The Upper Austrian start-up Layonardo, led by Oliver Hepp and Jürgen Pürstinger, received the A1 AI Award at the A1 Business Forum 2026. For AI Factory Austria AI:AT, the success is a strong example of how Austrian AI innovation, European infrastructure and an active ecosystem work together.
The AI Factory Austria AI:AT congratulates Layonardo on winning the A1 AI Award 2026. The team was recognized for its solution for detecting deepfakes and manipulated digital content. The award-winning “Deep Visual Analytics” technology analyzes images, documents and texts for possible manipulation and creates comprehensible risk assessments.
With the award A1, AI Austria and brutkasten are sending a visible signal for trustworthy and sovereign AI from Austria. At the award ceremony, Martin Resel, Deputy CEO of A1 and patron of the A1 AI Award, focused on the question of how Europe can strengthen its own, comprehensible and responsibly operated AI solutions.
Layonardo addresses an issue that is becoming increasingly relevant with the rapid spread of generative AI: the verifiability of digital content. The startup develops AI systems designed to protect organizations from reputational damage, financial loss and legal and ethical risks caused by AI-generated content and deepfakes. Layonardo is based at Softwarepark Hagenberg and is managed by Oliver Hepp and Jürgen Pürstinger.
This win is particularly pleasing for AI:AT because it shows what a functioning AI ecosystem stands for. With the award, A1 creates a stage and market relevance. AI Austria contributes community, quality and an ecosystem perspective. brutkasten brings the startup story to the public. Exoscale provides a European cloud perspective for operations. FFG, aws, Tech2B, the research around FH Upper Austria Campus Hagenberg and the AI Factory Austria AI:AT jointly demonstrate how financing, incubation, research, infrastructure and visibility can be interlinked.
A look at the brutkasten article also makes it clear why such connections are important. Layonardo develops and trains its models heavily on research resources such as the AI Factory Austria and sees European cloud offerings as an important basis for its operations. It is precisely this bridge between research, startup development, European infrastructure and market-oriented implementation that is central to building sovereign AI capabilities in Austria.
About Access to HPC AI:AT supports start-ups, SMEs and other organizations in gaining access to European high-performance computers in the EuroHPC environment. This is not just about computing time. Onboarding, technical support and the translation of complex infrastructure into usable development environments are also crucial. This allows teams to train, fine-tune and further develop sophisticated AI models without having to build the necessary infrastructure on their own.
“Layonardo shows very concretely what becomes possible when strong technology meets a functioning ecosystem. It needs start-ups with a clear application, companies like A1 that create visibility, community partners like AI Austria, media like brutkasten, financing and incubation as well as access to European computing resources. It is precisely this connection that we want to further strengthen with AI:AT”
Daniel Pepl, Head of Marketing & Communications AI:AT
With DELEP and Swuppi FlexCo two other Austrian AI teams were also in the final. The jury and the award environment with Romana Aumer from A1, Carina Zehetmaier from PaiperOne Clemens Wasner from AI Austria and Dejan Jovicevic from brutkasten show that trustworthy AI is a topic for companies, research, governance, media and community alike.
