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AI Engineer NYC 2026

Welcome Remarks

Day 1 · Oct 13 Day 1 digest · More from this day

MC Alex Lieberman opens AI Engineer New York 2026 by calling the room an “Edge City” that lives six months to two years ahead of AI consensus, frames the event as “AI engineering meets Wall Street,” thanks the AIE team and sponsors, and hands off to the first keynote from Bridgewater.

Read the official edition ↗ A detailed reading edition with a searchable transcript.

TL;DR

Section titled “TL;DR”
  • Alex Lieberman introduces himself as co-founder and co-managing partner at 10X, an applied AI company that helps Fortune 500 businesses become AI-native, and as prior co-founder of Morning Brew.
  • He frames X (formerly Twitter) as a place to “live in the future,” then calls this conference “X on steroids.”
  • He introduces the “Edge City” concept: somewhere in the world, a group of people always lives in the future of a specialty. This conference is Edge City for AI in finance, six months to two years ahead of consensus.
  • He positions the event: AI Engineer New York 2026, “where AI engineering meets Wall Street,” for engineers and technical leaders shipping production AI in banking, hedge funds, fintech, insurance, and asset management.
  • He thanks the AIE team and the sponsor tiers: presenting sponsor Arize; platinum sponsors Oracle, Sonar, WorkOS, and Exa; then gold, silver, and supporting sponsors.
  • He closes by introducing the first keynote: “two amazing folks from Bridgewater” who work in production AI every day.

Key lessons

Section titled “Key lessons”
  1. The “Edge City” framing gives a useful mental model for conferences: at any point, some group of people somewhere lives in the future of a specific function or specialty. Lieberman argues the attendees are that group for AI diffusion, six months to two years ahead of consensus.
  2. Lieberman treats X (formerly Twitter) as a leading indicator. Scrolling commentary there feels like seeing what becomes consensus in three, six, or 12 months. He says that is exactly why the conference feels like “X on steroids,” but in person.
  3. The conference’s stated identity is precise: “AI engineering meets Wall Street.” The audience is engineers and technical leaders building production AI across banking, hedge funds, fintech, insurance, and asset management.
  4. The two-day program covers two layers: the technology stack (models, agents, infra, compute, dev tools, evals) and how that stack reshapes the financial industry, including hedge funds, investors, banks, insurance, fintech, and security.
  5. The MC sets a tone pattern worth noting: self-introduction with credentials (10X co-founder, Morning Brew co-founder), an audience poll as an icebreaker, a big idea, then logistics. The poll asked who is “healthily addicted to X”; his follow-up joke was “a lot of people are lying in the room.”
  6. Sponsor acknowledgment ran by tier: presenting sponsor Arize; platinum sponsors Oracle, Sonar, WorkOS, and Exa; followed by gold, silver, and supporting sponsors. The AIE team got thanks before the sponsors.
  7. The first keynote was introduced with a credibility hook rather than a name: “two amazing folks from Bridgewater who are in the weeds of production AI every single day.”

Watch this session

Section titled “Watch this session”

Alex Lieberman · 8:58:21 AM ET–9:01:58 AM ET · announcement · Watch on YouTube from 00:10:29

Notable quotes

Section titled “Notable quotes”
  • “And what I love about this conference and why I get so excited to come to it every single year is because this almost feels like X on steroids.” [00:11:35 | 8:59:27 AM]
  • “And the way I think about this conference is we are all living in Edge City for what will be consensus in the next six months to two years, if you really think about the diffusion of this technology.” [00:12:03 | 8:59:54 AM]
  • “First of all, welcome to AI Engineer New York 2026, where AI engineering meets Wall Street.” [00:12:21 | 9:00:13 AM]
  • “We have two amazing folks from Bridgewater who are in the weeds of production AI every single day.” [00:13:57 | 9:01:48 AM]

Session narrative

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Alex Lieberman opened with a casual greeting and a quick self-introduction. He named himself as co-founder and co-managing partner at 10X, an applied AI company that works with Fortune 500 businesses to become AI-native. He added his prior credential: co-founder of Morning Brew, “which makes business news suck a little bit less.” He then ran an icebreaker poll, asking for raised hands from anyone “healthily addicted to X, or formerly known as Twitter,” and joked that many non-raised hands were lies.

The core idea came next. Lieberman explained why he spends so much time on X: the commentary feels like a preview of what becomes consensus in three, six, or 12 months. A friend once described “edge city” to him: at any point, somewhere in the world, a group of people lives in the future of a specific function or specialty. He mapped that concept onto the room. This conference, he argued, is Edge City for AI in finance. Everyone present lives six months to two years ahead of where the technology’s diffusion will land.

He then made the conference framing official. Welcome to AI Engineer New York 2026, “where AI engineering meets Wall Street.” The event targets engineers and technical leaders who build production AI across banking, hedge funds, fintech, insurance, and asset management. Over two days, speakers would cover models, agents, infra, compute, dev tools, and evals, and how those weave into the financial industry.

He closed with gratitude and a hand-off. First came a shout out to the AIE team for assembling the event. Then sponsor thanks by tier: presenting sponsor Arize; platinum sponsors Oracle, Sonar, WorkOS, and Exa; then gold, silver, and supporting sponsors, which he had no time to rattle off one by one. Finally, he introduced the first keynote of the day: two speakers from Bridgewater who are “in the weeds of production AI every single day,” and welcomed them to the stage.

