What We’ve Learned From Running the Largest Monthly AI Demo Series on the East Coast
When we launched the NYC AI Demos series last spring — in partnership with AI startup Pensar and The Refinery at Domino — our goal was simple: create a space where New York’s builders could show, not tell, how artificial intelligence is actually being developed.
Five demo nights later, it has become clear the demand for real-time, unfiltered AI demos in NYC is enormous, and that New York is building AI with urgency.
Hosted at the waterfront Refinery at Domino in Williamsburg, each demo night features a mix of buzzy early-stage startups and established enterprise teams — each taking to the stage for an unfiltered, live demo of the technology shaping the future.
The series has grown into a linchpin of the city’s AI ecosystem: With 200+ in-person attendees and a 1,000+ person waitlist every month, NYC AI Demos has become, by all accounts, the largest recurring AI demo series on the East Coast, and a place where founders, engineers, researchers, investors, and operators gather to see real technology in motion and connect with the people building it.
“One of the most unique aspects of the New York tech scene is the ability to bring together and showcase tech heavyweights implementing AI at scale alongside startups in deep builder mode,” said Caroline McKechnie, Director of Platform at Tech:NYC. “New York is obviously the place to build, and NYC AI Demos has become an easy way to see that up close.”
Here’s what we’ve learned (so far):
1. New York’s AI energy is real, and NYC’s tech community feels it.
Every month, the room reaffirms what presenters keep telling us: The energy in New York is different. It’s fully alive and deeply entrepreneurial.
As Grace Zhang, Senior Business Analyst at QuantumBlack AI by McKinsey, who demoed on stage at our October event, put it: “The energy in New York is really lively. I think there’s a great entrepreneurship energy to the city that makes it nice for startups to find innovators and other founders.”
People are building in NYC and they’re moving here to do it. “The talent coming to this city is remarkable,” said Richard Hughes, Operating Partner at Gutter Capital.
This is the energy animating every demo night.
2. The demos reflect a city defined by diversity of people, products, and problems.
Each NYC AI Demos lineup features 6-8 companies, split between early-stage startups and enterprise leaders. The common thread is practical, applied innovation. And because New York sits at the intersection of so many industries, the demos reflect that diversity.
One presenter, Nicolas Buitrago, founding engineer of Tabs AI, noted this: “There's kind of a diversity of businesses here. It's good to find that same diversity of business in our clients and customers, and it's easier to now find people and build relationships here in the city.”
Another, Cyborg founder Nico Dupont, described NYC as uniquely suited for applied AI: “It’s really at the confluence between business verticals and technology… it's the only place where applied enterprise AI can really exist.”
This is the AI that runs hospitals, financial systems, marketplaces, and creative tools, all being built in real time in the most complex city in the world. That’s why in 2026, we plan to move to a thematic approach to the demos, grouping by industry.
3. Community is the multiplier, and NYC’s is unusually strong.
Each demo night draws a highly technical audience: staff engineers, ML researchers, founders, product teams, and investors. The questions are sharp. The conversations are honest. And the sense of shared purpose is unmistakable.
Daniel Reid Cahn, founder and CEO of Slingshot AI, highlighted a defining quality of this city’s tech scene: “We're connected to the community… You meet people from so many walks of life that are your customer, that are the people who are interested, that are open-minded, that are curious about technology. I think it’s a great community-oriented city to build in.”
And it’s the passion that fuels the series: “There’s a lot of really passionate people who care a lot about what they're building — a lot of mission-driven people,” said Lauren Pendo, AI Data Scientist at Oscar Health.
The series has also been a great place for talented technical job seekers to meet the fastest growing AI startups in the city looking for top talent.
4. A stage that reflects the full spectrum of AI innovation.
Across the five NYC AI Demo nights so far, more than 40 companies have taken the NYC AI Demos stage — a mix that captures the full stack of AI being built today.
Frontier labs and enterprise leaders like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, IBM, QuantumBlack AI by McKinsey, Waymo, Oscar Health, Kayak, Priceline, ElevenLabs, AngelList, and Notion have shown how AI is transforming massive, global-scale systems, from healthcare to travel to enterprise workflows.
Alongside them, breakout startups such as Modal Labs, Vellum, Northflank, Lumos, Merit Systems, Superblocks, Slingshot AI, PromptLayer, Promptfoo, and OpenRouter have demoed the infrastructure, developer tools, and ML platforms powering the next generation of AI applications.
NYC’s creative DNA shines through with companies like Suno and Daydream, while applied-AI teams — Tabs, Whop, Rogo, Cyborg, Reality Defender, Flora, Runloop, Descope, Pensar, and more — showcased how AI is being deployed across verticals from cybersecurity to finance to marketplaces.
Taken together, the lineups reveal that NYC’s AI ecosystem spans the entire value chain: from frontier research to applied enterprise AI to creative tools. And it’s all happening in one room, month after month.
5. The NYC AI ecosystem is only getting bigger.
There was clearly a gap for gatherings of technical talent in NYC. With new AI teams arriving in the city every month and established companies expanding their NYC presence, the density of innovation here is accelerating. As Anitej Biradar, engineer at ElevenLabs, said: “You are small, but you're also part of this really giant community.”
Kerem Proulx, co-founder of Pensar AI, captured the city’s advantage in one sentence: “If [founders] are able to make it here, I think that says a lot for the longevity of the company.”
This is the story the demo series keeps telling: New York is becoming one of the most important AI hubs in the world. Not someday, but right now.
And we’re just getting started: Catch us at the next NYC AI Demos night on January 29, 2026!
The best place to build and grow an AI company? Obviously NYC.