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AI Engineer NYC 2026

Welcome Back - Featured Keynotes

Day 2 · Oct 14 Day 2 digest · More from this day

MC Ksenia Se reopens the main stage for the final keynote block, runs the sponsor roll call, shares a build-an-agent-to-rank-employers-by-salary networking idea, and hands off to the Apollo fireside.

TL;DR

Section titled “TL;DR”
  • A welcome-back voiceover returns MC Ksenia Se to the stage for the last block of programming at 4:26 PM ET, after a music interstitial cut off the previous Coder talk.
  • She leads applause for presenting sponsor Arise, platinum sponsors Oracle, Sonar, WorkOS, and Axa, plus gold, silver, and supporting partners.
  • She reports that hiring was the strongest incentive she heard all day from speakers and participants, and that even some speakers are hiring and also looking for work.
  • She pitches a do-it-yourself agent project: build an agent that lists speakers and companies from the conference program, checks careers pages, matches open roles, and collects published compensation ranges so you can update your ranking.
  • She hands off to Michael Manapat (Rowspace) and Jack McDonald (Apollo Global Management) for “AI in practice: an inside look at Apollo’s approach”.

Key lessons

Section titled “Key lessons”
  1. Hiring is a primary draw at AI Engineer. The MC spent the day talking to speakers and participants and found that “one of the strongest incentives to come to this conference is hiring” [07:48:00 | 4:28:35 PM]; even some speakers are both hiring and looking for work [07:48:11 | 4:28:46 PM].
  2. Her agent recipe is a four-step workflow: take the conference program and list all speakers with their companies [07:48:32 | 4:29:07 PM]; rank them by whose work and talk you found most interesting [07:48:41 | 4:29:17 PM]; send your agent to those companies’ careers pages to match open positions to your experience and collect published compensation ranges [07:48:51 | 4:29:26 PM]; then look at your ranking again [07:49:03 | 4:29:39 PM].
  3. Salary data may legitimately change your mind. If the salary changes your ranking, “that’s fine. You are updating your beliefs based on the evidence.” [07:49:07 - 07:49:11 | 4:29:42 - 4:29:47 PM].
  4. Act on site while the context is fresh: go find the people you would like to work with and talk to them now, because you have heard their talks and that is a good conversation starter [07:49:15 | 4:29:51 PM].
  5. Automate research, not outreach: “don’t make your agents send out your resume automatically. That’s basically bad karma now.” [07:49:34 - 07:49:40 | 4:30:09 - 4:30:16 PM].
  6. The sponsor structure of AI Engineer New York 2026: Arise as presenting sponsor; Oracle, Sonar, WorkOS, and Axa as platinum; then gold, silver, and supporting partners [07:47:07 - 07:47:46 | 4:27:43 - 4:28:21 PM].

Watch this session

Section titled “Watch this session”

Ksenia Se · 4:26:03 PM ET–4:30:48 PM ET · announcement · Watch on YouTube from 07:45:27

Notable quotes

Section titled “Notable quotes”
  • “I spent the day talking to other speakers and participants, and what I’ve noticed is that one of the strongest incentives to come to this conference is hiring.” [07:48:00 | 4:28:35 PM]
  • “Then you rank them yourself based on whose work and talk you found the most interesting and who you would actually like to work with.” [07:48:41 | 4:29:17 PM]
  • “And if the salary changes your mind and changes your ranking, that’s fine.” [07:49:07 | 4:29:42 PM]
  • “And please, don’t make your agents send out your resume automatically.” [07:49:34 | 4:30:09 PM]

Session narrative

Section titled “Session narrative”

The stream returns from a music interstitial that had cut off the previous Coder talk mid-flow. A welcome-back voiceover opens with a fragment, “Conversations across the event today.”, and continues into the introduction: “As we come together for our final block of programming, please welcome back to the stage our MC, founder, writer, and analyst at Turing Post, Kseniya Se.” [07:45:30 | 4:26:05 PM]. This is the start of the final keynote block, about one minute after the agenda’s nominal 4:25 PM mark.

