Monday, March 9, 2026
In today’s digest, spring weather is here at last, see ya scaffolds, and how AI is transforming corporate comms. 🌤️
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That scaffolding on your block that’s been up since forever? Buh-bye. 👋 Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Department of Buildings announced a series of new rules to take down unnecessary sidewalk sheds and reduce the amount of scaffolding in the city. (ABC New York)
Starting this August, sheds will be capped at 40 feet from a building’s facade, and a new rule will penalize building owners for keeping sheds up too long.
Scaffolds currently cover 380 miles or 7,500 city blocks of New York. 😮
Manhattan’s 14th Street corridor may be getting a makeover. City officials are planning upgrades that could add bike lanes, bigger pedestrian plazas, and improved bus stops to the car-light corridor. 🚌 (Gothamist)
The 2019 busway already boosted bus speeds 24% and ridership by 30%, and nearly eliminated gridlock.
A new redesign study — backed by $9.5 million in funding — could expand public space around Union Square and reshape the street again.
Into the idea? Not into it? Either way, you can let the city know here.
Spring preview unlocked! 😎 NYC hit 70°F for the first time in 141 days today, marking the city’s warmest day since October and giving New Yorkers a well-earned break from winter. 🌸 (PIX 11)
Bah, humbug: Enjoy it while it lasts, as a cold front later this week into next is expected to send temperatures back toward winter levels.
In other reading:
The Resy guide to the women-owned restaurants of New York (Resy)
Forget Florida. They got older and moved to New York (New York Times)
Frankie Focus, attention-grabber (New Yorker)
AI Is Reshaping Corporate Comms — But Most Teams Aren’t Ready Yet
A new Boston Consulting Group report on generative AI adoption in corporate communications finds the industry at a crossroads.
CEOs are pushing hard on AI strategy, but many comms teams — the people responsible for shaping a company’s public narrative — are still figuring out how to operationalize it. The result is a widening gap between AI leaders and laggards.
Here’s what stood out from the report. 👇
⚡ The CEO-comms AI gap is widening.
72% of CEOs say they are the main decision-makers on AI in their organizations, and 50% believe their job depends on getting AI right.
Meanwhile, 88% of corporate affairs and communications leaders say they are not fully prepared to lead an AI transformation in their function.
🧪 Most teams are still stuck in pilot mode.
Only 31% of teams report meaningful progress scaling GenAI beyond pilots, while most remain in experimentation mode.
68% of leaders identify their orgs as AI laggards, highlighting how early the transformation still is.
🧠 The biggest barriers? Skills and structure.
74% of comms leaders believe in the value of AI, suggesting skepticism isn’t the issue.
Instead, the top challenges are the inability to define how their org can create, deliver, and capture value with AI (35%) and lack of AI skills (20%).
🤖 Agentic AI is the next frontier.
71% of leaders believe AI agents will create meaningful impact within 12 months.
20% say it could completely transform communications work by 2028.
🚀 The takeaway: AI adoption in corporate communications is nearly universal, but still shallow. The companies redesigning workflows, investing in talent, and scaling beyond pilots are starting to pull ahead, creating a two-speed profession where early movers gain a strategic edge.
In other reading:
Meet the new biologists treating LLMs like aliens (MIT Technology Review)
Seven leadership moves that matter before you step in front of your team (Fast Company)
I went to ClawCon, where OpenClaw obsessives ate free lobster tails and debated about AI (Business Insider)
Coral, an NYC-based instant rebate provider for energy and HVAC upgrades, raised $7.5 million in pre-seed and seed funding. ResilienceVC led the round, joined by Twelve Below, Floating Point, Accion Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Remarkable Ventures, New Climate Ventures, and Watsco Ventures.
DilligenceSquared, an NYC-based Al-powered platform designed for market research for investment teams, raised $5 million in seed funding. Relentless led the round and was joined by Y Combinator.
Evervault, an NYC-based platform designed for encrypting and orchestrating sensitive data, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Ribbit Capital led the round and was joined by Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Operator Partners.
Lio, an NYC-based developer of agentic AI technology designed for enterprise procurement, raised $30 million in Series A funding. a16z led the round and was joined by SV Angel, Harry Stebbings, and Y Combinator.
Mega, an NYC-based developer of agentic Al technology designed for marketing operations, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding. Goodwater Capital led the round and was joined by a16z, Atreides, SignalFire, Kearny Jackson, and others.
Featured events:
⭐ March 19: City & State’s Digital New York Summit, for New York’s technology and information leaders from government and industry to gather for candid discussions and thought-provoking presentations on innovative ideas that are making everyday life for all New Yorkers more livable, safer, and more convenient. Register here with promo code TECHNYC for 25% off.
⭐ March 31: Runway AI Summit, bringing together industry leaders across media, technology, consumer brands, robotics, and more to explore how AI is reshaping how work gets done — and what comes next for enterprise. Register here with promo code TECHNYC50 for 50% off.
⭐ April 6-9: HumanX’s conference for AI leaders in San Francisco, uniting 6,500+ leaders, builders, and investors driving real transformation. Discover cutting-edge innovations and accelerate your impact through networking opportunities. Register here with promo code HX26P_TECHNYC to get $$$ off your pass.
Other great events:
March 10: Hiring Beyond the 5 Boroughs, a roundtable for Heads of HR/People Ops and Talent to have an honest, off-the-record conversation about what’s working, what’s broken, and what no one really talks about when it comes to non-local hiring. Register here.
March 11: YouCode Forum: Building What's Next in The Agentic Era, an evening with James Kaplan, CTO of McKinsey, and Bryan McCann, CTO of You.com, alongside enterprise builders and technical leaders. Register here.
March 19: Founder Breakfast, a highly curated breakfast for founders who have raised Seed to Series B. Register here.
March 19: Human by Design: The Empathy Edge in an AI World, for women and allies who build — PMs, founders, designers, marketers, and engineers — to discuss how empathy, judgment, and collaborative AI tools can help you grow your influence and deliver meaningful impact in your work. Register here.
March 19: Own the Room: How to Speak and Present Effectively in Meeting, an interactive workshop designed for women who want to strengthen their voice at work. Register here.
March 19: Airtable Buildathon, a one-day, live builder competition where participants solve real business challenges using Airtable and AI-powered workflows. Register here.
March 20: Keeping It Urban Summit. A one-day conference featuring 10+ powerhouse panelists on media interfaces, robotics, and civic innovation, 5+ early-stage startups, and creative tech artist talks. Register here.
March 21: Anti-Slopathon, a hackathon where participants use AI to build tools, games, features, and experiences, but show how they’ve listened to their user and applied taste and design judgment. Register here.
March 25: Speed Pitch: Guaranteed 1:1 Meetings With Investors, for tech startups with market-ready MVP or revenue generating, preferably with one underrepresented founder, pre-seed to Series A. Register here with promo code TECHNYC20 for 20% off.
March 26: Founder Dinner, an intimate evening with a highly curated group of Series A+ founders that are scaling. Register here.
March 26: American Fintech Council’s inaugural Marketing and Communications Cocktails & Conversations, hosted in collaboration with Tech:NYC, CLYDE, and Current. Register here.
April 2: NYU Wagner’s 20th International Policy and Planning Summit, bringing together academics, practitioners, and students to explore cross-sectoral solutions to the interconnected global challenges of climate change, migration, and global urban resilience. Register here.
April 16: Construction Robotics Summit: From Dirt to Data, bringing together the builders, technologists, and decision-makers advancing robotics across the built environment. Register here for early-bird pricing before March 31.
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