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Lucid, Mercedes-Benz AG, AkzoNobel, and other industry leaders recognized for creating a lighter, more sustainable automotive future
TROY, Mich., Sept. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair, a global leader in computational intelligence, has named the winners of the 2025 Altair Enlighten Award. Presented in association with the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), the award honors the greatest sustainability and lightweighting advancements that successfully reduce carbon footprint, mitigate water and energy consumption, and leverage material reuse and recycling efforts.
"In a rapidly transforming automotive landscape, organizations must continuously push the boundaries of sustainability innovation. Throughout its 13-year history, the Enlighten Award remains the premier honor showcasing the automotive industry's most groundbreaking achievements in sustainable technology," said Sam Mahalingam, chief technology officer, Altair. "We are proud to once again celebrate the organizations driving a more sustainable future."
"The Altair Enlighten Award represents the type of leadership our industry needs—bold, practical solutions that move us closer to a sustainable future," said Elizabeth Krear, president and CEO, Center for Automotive Research. "At CAR, we see this award as a natural extension of our mission to convene stakeholders, highlight transformative research, and advance the technologies that will define tomorrow's mobility. Together with Altair, we are shining a light on the innovations that will guide the road ahead—and today, we celebrate the winners who are setting a powerful example for the entire industry."
Below is the complete list of all winning organizations, runners-up, and honorable mentions.
Future of Lightweighting
Winner: Vortex CAE – Enlighten™: A Novel Holistic Topometry Based Optimizer for the Design of Lightweight Crash Structures
- Vortex CAE's new solver offers direct crash and impact optimizations using full fidelity models. The outputs produce holistic and pre-validated CAE solutions. Additionally, they developed a computationally efficient 3D generative-design methodology to identify and size fundamental structural features early on. A generative design case study cut 77% from the body-in-white mass while meeting or exceeding structural performance in 13 primary crash load cases. Assuming a 50% mass-retention loss, they estimate that $500 million in raw material costs for this vehicle could have been saved, along with 1.35 million tons of C02 from manufacturing alone.
Runner-up: Magna– Hemp-PA6 Composite Roof Rack Inner
- Magna successfully demonstrated the use of Hemp Nylon (PA6) in automotive exteriors, enhancing sustainability. The new sustainable material replaces talc in traditional nylon resin and was developed in collaboration with BASF and Heartland. The lightweight, renewable material absorbs CO₂ during growth, supports decarbonization, and delivers performance and processing equivalent to the original resin, marking a major advancement in the use of natural fibers for automotive applications.
Enabling Technology
Winner: CompositeEdge GmbH and ATA Mute B.V. – Adaptive Ultra-Thin Noise Solution
- CompositeEdge GmbH and ATA Mute B.V. have developed an acoustic element under 1 mm thick that offers up to 97% sound absorption, particularly at low frequencies where conventional materials are less effective. It is waterproof, fire-resistant, and fully recyclable, produced without adhesives from natural, carbon, or glass fibers combined with thermoplastics. The material maintains its performance in humid and high-temperature environments and is suitable for a wide range of applications such as cars, heat pumps, and interior facades.
Runner-up: Lucid – Modal Transient Analysis Based Durability CAE Workflow
- Lucid, in collaboration with the Altair® OptiStruct® development team, developed and implemented a seamless durability CAE workflow that progressed from MBD-based vehicle dynamics simulation to FEM-based strength, stiffness, and fatigue analysis, and ultimately to structural optimization. The workflow could be applied to a wide range of components, including the body-in-white, subframes, battery pack, suspension components, powertrain, and closures, using a Global-Local Analysis approach for detailed local assessments with refined meshing.
Honorable Mention: Mercedes-Benz AG & Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited – An Automated Sustainable Process for Generating Superelements
- This fully automated process streamlines setup to just 15 minutes for complex parts, eliminates user errors, and requires no manual intervention. This innovation enables agile, iterative optimizations with fast design feedback, while cutting computational demands, achieving over 90% runtime reduction, lower hardware utilization, and more efficient resource use.