The MC re-introduces herself for newcomers: she writes Turing Post, “where we explain AI research and what it means for people to implement it in their business” [07:45:58 | 4:26:33 PM]. She warms up the room with calls for noise and applause for the events team, the previous speakers, and the speakers still to come [07:46:05 - 07:46:39].

The core of the interlude is the sponsor roll. She thanks Arise as presenting sponsor (“They’re amazing, and they made it possible.”), then Oracle, Sonar, WorkOS, and Axa at platinum, then gold, silver, and supporting partners, punctuating each tier with rounds of applause [07:46:42 - 07:47:56]. She frames the thanks with what the sponsors enable: insightful talks and “always very meaningful connections” [07:47:02 | 4:27:38 PM].

She then shifts to a personal aside about her day, which becomes the substantive content of the segment. From her conversations, hiring is a top reason people attend, so she proposes a take-home agent project: build an agent that lists speakers and companies from the conference program, rank the companies yourself, have the agent pull open positions and published compensation ranges from careers pages, and update your ranking with the evidence. She closes the aside with two pieces of advice: talk to the people you want to work with while you are still at the event, and do not let agents send resumes automatically. She ends with the hand-off to the Apollo fireside: “Please help me welcome Michael Manapat, co-founder of Rowspace, and Jack McDonald, principal at Apollo Global Management and COO of Redding Ridge, for AI in practice: an inside look.” [07:49:56 | 4:30:32 PM]. Applause follows (“Clap, clap, clap.” / “No shares.” — the latter is applause noise rendered by the transcription model). The final transcript line, “It’s great to be here.” [07:50:12 | 4:30:48 PM], is Michael Manapat’s first words and marks the exact boundary into the next session.

Speaker details

Section titled “Speaker details”

Ksenia Se - AI Inferencer, Turing Post. Co-founder of Turing Post, a newsletter and media platform covering machine learning and AI. She shapes the editorial direction, leads the “Inference” interview series, and produces “Attention Span”, a video series explaining major shifts in AI. She has covered machine learning and AI for more than seven years, previously held editor-in-chief roles, and contributed to outlets including Stratfor and Towards Data Science. She is also co-founder of TheSequence.ai, a mother of five, and a frequent speaker and moderator at conferences such as AIE, HumanX, and Ai4.

Links: LinkedIn | Twitter | Website

Note on the name: the agenda and speaker record use “Ksenia Se”; the voiceover and her own introduction in this session use the variant “Kseniya Se”. The session record follows the official agenda spelling.

