and jump at New York Tech Week 2024
Technology meets trepidation
With a record-breaking 740+ events covering a diverse range of subjects. Tech Week NYC is not to be missed.
Over one week, VCs and startups bring together the tech ecosystem to be inspired and provoked. Here’s what we learnt.
Events
Female Founders & Funders Happy Hour NY
Beyond Algorithms: Designers' Critique of AI in Creative Processes with Smart Design NYC
100% clean air with AirTulip at Newlab
Optimizing Fuel Savings: The Power of Telematics and Smart Fuel Cards with Coast and Azuga
How to get value from your data by Zack Ober
Can AI replace your data scientist with Datawisp
Gen AI + Digital Product Founders Happy Hour by TechTonic
Scaling for Fulfillment: Tools to Avoid Burnout + Enjoy the Journey at Her Workplace
Insight to Impact: Data-Powered Growth Strategy During Economic Shifts with Mission Flywheel and The Bright Arc
Brick-by-Brick: Building Innovative Tech Products with LEGO® Serious Play at Figma
Climate Hackathon in the Park, NY
Just Create TV: Decentralization & Navigating the Future of Digital Content Key takeaways.
Key takeaways
1. All Eyes on AI
If forecasters are to be believed, AI is predicted to be the hottest accessory (and co-pilot!) in town.
This was certainly the case at Tech Week, where it was a prerequisite for successful event attendance. AI unquestionably dominated the agenda, with every start-up and firm eager to show it to be at the cutting edge.
Katia Ameri, partner at Venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz states that NYC is emerging as a powerhouse for AI startups due to its access to capital, talent and the convergence of different industries!
Despite meeting many inspiring people and founders, I didn’t see an AI application that blew me away. Scared, my journey to technological Luddite was closer than I thought; I asked others, but very few examples revealed themselves. What did come up frequently was the ethical concerns and Europe being more forward-thinking in the regulatory domain than its US counterparts.
Why this matters: The march of AI is strong, but a total takeover isn’t complete yet, nor is the magical customer application locked down. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled and have your AI strategy and ethics locked down.
2. Trepidation Talking
Set against a backdrop of large tech layoffs, a sluggish job market, global turbulence, and AI, there was a distinct sense of trepidation about the future, especially in design and creative-led events.
AI was recommended for efficiency gains (now, there’s a reason to get out of bed in the morning!), accelerating the design process, fueling brainstorming sessions, or even as a therapist where users can express themselves without fear of judgment.
Serendipitously during that week, Nicolas Roope, Creative and Design Leader, wrote an interesting post on Linkedin revealing that creative teams are finding LLM great at revealing the obvious, the mean and the medium — due to their underlying models — but less effective for finding original work.
“AI is the best tool humanity has ever possessed to identify bad ideas! ”
Why this matters: There’s hope, but the Design and Creative industry must set out a clear(er) narrative and position to avoid being seen as another resource that can be cut.
3. Sustainability rising on the agenda
NYC strives to be a key player in climate tech, with start-ups looking to mitigate climate change and promote planetary well-being. Tech Week had multiple events covering Travel, Founders’, hackathons, and the future of climate innovation.
Born out of the innovation community Newlab, one interesting product was Airtulip. This headboard solves the problem of polluted indoor environments by creating a local bubble of completely clean air where you sleep.
The city is one to watch with solid government, regulatory, and NGO support, as well as educational institutions and initiatives like the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub, where the state looks to leverage wind energy due to its unique geographical position.
Why this matters: Interesting applications seem to be merging climate tech with the everyday, making sustainability not the sole or primary reason to buy — and therefore more accessible.
4. The beauty of making customers happy
“I have a lot of spare time because of these simple tools and APIs. We built a custom dashboard for senior management using this data. Everything is trending correctly!”
My favourite event of the week — because of the practical nature and sheer enthusiasm for the product experience — was the Optimizing Fuel Savings: The Power of Telematics and Smart Fuel Cards event hosted by Fleet payments firm Coast and Telematics firm Azuga alongside fleet manager (and advocate) Wayne Stansell.
Fleet and logistics might not be the sexier end of innovation, but the event showed — and reminded us - of the impact of great product.
In Coast And Azuga’s case, this covered better and simpler features regarding reporting, cost, safety, reporting, Geo-fencing and reliable open API that integrates with internal systems.
Why this matters: It’s so easy to forget digital products' impact on people’s lives when we’re bogged down in the making process and getting stakeholder buy-in, but at its best, it’s true magic!
5. Metrics live on trees
Data is not valuable on its own. Starting with the problem is critical, and understanding what KPIs reveal, supported by great data, is crucial.
One interesting start-up was DataWisp, a low code data analysis tool with (one of its key USPs) AI at its heart, rather than a bolt-on. DataWisk seeks to solve the labour and time-intensive process of mining data and, with those benefits, help you create better products and ask better questions.
Luring people with the intriguing title: ‘Can AI replace your data scientist and great panellists from Microsoft — Spoiler alert: it can’t — it revealed you still need the human at the heart to drive the inquiry and critique the process.
Furthermore, AI can’t make contextual judgements or assess culture. LLMs are also better at specific types of enquiries versus traditional forecasting models.
“Companies need to gain design literacy just as much as designers need to understand business.”
Why this matters: Mapping business outcomes and Jobs-to-be done is crucial. Similar to the success of the OKRs framework Metric trees are a great visual mechanism to do this!
⚡️ To see how these insights affect your organisation
🙌 Shout out to The Knowledge Shop for putting together a comprehensive view of events.