Module Lightweighting
Winner: Syensqo and Geely – Amodel® PPA Stator Cooling System
- Geely improved e-motor efficiency with an innovative stator cooling design using Syensqo's Amodel® PPA, achieving 47% weight and 36% cost savings versus metal. The metal-to-plastic conversion reduces weight, enables part integration, and streamlines high-volume assembly through injection molding, laser welding, and snap fits. Highly resistant to automotive fluids, Amodel® PPA retains nearly 70% burst pressure resistance after 2,000 hours of aging at 150℃ ATF, ensuring safety, and reliability. This innovative design achieves precise lubrication with lower oil pump power consumption, effectively reducing the risk of overheating spots.
Runner-up: American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM)– Modular Lightweight Axle Housing Innovation
- AAM's modular lightweight axle housing innovation replaced two axle configurations with a single, modular design, cutting complexity and cost. Delivering up to 10% mass reduction, around 1.3 million pounds annually across 145,000 units, the design was optimized using Altair's Multi-Model Optimization to balance weight and strength. Fully compatible with existing assembly lines and preserving back-serviceability, the solution reduces fuel consumption and emissions through material efficiency and streamlined logistics.
Sustainable Computing
Winner: Lucid – Design-Driven Structural Assessment To Enable Accelerated Product Development
- Lucid's Design-Driven Structural Assessment approach accelerates product development using Altair SimSolid®'s meshless solver. Engineers can run rapid design iterations directly within their CAD environment, eliminating the need for complex meshing or switching tools. The highly customizable workflow streamlines setup and empowers teams to optimize designs with greater speed and ease.
Runner-up: Mercedes-Benz AG & Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited – An Automated Sustainable Process for Generating Superelements
- This fully automated process streamlines setup to just 15 minutes for complex parts, eliminates user errors, and requires no manual intervention. This innovation enables agile, iterative optimizations with fast design feedback, while cutting computational demands—achieving over 90% runtime reduction, lower hardware utilization, and more efficient resource use.
Sustainable Process
Winner: Marelli – Adhesive Wastewater Recovery Solution
- Marelli implemented a cleaning process for adhesive manufacturing equipment, such as robots and spray guns, utilized in bonding topcoat skins to substrates for cut, sew, and wrap parts. By using a three-part chemical agent, the process separates adhesive waste from the cleaning water, enabling recovery and reuse of approximately 85% of adhesive wastewater. This process reduced the plant's water consumption by 8,160 kilograms annually, with the recovered non-potable water able to be reused within manufacturing operations.
Runner-up: CITIC Dicastal Co., Ltd. – Key Technology for Integrated Forming of Large Aluminum Alloy Structural Components
- This innovation consolidates 98 parts into a single component, reducing weight by 30% and lowering both cycle time and cost. It marks the first application of a non-heat-treated Al-Mg alloy in commercial vehicle structures. A closed-loop thermal balance system ensures consistent forming quality, while rapid process simulation and C123 variable cross-section design optimize material usage and accelerate the design-to-validation cycle.
Sustainable Product
Winner: NIO and AkzoNobel – Bottom Plate Coating for Battery Pack to Improve Lifespan During Battery Swap for Electrical Vehicles
- NIO and AkzoNobel extended the lifespan of the bottom plate coating from 5 to 15 years while reducing coating thickness by 90%, cutting vehicle weight by 2.2 kg, and pioneering powder coating technology for electric vehicles. The innovation replaced non-recyclable materials with recyclable alternatives, eliminated VOC emissions, and improved coating efficiency by 55%, delivering significant sustainability benefits. Established through a unique car maker–tier 5 partnership, this scalable solution enhanced cost and efficiency across tiers 1 to 3 and has been mass-produced since November 2024, applied widely on NIO, Onvo, and Firefly EV models.
Runner-up: Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. – Answering Earth with Low-Carbon Recycled Aluminum
- Chery Automobile's low-carbon aluminum initiative uses 100% recycled aluminum in a closed-loop system with over 99% impurity removal and employs heat-treatment-free integrated die-casting, cutting manufacturing energy by up to 95%. Achieving over 80% reduction in raw-material carbon emissions, it meets global low-carbon standards while maintaining strength and safety, and fosters collaborative ecosystems for scalable green manufacturing.
Responsible AI
Winner: Lucid – Predicting Crash Modes with Altair® PhysicsAI™
- Lucid transformed crash CAE by applying AI-driven insights to predict complex, non-linear deformation behaviors under realistic off-axis and oblique impact scenarios. By integrating Altair PhysicsAI with LS-DYNA, they trained surrogate models to classify crash modes, such as axial crush and bending, well before physical testing. This approach reduced design iterations, minimizing prototype reliance, and accelerating delivery of lightweight, crash-robust structures with high safety confidence. This scalable methodology was applied across multiple crash-critical components and contributed to sustainability by minimizing material use, reducing test waste, and supporting corporate decarbonization goals.
