Monday, November 10, 2025
In today’s digest, NYC Ferry expansion, AI skills 🤝 job market, and peak leaf peeping season (say that 5x fast). 🍁
But first: Applications are now open for Tech:NYC’s Decoded Futures cohort 4!
Decoded Futures is a no-cost, eight-week program designed to help NYC-based nonprofits learn how to use AI to scale their impact.
Know a nonprofit leader who could benefit? Encourage them to apply here.
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NYC Ferry service is getting a ferry major upgrade: New routes will connect Staten Island and Brooklyn while extending southern Brooklyn service to Manhattan. Service will also expand to East Harlem. 🚢 (New York Daily News)
The route changes, first proposed this summer, are expected to go into effect Dec. 8.
While the government shutdown continues, the FAA is expected to continue with its plan to cancel flights out of 40 major airports to ease the workload of airports that are increasingly short-staffed. New York City area airports are expected to feel the change more than most. ✈️ (PIX 11)
Airlines reduced operations by 4% on Friday. Under the current plan, that ramps up to 6% by Tuesday, 8% by Thursday, and 10% by Friday.
Check your flight status for major NYC airports here: Newark Liberty International Airport, JFK Airport, and LaGuardia Airport.
Hurry! It’s officially peak fall foliage season in New York! 🍁🍂 The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation said New Yorkers have only one more week to take in the eye-catching scene before many trees across the city lose their leaves for the winter. (Gothamist)
Craving more tree content? Check out the digital NYC tree map here.
In other reading:
Vanderbilt receives last approval for New York City campus in Chelsea, Manhattan (New York YIMBY)
Freaky Caesars and more restaurant trends you’ll see in 2026 (The Infatuation)
What’s open, closed on Veterans Day 2025 (PIX 11)
Is AI the New MBA?
The U.S. job market may be cooling, but one skillset in particular isn’t: artificial intelligence.
Mentions of AI skills in tech job postings are up 16% in the past three months, even as overall tech hiring dropped 27% year-over-year, according to ManpowerGroup’s Work Intelligence Lab.
💡 Why it matters: The hiring slowdown is separating those who use AI from those who understand it.
Business leaders say the biggest drag on their company’s AI progress is a lack of skilled workers — and it’s showing up in salaries.
Machine learning engineer pay jumped 53% in just 15 months, while traditional software roles barely moved.
Where the action is: Demand is booming for data-related roles — labeling, analysis, and science — and for people who can interpret AI outputs, spot bad data, and integrate insights into business decisions. 🤖
Freelance demand for AI and machine learning skills rose sharply this fall, especially for projects involving data mining and management.
Human skills still matter: leaders say curiosity, adaptability, and creative judgment are what separate the best AI collaborators from the rest.
Nearly one-third of the 3,400+ job postings on Tech:NYC’s Jobs Board mention “AI” in the job title.
🌎 Zooming out: Research from Brookings shows AI’s rise is also unequal by location.
Just 30 metro areas now account for two-thirds of all U.S. AI-related job postings, leaving most regions playing catch-up.
🗽 For New York: The city is among the “AI-ready” elite, with dense digital talent and leading research hubs. And our research with Accenture agrees.
But the Brookings data also carries a warning: without national and local investment in AI education, infrastructure, and small-business adoption, even strong metros could see growth bottlenecks.
Enter: Decoded Futures at the Tech:NYC Foundation. The program sits at the center of the AI for Impact initiative, bridging the gap between the nonprofit sector and cutting-edge AI technologies.
Decoded Futures just opened up applications for its fourth cohort — encourage an NYC nonprofit leader to apply here by Dec. 21.
Plus, they’re hiring! The Decoded Futures team is looking for a Program Coordinator and Instructional Designer & Facilitator. Apply for those roles here.
In other reading:
How startups can lure good talent fairly without big tech bank accounts (TechCrunch)
Why your company (and every company) needs an ‘AI-first’ approach (Fast Company)
What America’s longest-tenured employees say about work – then and now (Wall Street Journal)
AirOps, and NYC-based provider of AI search marketing solutions, raised $40 million at a $225 million valuation led by Greylock.
Avallon, an NYC-based developer of insurance AI agents, raised $4.6 million in seed funding. Frontline Ventures led the round, joined by YC, 1984, Liquid2, and Booom.
fomo, an NYC-based social-first crypto trading app, raised $17 million in Series A funding. Benchmark led the round.
November 11-12: Urban Tech Summit, offering insights and examples of how researchers, companies, governments, and communities can continue to drive innovation, and how urban tech can help cities do more with less as they prepare for the future. Register here.
November 12: From Lab to Launch: Female Founders Building in Deep Tech, a curated cocktail hour followed by an intimate panel discussion with female founders and leaders in the deep tech space. Register here.
November 12: Founder Coffee Meet, a chance for startup founders to meet each other, problem-solve, and brainstorm. Register here.
November 13: Curated Founder Breakfast (Seed+), a private breakfast for a curated group of founders that have raised a Seed round. Register here.
November 13: AI Agents After Hours w/ Browserbase & Pensar, where you can meet the teams behind both companies over food and drinks. Register here.
November 17-18: Momentum AI Finance 2025, bringing together 300+ senior financial leaders to share real-world strategies for scaling intelligent automation, building trusted AI stacks, and driving responsible innovation across the industry. Register here.
November 19: Join Glean and The Atlantic’s CEO Nicholas Thompson for Beyond Pilots: How Organizations Can Turn AI Into Real Results, a summit on AI produced by Glean. Apply to attend in person here.
November 19: Decoded Futures Build Day, a day of collaboration between technologists and nonprofit organizations to explore practical, hands-on ways to apply AI to real challenges. Register here. Want to volunteer? Apply here.
November 19: Tech and Business Networking — Long Island City, where you can meet consultants, analysts of all types, bankers, software engineers, entrepreneurs, and more. Register here.
November 20: Insecure Agents: Live Panel & Podcast, a live conversation following day one of AIE Code exploring the cutting edge of AI agent development and security. Register here.
December 2: Builders and Disrupters in the AI Era, featuring presentations from Cornell Tech graduate students, startups, and researchers tackling real-world challenges through technology and collaboration. Register here.
December 4: H-1Bs: Who Wins and Who Loses?, a lively, high-stakes debate between a Rutgers professor and the Executive Director of an immigration think-tank on whether H1Bs and other non-immigration visas help American innovation more than they hurt American labor. Register here.
December 10-11: The AI Summit New York, a platform for enterprise leaders and tech innovators to explore and apply commercial AI, featuring Flybidge’s Jesse Middleton, NYCEDC’s Jonathan Schulhof, and Tech:NYC’s Julie Samuels discussing NYC’s startup ecosystem. Register here.
December 10: The AI Summit NY Healthcare Happy Hour, a mixer for healthcare and pharma professionals after day one of the AI Summit in New York. Register here.
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