The 2025 Sigma Data Impact Award Winners: Where Data Meets Its Future

Forget the old BI playbook. This year’s customer award winners prove that data isn’t just something to analyze—it’s something to build with. From AI-powered investment insights to dashboards that triple campaign performance, these are the rebels and builders rewriting the future of analytics.

Across industries, the impact is undeniable. Affirm built compensation data apps that “transformed a business intelligence tool into an active approval system.” An affordable housing nonprofit credits Sigma for a 300% increase in reach. An investment firm with $20 billion under management says AI in Sigma made reacting to markets “night and day” faster. And at Workday, campaign revenue climbed 15% while decision-making speed improved 40%. This year’s winners turned insights into action—launching new products, overhauling operations, and reshaping how teams work day to day. 

This is what real impact looks like. And it doesn’t look anything like the past.

Data Innovator of the Year | Workday

At Workday, Siddharth Pawar saw an opportunity to transform how the marketing org works.

When Siddharth joined, the marketing team faced a limited view of its own performance. Data access was controlled by IT, reports were delayed, and decision-making lagged behind campaign activity. He broke that bottleneck by introducing Sigma.

“Before introducing Sigma, the marketing team struggled with slow, manual data reporting that relied heavily on IT, causing delays in decision-making and missed opportunities,” Siddharth said. 

Instead of waiting in line, marketers now log into real-time dashboards integrated with Workday’s CRM and sales data. Insights are instant, pivots happen mid-flight, and hours of manual reporting disappeared with the bottleneck. Siddharth built an environment where marketers can get answers themselves—quickly, confidently, and in context—so decisions that once took days now happen on the spot with fresher data and broader visibility.

The change didn’t stop at faster numbers. Siddharth also worked to make data approachable. He translated complex systems into something every marketer could use, building confidence and a culture where self-service isn’t a buzzword, it’s the norm.

The payoff: campaign decisions now happen 40% faster and optimizations have already delivered a 15% lift in revenue.

After implementing Sigma, decision-making speed increased by 40%. Optimizing campaign ROI drove a measurable 15% increase in revenue.
_{Siddharth Pawar, Marketing Analytics Director, Workday}

And now? Siddharth says the team is innovating more than ever, bringing AI workflows into Sigma through Snowflake Cortex. In one use case, they’re starting to build agents inside Sigma that create a sales conversational UI.

“We’ve just scratched the surface with Sigma,” Siddharth said. 

Sounds like an innovator to us. 

Data App Builder of the Year | Affirm

Managing a compensation budget is no small task — especially when the process depends on spreadsheets, Slack threads, and manual checks. At Affirm, that was the reality until Compensation Analyst Josh Cho built a Compensation Audit data application in Sigma, transforming an inefficient process into a real-time system where budgets, approvals, and insights all live in one place.

“We’re no longer data-gatherers but strategic partners,” Josh said. “We also now have real-time visibility into budget allocation and spend, enabling proactive budget management.”

We’re no longer data-gatherers but strategic partners.
_{Josh Cho, Compensation Analyst, Affirm}

The Compensation Audit data application integrates real-time budget tracking directly into the review process, so the financial impact of every decision is visible as it happens. Reviewers can filter and drill into outcomes like average salary increases or equity allocations by function, while pop-up modals make employee details instantly accessible. Josh also added writeback-enabled comment history and sign-off tracking, turning what was once a dashboard into a working approval system with a clear, auditable record for every decision.

“This vastly improves documentation and enhances accountability for managing a large compensation budget,” he explained.

Josh then extended the same philosophy to Affirm’s leadership team, building an Executive Budget Tracker App that eliminated the one-week reporting lag executives once relied on. By linking directly to Affirm’s data warehouse, he gave leaders instant, self-service visibility into hiring and spend. “This enables them to make faster, more strategic decisions regarding hiring and talent investment,” Josh said.

By embedding approvals, filters, writeback, and workflows into Sigma, Josh created true data apps that drive business processes, not just reporting. The impact has been profound: Affirm’s compensation team now works more proactively, executives make smarter and faster hiring decisions, and the business can compete for top talent with greater confidence. For this transformation, Josh Cho has been recognized as Sigma’s Data App Builder of the Year.

Data & AI Pioneer Award | AB Carval 

In the world of investment management, the smallest data blind spot can mean millions in missed opportunity. AB CarVal’s private alternatives division faced that reality daily—80-page indenture documents filled with legal jargon, critical fund limits buried deep in text, and no fast way to surface answers. 