Runner-up: Lucid – Agentic AI For Engineering Automation
- Lucid automated CAD data retrieval, custom script execution, analysis, and reporting by implementing AI-driven natural language support, which eliminated the need to learn each individual tool. By simply stating broad concepts, the AI handled intricate details and seamlessly chained multiple applications, allowing data to flow automatically through the workflow pipeline. This approach enabled instant execution of ideas without waiting for manual intervention and avoided complex API use by automating interactions directly through the GUI.
As the automotive industry accelerates demand for safer, more efficient, and innovative products, Altair empowers transformation with AI-powered engineering, high-performance computing (HPC), and optimization across the entire product lifecycle. By enabling customers to reduce environmental impact, Altair's software and consulting services are helping shape a healthier, more sustainable future. To learn more, visit https://altair.com/sustainability.
The Enlighten Award winners will be announced in an awards ceremony at the CAR Management Briefing Seminars in Detroit, Michigan on September 16, 2025. For more information about the Enlighten Award, visit www.altair.com/enlighten-award.
Partners for the 2025 Enlighten Award include Auto Bild Japan, Autocar Professional, Automobil Industrie, Auto Messe Web, Auto Messe Web Worldwide, Center for Automotive Research, Google Cloud, Korean Society of Automotive Engineers (KSAE), SAE Automotive Engineering, and Tech Briefs.
About Altair
Altair is a global leader in computational intelligence that provides software and cloud solutions in simulation, high-performance computing (HPC), data analytics, and AI. Altair is part of Siemens Digital Industries Software. To learn more, please visit www.altair.com or sw.siemens.com.
Lucid, Mercedes-Benz AG, AkzoNobel, and other industry leaders recognized for creating a lighter, more sustainable automotive future
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2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
TROY, Mich., Sept. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair, a global leader in computational intelligence, has named the winners of the 2025 Altair Enlighten Award. Presented in association with the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), the award honors the greatest sustainability and lightweighting advancements that successfully reduce carbon footprint, mitigate water and energy consumption, and leverage material reuse and recycling efforts.
"In a rapidly transforming automotive landscape, organizations must continuously push the boundaries of sustainability innovation. Throughout its 13-year history, the Enlighten Award remains the premier honor showcasing the automotive industry's most groundbreaking achievements in sustainable technology," said Sam Mahalingam, chief technology officer, Altair. "We are proud to once again celebrate the organizations driving a more sustainable future."
"The Altair Enlighten Award represents the type of leadership our industry needs—bold, practical solutions that move us closer to a sustainable future," said Elizabeth Krear, president and CEO, Center for Automotive Research. "At CAR, we see this award as a natural extension of our mission to convene stakeholders, highlight transformative research, and advance the technologies that will define tomorrow's mobility. Together with Altair, we are shining a light on the innovations that will guide the road ahead—and today, we celebrate the winners who are setting a powerful example for the entire industry."
Below is the complete list of all winning organizations, runners-up, and honorable mentions.
Future of Lightweighting
Winner: Vortex CAE – Enlighten™: A Novel Holistic Topometry Based Optimizer for the Design of Lightweight Crash Structures
- Vortex CAE's new solver offers direct crash and impact optimizations using full fidelity models. The outputs produce holistic and pre-validated CAE solutions. Additionally, they developed a computationally efficient 3D generative-design methodology to identify and size fundamental structural features early on. A generative design case study cut 77% from the body-in-white mass while meeting or exceeding structural performance in 13 primary crash load cases. Assuming a 50% mass-retention loss, they estimate that $500 million in raw material costs for this vehicle could have been saved, along with 1.35 million tons of C02 from manufacturing alone.
Runner-up: Magna– Hemp-PA6 Composite Roof Rack Inner
- Magna successfully demonstrated the use of Hemp Nylon (PA6) in automotive exteriors, enhancing sustainability. The new sustainable material replaces talc in traditional nylon resin and was developed in collaboration with BASF and Heartland. The lightweight, renewable material absorbs CO₂ during growth, supports decarbonization, and delivers performance and processing equivalent to the original resin, marking a major advancement in the use of natural fibers for automotive applications.
