The First 90 Days of an AI Leader

Most companies know they need an AI strategy. Far fewer know what the person actually responsible for AI should do when they walk in the door. In this session, I’ll walk through how I think about the first 90 days of leading AI inside a company: understanding what already exists, deciding where AI can create real advantage, figuring out what to build and what to buy, choosing the first bets, getting the right people around the table, and knowing what not to spend time or money on. I’ll also get into the decisions that become harder once you’re actually responsible for the outcome: how much infrastructure you need before you start building, where agents make sense and where they don’t, how to think about models and vendors, when an AI initiative should become a product, and how to get from a collection of experiments to something that matters to the business. This is for founders, executives, product and technology leaders, and people stepping into AI leadership. I’ll draw from my experience across OpenAI, Spotify, Coinbase, Stripe, and the AI companies I advise today. Bring questions. I’d rather spend part of the session getting into real situations than pretend every company needs the same 90 day plan.