Using AI Query in Sigma, Albert Obeng, Head of Technology for Private Alternatives, changed the game. His team built a secure chatbot that applies large language models to these highly sensitive documents, delivering instant, accurate responses to questions like “What are the investment limits for this fund?”—all while keeping data safely inside Snowflake’s governed environment.

AI Query gives us the power of AI without sacrificing security—and Sigma makes that power usable.
_{Albert Obeng, Head of Technology for Private Alternatives, AB CarVal}

The breakthrough isn’t just speed—it’s usability. Before Sigma, investment professionals spent hours combing through PDFs and spreadsheets, losing valuable time they could have spent evaluating trades or structuring deals. Now, Sigma translates AI’s raw power into practical workflows. Analysts and traders can ask plain-language questions and get immediate insights without risk of data leakage. 

As Albert puts it, “It gives us the power of AI without sacrificing security—and Sigma makes that power usable.”

For the investment firm, AI isn’t a side project or a proof of concept. It’s a core capability that’s reshaping how investment decisions are made and setting a new standard for what’s possible in financial services in Sigma.

Vanta | Workbook Design Award

Vanta’s customer marketing team manages high-stakes campaigns where speed is everything. But until recently, every campaign started with a scramble through spreadsheets, disconnected systems, and delayed reports. By the time lists were compiled and metrics pulled, the opportunity had often passed.

Senior Analytics Engineer Clarice Robenalt changed that by building a customer marketing dashboard in Sigma that functions like an application — the central place where campaigns are designed, tracked, and optimized in real time. Data from CRM, product usage, and engagement metrics now lives in one interactive view, designed specifically for non-technical users.

“It’s not just helpful — it’s become essential to how we move fast and stay focused,” said Ayleen Beltran, a member of Vanta’s customer marketing team. With the app, anyone can pull targeted audience lists, prioritize outreach, track engagement, and spot expansion opportunities in seconds — no SQL, no analyst tickets, no waiting.

Clarice didn’t just build a dashboard—she built an edge.
_{Ayleen Beltran, Customer Engagement Manager @ Vanta} 

The impact has been dramatic: what once took days now takes seconds, and campaign performance has tripled. More importantly, the dashboard has become embedded in daily workflows, shifting the team from reactive to proactive strategy and giving Vanta a competitive edge in the fast-moving trust management market.

For designing a tool that’s intuitive, widely adopted, and transformative for the business, Clarice Robenalt has been recognized as Sigma’s Workbook Designer Award winner. 

Scribe | Data Culture Award

Data has been central to Scribe’s culture since day one. The company’s data team built a strong foundation by centralizing and governing core metrics, then developed a strategy to embed power users in every department who could champion self-service analytics.

Finance Lead Sam Skinner was the first of these champions—and quickly became the company’s most active Sigma user. Building on the data team’s infrastructure, he created dashboards and models that spanned the business: attribution modeling for Marketing, funnel conversion tracking for Sales, real-time forecasting for Finance, and unified dashboards powering weekly executive meetings.

Sam's dedication to democratizing data access has fundamentally changed how we operate.
_{Nick Churcher, Growth & Marketing Leader @ Scribe}

The impact was transformative. Instead of waiting on manual reports, teams could now self-serve the insights they needed, when they needed them. Manual reporting fell by more than 80%, and every department began working from a single source of truth. Sam’s leadership showed how approachable advanced analytics could be and set the standard for how business users engage with data.

“Sam’s dedication to democratizing data access has fundamentally changed how we operate—turning complex analytics into actionable intelligence that drives the business forward,” said Nick Churcher, Growth & Marketing Leader at Scribe.

Today, Sam’s example has grown into a network of power users across functions, ensuring that every team can self-serve insights and make confident, data-driven decisions.

Because of this work, Sam Skinner is the winner of Sigma’s 2025 Data Culture Award—recognizing how individual initiative, supported by strong data foundations, can spark transformation across an entire company.

G2 | Embedded Analytics Award

When institutional investors are making multi-million-dollar software bets, every detail in the data experience matters. That’s the challenge G2’s Data Solutions team set out to solve when they reimagined how investors interact with G2’s intelligence platform. Led by Solutions Consultant Josh Baxter, the team combined technical innovation, customer feedback, and thoughtful storytelling to completely rebuild their investor analytics experience. In recognition of this achievement, G2 has been named the winner of Sigma’s Embedded Analytics Champion Award.

In just one month, Josh and his team shifted G2’s reporting from static dashboards to dynamic exploration, building interactive visualizations that brought data storytelling to life. Within four months, their work was already impacting 35% of G2’s customer base. The speed was unprecedented: customer feedback that once took months to implement could now be incorporated in hours.