Enabling Technology
Winner: CompositeEdge GmbH and ATA Mute B.V. – Adaptive Ultra-Thin Noise Solution
- CompositeEdge GmbH and ATA Mute B.V. have developed an acoustic element under 1 mm thick that offers up to 97% sound absorption, particularly at low frequencies where conventional materials are less effective. It is waterproof, fire-resistant, and fully recyclable, produced without adhesives from natural, carbon, or glass fibers combined with thermoplastics. The material maintains its performance in humid and high-temperature environments and is suitable for a wide range of applications such as cars, heat pumps, and interior facades.
Runner-up: Lucid – Modal Transient Analysis Based Durability CAE Workflow
- Lucid, in collaboration with the Altair® OptiStruct® development team, developed and implemented a seamless durability CAE workflow that progressed from MBD-based vehicle dynamics simulation to FEM-based strength, stiffness, and fatigue analysis, and ultimately to structural optimization. The workflow could be applied to a wide range of components, including the body-in-white, subframes, battery pack, suspension components, powertrain, and closures, using a Global-Local Analysis approach for detailed local assessments with refined meshing.
Honorable Mention: Mercedes-Benz AG & Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited – An Automated Sustainable Process for Generating Superelements
- This fully automated process streamlines setup to just 15 minutes for complex parts, eliminates user errors, and requires no manual intervention. This innovation enables agile, iterative optimizations with fast design feedback, while cutting computational demands, achieving over 90% runtime reduction, lower hardware utilization, and more efficient resource use.
Module Lightweighting
Winner: Syensqo and Geely – Amodel® PPA Stator Cooling System
- Geely improved e-motor efficiency with an innovative stator cooling design using Syensqo's Amodel® PPA, achieving 47% weight and 36% cost savings versus metal. The metal-to-plastic conversion reduces weight, enables part integration, and streamlines high-volume assembly through injection molding, laser welding, and snap fits. Highly resistant to automotive fluids, Amodel® PPA retains nearly 70% burst pressure resistance after 2,000 hours of aging at 150℃ ATF, ensuring safety, and reliability. This innovative design achieves precise lubrication with lower oil pump power consumption, effectively reducing the risk of overheating spots.
Runner-up: American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM)– Modular Lightweight Axle Housing Innovation
- AAM's modular lightweight axle housing innovation replaced two axle configurations with a single, modular design, cutting complexity and cost. Delivering up to 10% mass reduction, around 1.3 million pounds annually across 145,000 units, the design was optimized using Altair's Multi-Model Optimization to balance weight and strength. Fully compatible with existing assembly lines and preserving back-serviceability, the solution reduces fuel consumption and emissions through material efficiency and streamlined logistics.
Sustainable Computing
Winner: Lucid – Design-Driven Structural Assessment To Enable Accelerated Product Development
- Lucid's Design-Driven Structural Assessment approach accelerates product development using Altair SimSolid®'s meshless solver. Engineers can run rapid design iterations directly within their CAD environment, eliminating the need for complex meshing or switching tools. The highly customizable workflow streamlines setup and empowers teams to optimize designs with greater speed and ease.
Runner-up: Mercedes-Benz AG & Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited – An Automated Sustainable Process for Generating Superelements
- This fully automated process streamlines setup to just 15 minutes for complex parts, eliminates user errors, and requires no manual intervention. This innovation enables agile, iterative optimizations with fast design feedback, while cutting computational demands—achieving over 90% runtime reduction, lower hardware utilization, and more efficient resource use.
Sustainable Process
Winner: Marelli – Adhesive Wastewater Recovery Solution
- Marelli implemented a cleaning process for adhesive manufacturing equipment, such as robots and spray guns, utilized in bonding topcoat skins to substrates for cut, sew, and wrap parts. By using a three-part chemical agent, the process separates adhesive waste from the cleaning water, enabling recovery and reuse of approximately 85% of adhesive wastewater. This process reduced the plant's water consumption by 8,160 kilograms annually, with the recovered non-potable water able to be reused within manufacturing operations.
Runner-up: CITIC Dicastal Co., Ltd. – Key Technology for Integrated Forming of Large Aluminum Alloy Structural Components
- This innovation consolidates 98 parts into a single component, reducing weight by 30% and lowering both cycle time and cost. It marks the first application of a non-heat-treated Al-Mg alloy in commercial vehicle structures. A closed-loop thermal balance system ensures consistent forming quality, while rapid process simulation and C123 variable cross-section design optimize material usage and accelerate the design-to-validation cycle.
