# Opening Remarks

Lia McBride, Alex Lieberman · AI Engineer NYC 2026 · October 13

[Watch recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=461s)

[00:07:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=461s) Good morning and welcome to AI Engineer New York 2026.

[00:07:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=467s) We're thrilled to have you with us as we kick off an event of big ideas, sharp perspectives, and plenty of signal cutting through the noise.

[00:07:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=476s) To officially open the event for us this morning, please welcome to the stage AI Engineer's General Manager, Lia McBride.

[00:08:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=490s) Hi, good morning everyone, and welcome to New York.

[00:08:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=496s) This is our third event in New York.

[00:08:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=498s) We had two in 2025 with some of our greatest speakers that we've ever had at AI Engineer.

[00:08:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=505s) So we're really excited to be back.

[00:08:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=507s) So just a huge welcome from myself and swyx to everyone.

[00:08:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=510s) Thanks for attending today.

[00:08:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=512s) We hope you're going to have a great few days.

[00:08:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=514s) There's very, very few places like New York City, as we know, where big ideals scale very,

[00:08:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=521s) very fast.

[00:08:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=522s) It is where Frontier AI comes to meet centuries-old global financial institutions

[00:08:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=529s) and where multiple different economies thrive together.

[00:08:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=532s) So we're excited to have an incredible lineup.

[00:08:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=535s) You're going to hear from some of the world's best speakers, just like at all our events.

[00:09:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=540s) We have got people, we've got tracks in finance.

[00:09:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=544s) We've got engineering, leadership, evals, and LLM.

[00:09:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=548s) um we've got Aparna Dhinakaran i'm gonna get that right uh from Arize we've got Max Kanat-Alexander

[00:09:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=556s) from capital one and Tariq Shaukat from sonar that's just a few of the incredible speakers

[00:09:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=563s) that we've got this week uh i'm going to say a huge thank you to Arize who's our presenting sponsor

[00:09:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=568s) you guys can go and meet their team in the expo any point this week so uh lean in to learning here

[00:09:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=576s) lean into connecting as well

[00:09:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=579s) there's so many people here

[00:09:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=581s) that are sharing ideas

[00:09:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=583s) they want to talk about

[00:09:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=585s) the ideas, they want to challenge ideas

[00:09:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=586s) and they want to collaborate as well

[00:09:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=588s) so make sure to speak to as many people as

[00:09:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=591s) possible, your attendees, speakers

[00:09:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=593s) and all the sponsors

[00:09:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=594s) and we hope to see you again soon

[00:09:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=596s) we do have a great line up

[00:09:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=598s) we've got

[00:10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=600s) another event called Summit in San Francisco in November.

[00:10:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=603s) And then we have London lined up in February. And then of course, World's Fair. And we've got a couple of other events happening next year as well that are new.

[00:10:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=612s) So keep an eye on the schedule. But have a wonderful few days. Thank you so much. Take care.

[00:10:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=621s) And now, please welcome to the stage, your MC for the day, managing partner at Tenex, Alex Lieberman.

[00:10:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=632s) What's up, everyone? How's it going?

[00:10:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=635s) There we go.

[00:10:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=637s) Before we hop into the official stuff, I just want to start by introducing myself and asking you a quick question.

[00:10:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=644s) Alex Lieberman.

[00:10:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=645s) I'm one of the co-founders and co-managing partners at Tenex.

[00:10:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=649s) We're an applied AI company working with Fortune 500 businesses to become AI native.

[00:10:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=654s) Before that, I co-founded a business called Morning Brew, which makes business news suck

[00:10:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=657s) a little bit less.

[00:10:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=659s) My question for you is, who in the room, raise your hand, if you are healthily addicted to

[00:11:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=665s) X or formerly known as Twitter?

[00:11:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=668s) Okay, a lot of people are lying in the room.

[00:11:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=671s) I spend a lot of time on X. And one of the reasons that I spend a lot of time on X is because I feel

[00:11:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=680s) like I get to live in the future, right? When you're scrolling through X, when you're looking

[00:11:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=684s) at the commentary on the platform, you feel like you're seeing what will become consensus in three,

[00:11:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=692s) six, or 12 months. And what I love about this conference and why I get so excited to come to

[00:11:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=698s) it every single year is because this almost feels like X on steroids. There's this concept that a

[00:11:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=706s) friend told me a while back called Edge City. And Edge City is this concept that at any point in

[00:11:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=713s) some part of the world, there are a group of people that are living in the future in a specific

[00:11:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=719s) function or specialty. And the way I think about this conference is we are all living in Edge City

[00:12:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=726s) for what will be consensus in the next six months to two years, if you really think about

[00:12:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=733s) the diffusion of this technology. So I'm super excited to be part of this with you all today,

[00:12:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=737s) and now let's hop into what's going to happen. First of all, welcome to AI Engineer New York

[00:12:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=743s) 2026, where AI engineering meets Wall Street. This is the conference for engineers and technical

[00:12:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=750s) leaders building production AI across banking, hedge funds, fintech, insurance, and asset

[00:12:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=756s) management.

[00:12:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=757s) Over the next two days, we will hear from companies and leaders sparking discussion

[00:12:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=762s) not only on models, agents, infra, compute, dev tools, and evals, but then how they weave

[00:12:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=769s) and shape the financial industry impacting hedge funds, investors, banks, insurance,

[00:12:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=775s) fintech, and security.

[00:12:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=777s) Of course, as you all can tell, there's a lot going on.

[00:13:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=780s) Putting together a gathering like this requires a huge amount of effort,

[00:13:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=785s) and it could not be done without our sponsors.

[00:13:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=787s) But before our sponsors, let's all just give a huge shout-out to the AIE team.

[00:13:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=791s) What they do is incredible.

[00:13:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=797s) Now, let's give some flowers to the sponsors.

[00:13:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=800s) First up, the presenting sponsor, Arize.

[00:13:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=803s) Let's give it up for Arize.

[00:13:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=806s) Yeah, Arize.

[00:13:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=808s) Next up, the platinum sponsors, Oracle, Sonar, WorkOS, and Exa.

[00:13:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=813s) Let's give it up for them.

[00:13:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=817s) Then we have our gold sponsors.

[00:13:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=818s) If I had enough time, I'd rattle all of them off.

[00:13:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=821s) And finally, the silver sponsors.

[00:13:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=823s) But wait, there's more, the supporting sponsors.

[00:13:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=827s) Awesome.

[00:13:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=829s) So we are going to hop into the first keynote of the day.

[00:13:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=835s) We have two amazing folks from Bridgewater who are in the weeds of production AI every single day.

[00:14:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=843s) So let's give it up for them.

[00:14:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=845s) Welcome, guys.