diff --git a/scripts/azureml-assets/CHANGELOG.md b/scripts/azureml-assets/CHANGELOG.md
index a610e04c0e..ab1b74af0b 100644
--- a/scripts/azureml-assets/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/scripts/azureml-assets/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 ## 1.17.0 (Unreleased)
 ### 🚀 New Features
 
+## 1.16.80 (2025-05-07)
+### 🚀 New Features
+- [#4151](https://github.com/Azure/azureml-assets/pull/4151) Allow model prefix for model names
+
 ## 1.16.79 (2025-04-22)
 ### 🚀 New Features
 - [#4117](https://github.com/Azure/azureml-assets/pull/4117) Update spec with modelVariant info after validating
diff --git a/scripts/azureml-assets/azureml/assets/validate_assets.py b/scripts/azureml-assets/azureml/assets/validate_assets.py
index 6aff2bd7db..9ab942b3a1 100644
--- a/scripts/azureml-assets/azureml/assets/validate_assets.py
+++ b/scripts/azureml-assets/azureml/assets/validate_assets.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 NAMING_CONVENTION_URL = "https://github.com/Azure/azureml-assets/wiki/Asset-naming-convention"
 INVALID_STRINGS = [["azureml", "azure"], "aml"]  # Disallow these in any asset name
 NON_MODEL_INVALID_STRINGS = ["microsoft"]  # Allow these in model names and other assets related to models
-MODEL_NAMES_VALIDATION_OVERRIDE_PREFIX = ["Azure-AI-"]  # Exception for Azure-AI models
+MODEL_NAMES_VALIDATION_OVERRIDE_PREFIX = ["Azure-AI-", "model-"]  # Exception for Azure-AI models
 MODEL_RELATED_ASSETS = [assets.AssetType.MODEL, assets.AssetType.EVALUATIONRESULT]
 NON_MODEL_NAME_PATTERN = re.compile(r"^[a-z][a-z0-9_.-]{0,254}$")
 
diff --git a/scripts/azureml-assets/setup.py b/scripts/azureml-assets/setup.py
index 88d2de2d24..41c9b06b09 100644
--- a/scripts/azureml-assets/setup.py
+++ b/scripts/azureml-assets/setup.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
 setup(
    name="azureml-assets",
-   version="1.16.79",
+   version="1.16.80",
    description="Utilities for publishing assets to Azure Machine Learning system registries.",
    author="Microsoft Corp",
    packages=find_packages(),