Sustainable Product
Winner: NIO and AkzoNobel – Bottom Plate Coating for Battery Pack to Improve Lifespan During Battery Swap for Electrical Vehicles
- NIO and AkzoNobel extended the lifespan of the bottom plate coating from 5 to 15 years while reducing coating thickness by 90%, cutting vehicle weight by 2.2 kg, and pioneering powder coating technology for electric vehicles. The innovation replaced non-recyclable materials with recyclable alternatives, eliminated VOC emissions, and improved coating efficiency by 55%, delivering significant sustainability benefits. Established through a unique car maker–tier 5 partnership, this scalable solution enhanced cost and efficiency across tiers 1 to 3 and has been mass-produced since November 2024, applied widely on NIO, Onvo, and Firefly EV models.
Runner-up: Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. – Answering Earth with Low-Carbon Recycled Aluminum
- Chery Automobile's low-carbon aluminum initiative uses 100% recycled aluminum in a closed-loop system with over 99% impurity removal and employs heat-treatment-free integrated die-casting, cutting manufacturing energy by up to 95%. Achieving over 80% reduction in raw-material carbon emissions, it meets global low-carbon standards while maintaining strength and safety, and fosters collaborative ecosystems for scalable green manufacturing.
Responsible AI
Winner: Lucid – Predicting Crash Modes with Altair® PhysicsAI™
- Lucid transformed crash CAE by applying AI-driven insights to predict complex, non-linear deformation behaviors under realistic off-axis and oblique impact scenarios. By integrating Altair PhysicsAI with LS-DYNA, they trained surrogate models to classify crash modes, such as axial crush and bending, well before physical testing. This approach reduced design iterations, minimizing prototype reliance, and accelerating delivery of lightweight, crash-robust structures with high safety confidence. This scalable methodology was applied across multiple crash-critical components and contributed to sustainability by minimizing material use, reducing test waste, and supporting corporate decarbonization goals.
Runner-up: Lucid – Agentic AI For Engineering Automation
- Lucid automated CAD data retrieval, custom script execution, analysis, and reporting by implementing AI-driven natural language support, which eliminated the need to learn each individual tool. By simply stating broad concepts, the AI handled intricate details and seamlessly chained multiple applications, allowing data to flow automatically through the workflow pipeline. This approach enabled instant execution of ideas without waiting for manual intervention and avoided complex API use by automating interactions directly through the GUI.
As the automotive industry accelerates demand for safer, more efficient, and innovative products, Altair empowers transformation with AI-powered engineering, high-performance computing (HPC), and optimization across the entire product lifecycle. By enabling customers to reduce environmental impact, Altair's software and consulting services are helping shape a healthier, more sustainable future. To learn more, visit https://altair.com/sustainability.
The Enlighten Award winners will be announced in an awards ceremony at the CAR Management Briefing Seminars in Detroit, Michigan on September 16, 2025. For more information about the Enlighten Award, visit www.altair.com/enlighten-award.
Partners for the 2025 Enlighten Award include Auto Bild Japan, Autocar Professional, Automobil Industrie, Auto Messe Web, Auto Messe Web Worldwide, Center for Automotive Research, Google Cloud, Korean Society of Automotive Engineers (KSAE), SAE Automotive Engineering, and Tech Briefs.
About Altair
Altair is a global leader in computational intelligence that provides software and cloud solutions in simulation, high-performance computing (HPC), data analytics, and AI. Altair is part of Siemens Digital Industries Software. To learn more, please visit www.altair.com or sw.siemens.com.
Media contacts
Altair Corporate
Bridget Hagan
+1.216.769.2658
corp-newsroom@altair.com
Altair Europe/The Middle East/Africa
Altair Asia-Pacific
Louise Wilce
Man Wang
+44 (0)7392 437 635
86-21-5016635,,825
emea-newsroom@altair.com
apac-newsroom@altair.com
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
2025 Altair Enlighten Award Winners Announced
- New framework brings together Aon's Risk Capital and Human Capital data with public sentiment analysis from Gallup to create a portfolio view of risk
- Creates further clarity into how risks compound across four megatrends, how resilience is built and activated and where targeted actions can most effectively influence performance
DUBLIN, Jan. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, announced today that it is releasing insights from a new, data-driven tool to help organizations build sustainable resilience and unlock growth: Aon's Resilience Quotient.
