Tuesday, April 29, 2025

April 29, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 

In today’s digest, the #NYTechWeek calendar, outdoor dining, and AI frontier firms. 🧑‍💻

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  • Drum roll please 🥁…the NY Tech Week calendar has officially dropped! From June 2-8, the largest decentralized conference for top funds, startups, and companies around the globe (read: 800+ events!!) is coming to NYC. Check out the wide range of events. 🖥️ (Tech Week)

    • Now in its third year, NY Tech Week reflects the community of its builders, with 53% of events AI-related and 21% directly themed around AI breakthroughs. 

    • Plus, there are big spikes in events across deeptech, infra, fintech, and media/entertainment.

    • Keep an eye out for Tech:NYC’s guide to NY Tech Week coming soon!

  • In other news, there are easier ways to deliver outdoor dining to New Yorkers, which Tech:NYC’s Urbanism Fellow, Isaac Oates, outlines (with a nod to how the French do it). 🥐 (Isaac Oates Blog)

    • Maybe there’s a shortage of options, but there’s no shortage of guidance pointing you to the best spots. 😋 

    • Enjoy today's perfect weather by checking out this map of all the outdoor dining restaurant options in NYC, or listening to the editors of Eater NY about the best spots around.🍴

  • ​The MTA plans to replace traditional subway turnstiles with modern fare gates at 20 New York City stations later this year, aiming to reduce fare evasion, which officials say costs the agency over $700 million annually. 🚆(Gothamist)

    • The new design replaces the subway’s horizontal turnstiles with glass sliding doors that are difficult to force open or jump through.

In other reading:

  • First look at the stylish food hall inside former Lord & Taylor in NYC (New York Post)

  • Redesigned Delacorte Theater nears completion in Central Park (New York YIMBY)

  • Affordable housing lottery chops paperwork pile for apartment applications (The CITY)

2025 might go down as the year AI didn’t just support the workplace — it redefined it. 

Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index reveals how “frontier firms” are reshaping knowledge work by teaming humans with intelligent AI agents. 🧠

🍺 AI on tap: Leaders are no longer just hiring people — they’re also managing digital agents that can plan and execute tasks. Microsoft calls this new hybrid model “human-led, agent-operated.”

  • 82% of business leaders say productivity needs to rise, but 80% of workers are already maxed out. 

  • Enter AI agents: Assistants that can triage email, manage projects, even run business workflows — freeing up humans to focus on creative and strategic work.

To keep up, companies must do more than add AI to existing workflows — they must separate knowledge workers from knowledge work. 

  • Instead of saying “I send emails and write documents,” we’ll soon say, “I create and manage agents.” 

  • 💡 Microsoft and other big enterprise companies are pitching companies on agents as the next big era of AI in the workplace.

👩🏻‍💼 The rise of agent bosses: Companies will create roles for someone who builds, delegates and manages agents to amplify their impact — working smarter, scaling faster, and taking control of their career in the age of AI. 

🔢 By the numbers: 

  • 28% of managers are considering hiring AI workforce managers to lead hybrid teams of people and agents. 🤔

  • 32% plan to hire AI agent specialists to design, develop, and optimize them within the next 12–18 months. 🤖

  • Leaders expect their teams will be redesigning business processes with AI (38%), building multi-agent systems to automate complex tasks (42%), training agents (41%), and managing them (36%) within five years. 💪

Be part of the convo: This Thursday, May 1, join Tech:NYC, Pensar, and Two Trees at an AI Demo Day at the Refinery @ Domino, featuring AI agent demos from a mix of later stage companies and early-stage startups. Register here.

In other reading:

  • MTA wants AI to flag 'problematic behavior' in NYC subways (Gothamist)

  • ChatGPT goes shopping with new product-browsing feature (Ars Technica)

  • The group chats that changed America (Semafor)

  • Blooming Health, an NYC-based social services and health care coordination network, raised $26 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led, joined by insiders Afore Capital, Crossbeam Venture Partners, and Metrodora Ventures.

  • Lightrun, an NYC-based developer observability platform, raised $70 million in Series B funding. Accel and Insight Partners led the round and were joined by Citi, Glilot Capital, GTM Capital, and Sorenson Capital.

  • May 9: Founders NYC, by Union Square Ventures, Lux Capital, First Round Capital, and BoxGroup, bringing together NYC’s best builders from the most iconic companies — founders from MongoDB, Warby Parker, Ramp, Ro, and others — to talk about lessons learned, off-the-record-tips, and well-trodden tales with the goal of helping NYC’s big next wave. Apply to attend here.

  • May 1: Tech:NYC, Pensar, and Two Trees’ AI Demo Day at the Refinery @ Domino, featuring AI agent demos from a mix of later stage companies and early-stage startups. Register here.

  • May 7: The latest installment of our Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg speaker series, featuring economist & writer Chris Hughes, who will share insights on how understanding past marketcrafters can inform the development of future markets to be innovative, stable, and inclusive. Register here.

  • April 30: Woo Investors with Robust Numbers, a 90-minute masterclass on financial pitch training. Register with promo code TECHNYC25 here.

  • April 30: Empower & Elevate Your Workforce Talent Mixer, for employers seeking to connect with the brightest emerging talent in social media marketing, Python, IT, data, and cybersecurity. Register here.

  • May 6: 43North Startup Showcase: Upstate NY, to hear pitches from founders in the 43North portfolio and across Upstate New York, and to connect, collaborate, and network with venture leaders and ecosystem builders. Register here.

  • May 6-7: AI Agent Conference, for leaders driving the next era of autonomous artificial intelligence, featuring 300+ world-class AI leaders, senior execs and top founders. Register with promo code TECHNYC15AI here.

  • May 13: Watches and Wearables, a happy hour by Remedy and Ganance for anyone excited to chat watches and wearable tech, featuring drinks, hands-on product demos, and a fireside chat. Register here.

  • May 14: Unlock LATAM by nocnoc, for VIP execs from leading U.S. companies looking to tap into Latin America’s $100 billion+ e-commerce opportunity. Register here. 

  • May 15-16: Black Women Talk Tech hosts its 9th Annual Roadmap to Billions Conference, a platform to forge connections, expand your knowledge, and drive generational wealth for you and your community. Register here and save 20% with code RTBPARTNER20.

  • May 20: Grow and Secure Your Business with Google, an in-person session on essential digital tools to grow your business, improve operational efficiency, and protect your business against cybersecurity threats. Register here.

  • May 23: NYPL’s free job fair & expo, focusing on tech sector jobs. Employers can apply to table at the event here. Job seekers, register to attend here.

Any feedback or suggestions of things to add? Get in touch here.
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