





