Developed in collaboration with Gallup, Aon's Resilience Quotient responds to a critical insight: in a time of increasing populism and fragmented sources of information, quantitative data alone is not enough to make long-term decisions. Combining public sentiment on global issues with risk and people data and analytics enables greater clarity and confidence to invest and grow amidst uncertainty and volatility.
By integrating Aon's proprietary Risk Capital and Human Capital analytics with the results of Gallup's World Poll covering 140 countries for more than 20 years, the firm's Resilience Quotient captures both objective conditions and subjective sentiment, revealing where sentiment signals hidden risks and potential opportunities to achieve greater resilience. This system-level view enables leaders to spot emerging risks sooner, prioritize resilience investments and move from reactive risk management to proactive decision-making.
"When making decisions around investment, workforce or managing geopolitical risk, a portfolio view is far superior to a siloed perspective," said Greg Case, president and CEO of Aon. "Understanding sentiment can be an opportunity signal or an early warning. Leaders who are limited to only some of the relevant metrics risk missing the signals that matter most. Aon's Resilience Quotient delivers an integrated view to help organizations act decisively, strengthen resilience and unlock sustainable growth."
Four interconnected megatrends – Trade, Technology, Weather and Workforce – are reshaping the global operating environment in ways that traditional models struggle to anticipate. Aon's Resilience Quotient provides a clearer view of the tradeoffs within these interactions: how trade volatility can amplify technology risk, how climate pressures influence workforce mobility and how sentiment can either reinforce resilience or heighten operational risk, even when the fundamentals appear strong.
To illustrate the insights from its Resilience Quotient, the firm published three case studies addressing some of the most relevant and urgent issues facing the 2026 global economy:
- Realizing the Opportunity of AI: Securing Data Center Growth
Data centers are the backbone of the digital economy and with nearly $1.3 trillion projected to be invested globally in data centers by 2030, their rapid expansion brings unprecedented risks. Aon's Resilience Quotient shows that resilience varies sharply at the sub-national level, often more than underlying risk. Within the U.S., Iowa emerges as the most resilient destination for data center development, combining very low overall risk with exceptionally strong trade and weather resilience. "Aon's Resilience Quotient shows that Iowa's resilience–risk balance is roughly twice the national median, demonstrating how governance quality, institutional confidence and preparedness materially shape long-term infrastructure outcomes," said Joe Peiser, CEO of Commercial Risk Solutions at Aon. "This underscores the opportunity for leaders who understand the combined effect of low risk, resilient trade and weather systems and a strong foundation of public trust — factors that ultimately determine where AI infrastructure can grow at scale."
DUBLIN, Jan. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, announced today that it is releasing insights from a new, data-driven tool to help organizations build sustainable resilience and unlock growth: Aon's Resilience Quotient.
Developed in collaboration with Gallup, Aon's Resilience Quotient responds to a critical insight: in a time of increasing populism and fragmented sources of information, quantitative data alone is not enough to make long-term decisions. Combining public sentiment on global issues with risk and people data and analytics enables greater clarity and confidence to invest and grow amidst uncertainty and volatility.
By integrating Aon's proprietary Risk Capital and Human Capital analytics with the results of Gallup's World Poll covering 140 countries for more than 20 years, the firm's Resilience Quotient captures both objective conditions and subjective sentiment, revealing where sentiment signals hidden risks and potential opportunities to achieve greater resilience. This system-level view enables leaders to spot emerging risks sooner, prioritize resilience investments and move from reactive risk management to proactive decision-making.
"When making decisions around investment, workforce or managing geopolitical risk, a portfolio view is far superior to a siloed perspective," said Greg Case, president and CEO of Aon. "Understanding sentiment can be an opportunity signal or an early warning. Leaders who are limited to only some of the relevant metrics risk missing the signals that matter most. Aon's Resilience Quotient delivers an integrated view to help organizations act decisively, strengthen resilience and unlock sustainable growth."
Four interconnected megatrends – Trade, Technology, Weather and Workforce – are reshaping the global operating environment in ways that traditional models struggle to anticipate. Aon's Resilience Quotient provides a clearer view of the tradeoffs within these interactions: how trade volatility can amplify technology risk, how climate pressures influence workforce mobility and how sentiment can either reinforce resilience or heighten operational risk, even when the fundamentals appear strong.
