Monday, July 27, 2026
In today’s digest, new municipal vehicle tech, new details about city-run grocery stores, and Google’s new report on AI use at work. 🆕
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City health officials say they’re confident the source of the Upper East Side Legionnaires’ disease outbreak has been eliminated after cleaning and disinfecting dozens of cooling towers, with no new cases reported since July 15. 🦠 (USA Today)
As of yesterday, the outbreak had sickened 89 people and claimed five lives. Seven people remain hospitalized, while 64 have been discharged.
Investigators tested 183 cooling towers across 160 buildings and found live Legionella bacteria in 57 towers at 56 buildings. All of the affected towers have since been cleaned and disinfected.
NYC’s vehicle fleet is getting a round of major safety upgrades. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has ordered that roughly 4,000 non-emergency municipal trucks be equipped with audible pedestrian warning systems by 2029. 🚚 (Harlem World Magazine)
All new non-emergency city vehicles will also be required to include pedestrian alerts and intelligent speed assistance technology that helps prevent speeding.
Since the city began installing speed-assistance systems in 2022, equipped vehicles have driven more than 8 million miles while reducing dangerous speeding by 64%, according to City Hall.
Mayor Mamdani also shared new details today about the city’s planned municipality owned grocery stores, saying prices will be about 30% lower than traditional supermarkets when the first location opens in 2027. 🛒 (PIX 11)
The stores will sell a core selection of everyday staples, including meat, seafood, produce, bread, cheese and other household essentials, with prices updated monthly.
The city also issued a request for proposals (RFP) from qualified grocers or firms to serve as operators to run the stores.
In other reading:
A seed that flew around the moon grew into this tree in NYC (Space)
End of the line for Penn Station? A Trump official calls for a new name (New York Times)
New York City women are making up to $30,000 per month by renting out their closets to strangers (Fortune)
Together with The Atlantic 🤝
This September 17-19, The Atlantic Festival returns to New York for three days of newsmaking conversations, exclusive screenings, book talks, and performances you won’t find anywhere else.
Where politics meets culture, where technology meets human ingenuity, and where debate can sharpen understanding. Prepare to meet great minds who don’t think alike.
Register here and get $100 off your one-day or two-day pass with code TECHNYC.
The State of AI at Work
Google just released its ATLAS (Activity, Task, Landscape, and Adoption Study), analyzing nearly 15 million Gemini interactions to understand the evolving role of AI in the workplace.
AI is showing up across a huge swath of jobs, mostly as a helper (rather than a job-replacing robot overlord). 🤖
Here’s what to know:
AI use is everywhere: Google’s ATLAS report found AI is being used in jobs that make up more than 88% of the U.S. workforce. 🌎
That includes the usual suspects — software developers, market researchers, financial analysts, and systems administrators — but also less-discussed jobs like farmers, industrial engineers, and foresters.
Yes, but: Even where workers use AI, they’re not using it for everything.
ATLAS found that in the typical job where AI is being used, it helps with only 21% of the job’s tasks.
Just 3% of occupations showed AI usage across more than 75% of their tasks.
🤝 Collaboration, not automation: Google found that most work-related Gemini use looks assistive.
Non-routine cognitive tasks (think analysis, strategy, problem-solving, and creative work) make up about 35% of professional tasks overall but nearly 65% of work-related Gemini interactions.
Still, less than 10% of those non-routine cognitive interactions appeared aimed at end-to-end automation.
Most usage was for partial drafting, review and refinement, ideation, strategy, information retrieval, and learning.
Blue-collar workers are using AI too.
Workers in manual and technical trades use AI for diagnostics, troubleshooting, and real-time learning.
In some physical jobs, multimodal AI use is especially high — including automotive technicians and industrial mechanics using images or video to interpret test results, debug wiring, and inspect machinery.
AI use is strongest in higher-wage, higher-education occupations.
In the U.S. workforce, a 1% increase in an occupation’s median earnings is associated with a more than 2.5% increase in AI usage intensity. 💼
Weighted by Gemini conversations, the median salary across observed occupations was about $83,000 — roughly $20,000 higher than the employment-weighted national median.