Full timestamped transcript

Section titled “Full timestamped transcript”
[07:45:28 | 4:26:03 PM] Conversations across the event today.
[07:45:30 | 4:26:05 PM] As we come together for our final block of programming, please welcome back to the stage our MC, founder, writer, and analyst at Turing Post, Kseniya Se.
[07:45:52 | 4:26:28 PM] Welcome back, everyone.
[07:45:55 | 4:26:30 PM] For those who haven't met me yet, my name is Kseniya Se.
[07:45:58 | 4:26:33 PM] I'm writing Turing Post, where we explain AI research and what it means for people to implement it in their business.
[07:46:05 | 4:26:41 PM] So, how's the conference treating you so far?
[07:46:08 | 4:26:43 PM] All is good?
[07:46:09 | 4:26:44 PM] Yeah?
[07:46:10 | 4:26:45 PM] Give me some noise.
[07:46:11 | 4:26:46 PM] Come on.
[07:46:13 | 4:26:48 PM] Thank you.
[07:46:14 | 4:26:49 PM] I'm sure the team appreciates that you applause to them.
[07:46:19 | 4:26:54 PM] So, let's make some more noise because it's the last leg of our journey, and we have one more block of keynotes together.
[07:46:31 | 4:27:07 PM] Let's appreciate the previous speakers and the new speakers that will come out soon.
[07:46:39 | 4:27:14 PM] Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
[07:46:42 | 4:27:17 PM] And before we dive in, let's take a moment to thank the amazing people, the companies who supported AI Engineer.
[07:46:48 | 4:27:24 PM] We are going to do a lot more applause today.
[07:46:52 | 4:27:27 PM] Thanks to them, we're able to hear so many insightful talks, meet so many incredible people, and they might become your friends, your colleagues, your partners.
[07:47:02 | 4:27:38 PM] That's what I love about this conference: always very meaningful connections.
[07:47:07 | 4:27:43 PM] So, this is our presenting sponsor, Arise.
[07:47:11 | 4:27:47 PM] Please thank them.
[07:47:13 | 4:27:48 PM] They're amazing, and they made it possible.
[07:47:21 | 4:27:57 PM] Platinum sponsors: Oracle, Sonar, WorkOS, and Axa.
[07:47:27 | 4:28:03 PM] Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[07:47:30 | 4:28:05 PM] This is our gold sponsors, a huge amount of beautiful, wonderful companies that we're very thankful for.
[07:47:38 | 4:28:13 PM] And then we have silver sponsors.
[07:47:40 | 4:28:16 PM] Also, also a lot of applause to them.
[07:47:42 | 4:28:18 PM] Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.
[07:47:44 | 4:28:20 PM] Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[07:47:46 | 4:28:21 PM] And then basically all of us in supporting partners and every company and every speaker who made it possible.
[07:47:53 | 4:28:28 PM] Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[07:47:56 | 4:28:31 PM] Now, a couple of words how my day went.
[07:48:00 | 4:28:35 PM] I spent the day talking to other speakers and participants, and what I've noticed is that one of the strongest incentives to come to this conference is hiring.
[07:48:11 | 4:28:46 PM] To the point that even some speakers are hiring and also looking for work.
[07:48:18 | 4:28:54 PM] So I have a little idea for you about how to benefit the most from this amazing conference and make sure the financial part gets some thoughtful attention too.
[07:48:32 | 4:29:07 PM] So I suggest you build an agent that takes the conference program and makes a list of all the speakers and their companies.
[07:48:41 | 4:29:17 PM] Then you rank them yourself based on whose work and talk you found the most interesting and who you would actually like to work with.
[07:48:51 | 4:29:26 PM] The next step is to send your agent to those companies' careers pages, right, and find the open positions to match them to your experience and collect the published compensation ranges.
[07:49:03 | 4:29:39 PM] Then look at your ranking again.
[07:49:07 | 4:29:42 PM] And if the salary changes your mind and changes your ranking, that's fine.
[07:49:11 | 4:29:47 PM] You are updating your beliefs based on the evidence.
[07:49:15 | 4:29:51 PM] So now, while you're still here, I encourage you to go and find the people you would really like to work with or meet and talk to them, because you've heard their talks and you know something about their work, and that would be just such a good conversation starter.
[07:49:34 | 4:30:09 PM] And please, don't make your agents send out your resume automatically.
[07:49:40 | 4:30:16 PM] That's basically bad karma now.
[07:49:44 | 4:30:19 PM] So this is the project for you for the rest of the day or for the trip home.
[07:49:51 | 4:30:26 PM] Now let's hear how AI is being put to work at Apollo.
[07:49:56 | 4:30:32 PM] Please help me welcome Michael Manapat, co-founder of Rowspace, and Jack McDonald, principal at Apollo Global Management and COO of Redding Ridge, for AI in practice: an inside look.
[07:50:09 | 4:30:45 PM] Inside look at Apollo's approach.
[07:50:11 | 4:30:47 PM] Clap, clap, clap.
[07:50:12 | 4:30:48 PM] No shares.
[07:50:12 | 4:30:48 PM] It's great to be here.