To illustrate the insights from its Resilience Quotient, the firm published three case studies addressing some of the most relevant and urgent issues facing the 2026 global economy:
"Aon's Resilience Quotient shows that Iowa's resilience–risk balance is roughly twice the national median, demonstrating how governance quality, institutional confidence and preparedness materially shape long-term infrastructure outcomes," said Joe Peiser, CEO of Commercial Risk Solutions at Aon. "This underscores the opportunity for leaders who understand the combined effect of low risk, resilient trade and weather systems and a strong foundation of public trust — factors that ultimately determine where AI infrastructure can grow at scale."
- Workforce Transformation: AI Adoption and the Next Generation Workforce
The acceleration of AI adoption is transforming the workforce, but most organizations face a critical gap between the demand for AI skills and their readiness to adapt. The Resilience Quotient highlights how workforce engagement, trust and institutional preparedness are essential to harnessing AI's potential, making resilience the key differentiator between organizations that thrive through change and those that risk falling behind. "Aon's Resilience Quotient equips leaders to navigate rapid AI change with confidence," said Lisa Stevens, chief administrative officer at Aon. "These insights help create the conditions for early‑career employees to build the skills and confidence they need — so instead of losing a generation of talent, we cultivate one that is more capable and resilient than ever."
"Aon's Resilience Quotient equips leaders to navigate rapid AI change with confidence," said Lisa Stevens, chief administrative officer at Aon. "These insights help create the conditions for early‑career employees to build the skills and confidence they need — so instead of losing a generation of talent, we cultivate one that is more capable and resilient than ever."
- Rethinking Humanitarian Finance: A New Approach to Forced Migration
Over 120 million people are currently displaced by conflict, climate and systemic crises, reshaping societies and economies worldwide. Aon's Resilience Quotient highlights Venezuela and Colombia to illustrate the tradeoffs between investing resources at the source of migration — supporting those facing institutional erosion, food insecurity and economic collapse — or directing investment to more stable countries like Colombia that are absorbing people fleeing unlivable conditions. "Forced displacement results from extreme weather and man-made disasters like conflict and economic failure," said Bridget Gainer, chief public affairs officer at Aon. "If we could leverage the forecasting and financial capability of insurance to better predict and more quickly mitigate the impact of this volatility, we could help create conditions that allow populations to remain and rebuild in their home countries."
"Forced displacement results from extreme weather and man-made disasters like conflict and economic failure," said Bridget Gainer, chief public affairs officer at Aon. "If we could leverage the forecasting and financial capability of insurance to better predict and more quickly mitigate the impact of this volatility, we could help create conditions that allow populations to remain and rebuild in their home countries."
"Resilience is not a single blueprint, it's the way systems mitigate, adapt and transform under pressure. Aon's Resilience Quotient functions as a pressure gauge, surfacing the trade‑offs and early signals that help leaders strengthen resilience where it matters most," said Joe Daly, managing partner at Gallup. "We're proud to collaborate with Aon to combine Gallup's global sentiment analytics with Aon's Risk Capital and Human Capital data, turning confidence into actionable insight."
New insights from Aon's Resilience Quotient suggest that going forward, resilience priorities will shift from static risk management to dynamic, localized strategies. As disruptions become more complex and frequent, organizations will need to tailor resilience investments to specific geographies, sectors and even sub-regional contexts. Aon's Resilience Quotient is supported with a real-time analytics and AI-enabled insights platform, built by Quantum Rise, providing deeper visibility into evolving risk and resilience signals as conditions change.
Aon and Gallup will join global decision-makers at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting to advance these critical discussions on restoring confidence and unlocking sustainable growth.
Learn more about Aon's Resilience Quotient and explore the case studies here.
About Aon
Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Through actionable analytic insight, globally integrated Risk Capital and Human Capital expertise, and locally relevant solutions, our colleagues provide clients in over 120 countries with the clarity and confidence to make better risk and people decisions that help protect and grow their businesses.
Follow Aon on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram. Stay up-to-date by visiting Aon's newsroom and sign up for news alerts here.
Media Contact
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** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Aon's Resilience Quotient Cuts Through Uncertainty and Volatility to Help Businesses Move from Risk to Resilience and Growth