The workplace is only part of the story: Home use is huge too. 🏠
More than 86% of conversational AI interactions happened outside of work.
Google found especially high use for high-friction tasks like government services, legal questions, finance, and education.
The takeaway: AI is spreading quickly, but the data points to a new layer of workplace collaboration.
For NYC companies and workers, that means knowing how to use AI to move across technical, business, and creative work more efficiently.
In other reading:
AI moves into family life (Axios)
Are brain waves the next unlock for physical AI? (TechCrunch)
Big companies are starting to hire again, defying predictions of AI wipeout (Wall Street Journal)
AegisAI, an NYC-based AI anti-phishing platform, raised $36 million in a Series A fundraising round led by Battery Ventures with participation from Accel and Foundation Capital.
imagi, an NYC-based education layer between AI tools and K-12 schools, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Brighteye Ventures and Day One Capital led the round.
KelAI, an NYC-based AI research for hedge funds, raised $5 million in a Seed fundraising round led by Frst with participation from Y Combinator and Robinhood Ventures.
Overtone, an NYC-based AI dating service, raised $18 million in a fundraising round led by FirstMark Capital and Pace Capital with participation from Match Group.
Featured events:
⭐ August 6: A Chief of Staff Mixer, a night of problem-solving and peer-to-peer learning for Chiefs of Staff. Register here.
⭐ September 17-19: The Atlantic Festival returns to New York for three days of newsmaking conversations, exclusive screenings, book talks, and performances you won’t find anywhere else. Register here and get $100 off your one-day or two-day pass with code TECHNYC.
Other great events:
July 28: After Hours, a happy hour for New York’s creatives, founders, and the people still figuring it out. Register here.
July 29: Wednesday Coworking, a weekly working session in NYC for founders, builders, and creatives. Register here.
July 29: The Asian Salon Mixer, a gathering of 30-35 Asian founders, builders, creators, operators, and investors building companies, products, brands, communities, and movements. Register here.
July 29: RTM Nexus Meet Up, a casual, pay-your-own-way networking event where you can meet fellow retail professionals, expand your network, and enjoy a relaxed evening together. Register here.
July 30: Matcha & Pastries for Founders, drop-in evening of hand-whisked matcha, cupcakes, and assorted pastries for Series A+ founders, C-suite operators, and anyone building in the startup space. Register here.
July 30: Pilot Happy Hour: Tech & Early-Stage Attorneys, a happy hour in NoMad for attorneys working with tech and early-stage companies. Come unwind, swap notes, and connect with peers navigating similar work in the startup world. Register here.
July 30: The Digital Economist Innovation Hub – NYC Social Hour, bringing together a curated mix of leaders across technology, research, policy, and business for a night of lively conversation, fresh ideas, and genuine connection. Register here.
July 31: Brits in Tech – Coffee Meet, where you can grab a cuppa tea (or coffee if you must), with fellow founders and tech industry folks from across the pond. Register here.
August 1: NYC Tech Basketball Run, a recurring basketball run for founders, investors, engineers, and operators who want to compete and connect off the screen. Register here.
August 4: Tribeca Club Brunch, a curated brunch for B2B founders, operators, and investors. Register here.
August 19: Personalization Without the BS: What’s Actually Lifting Revenue, where you’ll see how the brands that actually move CR, AOV, and LTV with personalization are doing something fundamentally different. Register here.
August 22: NYC Founders Club Founder River Float Retreat, a full-day retreat on the Delaware River for early to growth-stage founders — transportation, meals, and all supplies included. Register here.
September 10: StrictlyVC, delivering an insider perspective on New York City’s bustling VC scene and wider trends in the community. Register here.
September 16: Primary’s NYC Tech Summit, an annual gathering for builders, backers, and operators shaping the future. Apply to attend here.
October 13-15: EdTech Week, where the brightest minds and the boldest innovators gather in a technological playground dedicated to transforming education. Register before August 31 for early bird tickets here.
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