Speaker details

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Alex Lieberman - Managing Partner, Tenex. Serial entrepreneur best known as co-founder of Morning Brew, the business media company he started as a college newsletter and grew to 2M+ daily readers before its ~$75M sale to Business Insider in 2020. He is now co-founder and Managing Partner of Tenex, an AI engineering and transformation firm that helps companies go from AI-absent to AI-native. He also founded Storyarb and Distro, hosts the Founder’s Journal podcast, and co-hosts The Crazy Ones. Recognized on Forbes 30 Under 30 and AdAge 40 Under 40; based in New York City. At AI Engineer NYC 2026 he served as MC. Links: LinkedIn | X/Twitter | Website

Note: in this session he pronounced his firm’s name “10X”; the agenda and his speaker record list the company as Tenex. Both refer to the same firm.

Full timestamped transcript

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[00:10:30 | 8:58:21 AM] What's up, everyone?
[00:10:31 | 8:58:22 AM] How's it going?
[00:10:32 | 8:58:23 AM] There we go.
[00:10:33 | 8:58:24 AM] Before we hop into the official stuff, I just want to start by introducing myself and asking you a quick question.
[00:10:35 | 8:58:26 AM] I'm Alex Lieberman.
[00:10:36 | 8:58:27 AM] I'm one of the co-founders and co-managing partners at 10X.
[00:10:37 | 8:58:28 AM] We're an applied AI company working with Fortune 500 businesses to become AI native.
[00:10:38 | 8:58:29 AM] Before that, I co-founded a business called Morning Brew, which makes business news suck a little bit less.
[00:10:44 | 8:58:35 AM] My question for you is, who in the room, raise your hand if you are healthily addicted to X, or formerly known as Twitter.
[00:11:09 | 8:59:00 AM] Okay, a lot of people are lying in the room.
[00:11:12 | 8:59:04 AM] 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 like I get to live in the future, right?
[00:11:24 | 8:59:15 AM] When you're scrolling through X, when you're looking at the commentary on the platform, you feel like you're seeing what will become consensus in three, six, or 12 months.
[00:11:35 | 8:59:27 AM] And what I love about this conference and why I get so excited to come to it every single year is because this almost feels like X on steroids.
[00:11:46 | 8:59:38 AM] There's this concept that a friend told me a while back called edge city, and edge city is this concept that At any point in some part of the world, there are a group of people that are living in the future in a specific function or specialty.
[00:12:03 | 8:59:54 AM] And the way I think about this conference is we are all living in Edge City for what will be consensus in the next six months to two years, if you really think about the diffusion of this technology.
[00:12:16 | 9:00:07 AM] So I'm super excited to be part of this with you all today.
[00:12:19 | 9:00:10 AM] And now let's hop into what's going to happen.
[00:12:21 | 9:00:13 AM] First of all, welcome to AI Engineer New York 2026, where AI engineering meets Wall Street.
[00:12:28 | 9:00:20 AM] This is the conference for engineers and technical leaders building production AI across banking, hedge funds, fintech, insurance, and asset management.
[00:12:39 | 9:00:31 AM] Over the next two days, we will hear from companies and leaders sparking discussion not only on models, agents, infra, compute, dev tools, and evals, but then how they weave and shape the financial industry, impacting hedge funds, investors, banks, insurance, fintech, and security.
[00:12:58 | 9:00:50 AM] Of course, as you all can tell, there's a lot going on.
[00:13:02 | 9:00:53 AM] Putting together a gathering like this requires a huge amount of effort, and it could not be done without our sponsors.
[00:13:08 | 9:01:00 AM] But before our sponsors, let's all just give a huge shout out to the AIE team.
[00:13:13 | 9:01:04 AM] What they do is incredible.
[00:13:16 | 9:01:07 AM] Now, let's give some flowers to the sponsors.
[00:13:22 | 9:01:13 AM] First up, the presenting sponsor, Arize.
[00:13:24 | 9:01:16 AM] Let's give it up for Arize.
[00:13:26 | 9:01:18 AM] Yeah, Arize.
[00:13:30 | 9:01:21 AM] Next up, the platinum sponsors: Oracle, Sonar, WorkOS, and Exa.
[00:13:34 | 9:01:26 AM] Let's give it up for them.
[00:13:38 | 9:01:30 AM] Then we have our gold sponsors.
[00:13:39 | 9:01:31 AM] If I had enough time, I'd rattle all of them off.
[00:13:42 | 9:01:34 AM] And finally, the silver sponsors.
[00:13:45 | 9:01:36 AM] But wait, there's more: the supporting sponsors.
[00:13:48 | 9:01:40 AM] Awesome.
[00:13:50 | 9:01:41 AM] So we are going to hop into the first keynote of the day.
[00:13:57 | 9:01:48 AM] We have two amazing folks from Bridgewater who are in the weeds of production AI every single day.
[00:14:04 | 9:01:56 AM] So let's give it up for them.
[00:14:06 | 9:01:58 AM] Welcome, guys.