HanoiThe AI ​​Talent category at AI Awards 2026 recognizes the contributions and achievements of experts, engineers, and researchers in the development and application of artificial intelligence.

AI Talent is one of three categories of the AI ​​Awards 2026, alongside Outstanding AI Enterprises and Outstanding AI Products and Solutions. The category recognizes individuals with outstanding achievements in AI research, development and application, while encouraging the next generation of technology workers to continue to innovate and contribute to the community.

The AI ​​Awards ceremony, organized by VnExpress, took place on the afternoon of November 5 within the framework of Vietnam Artificial Intelligence Festival - AI4VN 2026.

Nguyen Tien Dong - CMC OpenAI

Mr. Nguyen Tien Dong, Technical Director of CMC OpenAI company, plays a key role in orienting and developing Vietnamese legal AI technology. He is in charge of the technical direction and core technology architecture of the C-OpenAI platform and CLEX (C-AI Legal) product, including developing the large language model CMC-AI-Legal-32B, combining RAG and fine-tuning specialized in Vietnamese law, supporting civil servants in searching, drafting, appraising and checking document conflicts.

Under Mr. Dong's leadership, the CLEX platform was assessed by the Ministry of Science and Technology to meet the conditions of a national civil service AI platform for nationwide deployment, thereby contributing to promoting AI technology autonomy in Vietnam.

"Students, please nurture your dreams, believe in your goals and persevere in pursuing them to the end," Mr. Dong sent a message to students at the event. "On that journey, difficulties are inevitable, but the efforts will be rewarded with worthy results."

Dr. Le Duy Dung - VinUniversity

As Director of Training and lecturer at the Institute of Engineering and Computer Science at VinUniversity, Dr. Le Duy Dung has more than 50 scientific works published at conferences and AI magazines around the world. He stands out for his research in applying AI and robotics in green material discovery, with the AIRES (Algorithmic Iterative Reticular Synthesis) project combining AI with materials chemistry and environmental science. The work of the same name was published in the journal Nature Synthesis, bringing together international scientists in the fields of lattice chemistry, machine learning and optimization.

Besides research, Mr. Dung also participates in promoting the training of AI human resources through the training program of 20,000 real AI talents - AI20K. He founded startup V-IndoorCARE, contributing to bringing AI research results into practice.

Le Trung Hieu - FPT IS

FPT IS Product Manager Le Trung Hieu has more than 10 years of experience in the field of technology, and is an expert in researching and applying AI to solve practical problems. He has promoted the deployment of AI solutions in more than 7,000 organizations, serving about 7 million users and won many prestigious domestic and international technology awards.

Mr. Hieu is currently focusing on researching AI applications to process unstructured data and automate operations on the Kyta Platform, helping agents read and understand documents, exploit knowledge, compare data and participate directly in the workflow. The goal is to develop AI agents into a "digital human resources" force in businesses and state agencies.

In a message to students at the AI ​​Awards 2026, he assessed that today's students possess very powerful AI tools, so they need to set bigger and more ambitious goals. "Writing code or preparing documents is no longer too difficult, the important thing is knowing how to exploit AI to create practical value. Education is also moving in the direction of solving problems from society and businesses," Mr. Hieu said. "As AI increasingly develops, people need to promote their strengths in governance, set standards and monitor and evaluate the quality of AI output."

Associate Professor. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Khanh - University of Oulu

"These successes are not my own achievements, but the result of the contributions of the entire research team and predecessors. This process is like building a system, requiring the joint efforts of many people. I am very proud to have the opportunity to receive this award," Mr. Khanh said at the event.

At the age of 33, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Khanh is a typical young researcher in the field of artificial intelligence and educational technology at Oulu University (Finland). With more than 100 scientific works and 7,400 citations, he has many outstanding contributions in AI and hybrid intelligence research, and received the IEEE Outstanding Young Researcher Award in Learning Technology in 2025 and is among the 2% most cited scientists in the world.

In Vietnam, he participated in the NAFOSTED fund project for the period 2026-2029, collaborating with VinUniversity to research AI capabilities for pedagogical students and teachers. Research focuses on the application of generative AI in teaching, responsible use of AI and digital transformation of education, aiming to bring research results into real learning environments.

Nguyen Ha Phong - Qualcomm AI Research Vietnam,

As a senior research scientist at Qualcomm AI Research Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Ha Phong focuses on researching 3D computer vision, generative AI and robotics, with main directions such as 3D space reconstruction, image and video generation, World Models and Embodied AI. Recent work combines diffusion modeling, 3D representation, and robotics to develop AI capable of understanding, generating, and interacting with real-world environments.

Mr. Phong has more than 30 scientific publications at international conferences such as CVPR, ECCV, NeurIPS; of which two CVPR 2026 articles received the Highlight Papers award. With more than 7 years of research, he also participates in leading international cooperation groups and guiding many students and researchers to develop scientific works.

The AI ​​Awards will be organized annually by VnExpress from 2022, within the framework of the AI4VN Vietnam Artificial Intelligence Festival event. Through four seasons, the program honors many AI solutions applied in education, healthcare, public services and commerce. From 162 nominations, AI Awards 2026 selected 17 products, solutions and 16 businesses as finalists. C

AI4VN is an annual event since 2018, directed by the Ministry of Science and Technology and coordinated by VnExpress newspaper. This year, the program cooperates with Hanoi National University to inspire, encourage research spirit and promote AI application orientation in the young generation.

Bao Lam