“Our demonstrations have been more engaging, and we’re not losing deals to a lack of functionality or ease of use,” said Josh. “We’re having better conversations about our data itself and the value it provides to customers.”

We’re not losing deals to a lack of functionality or ease of use.
_{Josh Baxter, Solutions Consultant, G2}

The transformation didn’t stop at the customer experience—it reshaped how G2 operates internally. Though part of the sales organization, the Data Solutions team began to function like an agile product team, gathering feedback, prioritizing features, and shipping updates in real time. Sales conversations shifted from scripted demos to collaborative exploration, while engineering and sales aligned more closely than ever before. Customers took notice too, describing the new platform as “super intuitive” and “a night and day difference.”

By eliminating the barriers between customer needs and product capabilities, Josh and his team proved what’s possible when embedded analytics becomes the foundation for innovation. Their success sends a clear message: with the right tools, sales teams can move at product speed, turn feedback into value instantly, and transform how an entire industry makes decisions.

Social Impact Award | Ounce of Care

Every data point at Ounce of Care represents a life changed—a family securing food assistance, a senior making it to a medical appointment, or a household keeping the lights on. But when you’re coordinating critical services for more than 20,000 residents across the country, you need data infrastructure that moves as fast as the communities you serve. That’s why Ounce of Care turned to Sigma, and why they’re this year’s winner of Sigma’s Social Impact Award.

Led by CEO and Co-founder Rachel Munsie, Ounce, has built a community-based model that embeds Community Navigators directly into affordable housing properties. Their mission is bold: transform how underserved communities access health and social services. To achieve it, they needed real-time reporting and transparent impact measurement. Sigma became the foundation for that scale—reducing manual reporting by 80%, cutting report generation from days to minutes, and enabling 300% growth in reach in just one year.

Sigma has been transformative for our work across affordable housing properties.
_{Pooja Doshi Mehta, Head of Business Development, Ounce of Care}

With Sigma connected directly to their Databricks warehouse, the Ounce team can now anticipate resident needs, prevent crises, and prove their value to housing developers and healthcare partners. Instead of being seen as a cost center, Ounce now demonstrates measurable ROI— reducing rental arrears, improving resident satisfaction, and securing an average of $200 per month in additional benefits for households.

Embedded analytics have been a game-changer. Community navigators and program managers use Sigma dashboards inside their daily workflow, giving them real-time visibility into outcomes. Housing partners receive timely, property-specific updates, while healthcare organizations can clearly see how resident services improve adherence and resident health. As Rachel puts it, “Sigma allows us to measure impact with precision and continuously refine our services to maximize positive outcomes.”

The impact is undeniable: faster insights, stronger partnerships, and most importantly, lives transformed. With Sigma powering their operations, Ounce of Care is proving what modern social impact looks like—data and compassion working hand in hand.

Enterprise Impact Award | Emerson Group 

For Emerson Group, data is the currency of trust with retail and brand partners. Every decision—from inventory to promotions to financial reporting—depends on timely insights. But before Sigma, Emerson’s analysts were stuck maintaining 50+ static reports, creating delays that slowed both internal teams and external partners.

That changed when Pooja Mohite, Data Analyst at Emerson Group, led the shift to Sigma. She championed a cloud-native, embedded approach that put live dashboards directly inside Emerson’s partner platform. Today, more than 20 embedded dashboards give partners instant access to sales, inventory, and promotional insights—no waiting on refreshed files or analyst intervention.

“Embedding Sigma reports directly into our platform changed the game,” said Pooja. “Business partners can explore data in real time on one platform.”

Embedding Sigma directly into our platform changed the game.
_{Pooja Mohite, Data Analyst at Emerson Group}

The efficiency gains have been transformative. Analysts now save 7–8 hours per week, accuracy has improved through live connectivity, and teams across finance, marketing, and logistics work from one source of truth. Leadership dashboards now update in real time, giving executives faster visibility into essential metrics like Dollar YTD and Top Performers.

Pooja’s leadership didn’t just modernize reporting—it redefined how Emerson collaborates. By embedding Sigma into daily workflows, she created a scalable system where partners and internal teams alike can explore data in real time. The result: faster decisions, deeper alignment, and a competitive edge in a fast-moving retail landscape.

Thank you to all the applicants!

We’re grateful to every team using Sigma to push boundaries, solve real problems, and drive their organizations forward. We can’t wait to celebrate even more of your stories next year.

Read about Sigma’s annual Data Impact Awards here.