AI may be everywhere, but moving it from experimentation to real-world deployment remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges. On June 10, founders participating in NYU’s AI Innovation Accelerator Program (AIIA) spent the day sharpening their ability to communicate that challenge before joining enterprise leaders, investors, and members of the NYC innovation community for an evening conversation on what it takes to bring AI products to market at scale.
Hosted by the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and NYU’s AI Innovation Accelerator, the day combined founder education, investor feedback, startup pitches, and a panel discussion featuring leaders from Google, Harvey, and Okta.
Building a Better Pitch
The day began with a pitching workshop led by Cynthia Franklin, Executive Director of the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship. Working with founders from the AIIA cohort, Franklin focused on one of the most important skills for early-stage entrepreneurs: communicating both the problem and the opportunity in a way that resonates with investors, customers, and partners.
The session centered on the fundamentals of an effective elevator pitch. Founders were encouraged to build empathy by clearly defining who they serve, why the problem matters, and why they are uniquely positioned to solve it. Equally important was building belief—demonstrating traction, providing compelling proof points, and explaining why the market opportunity exists today.
Franklin also shared insights into how investors evaluate pitches, contrasting the signals investors actively look for with common talking points that often fail to create conviction. Beyond content, the workshop covered public speaking techniques and presentation best practices designed to help founders communicate with confidence and clarity.
Following the session, founders split into breakout groups where they delivered one-minute pitches to experienced investors and entrepreneurial leaders. After receiving two minutes of direct feedback, each team had the opportunity to refine their message and pitch again, applying what they had learned in real time before preparing for the evening showcase.
From Pilot to Production
That evening, the conversation shifted from pitching startups to deploying technology. Moderated by Cynthia Franklin, From Pilot to Production: How AI Actually Gets Deployed brought together Daryl Martis, Senior Director of Product at Okta; Emma Ferguson, Legal Engineer at Harvey; and Ryan Fedyk, Senior Design Manager at Google, for a discussion on the realities of bringing AI products from experimentation into production environments.
While AI continues to generate excitement across industries, the panelists emphasized that successful deployment requires far more than technical capability alone. Product strategy, user trust, organizational readiness, legal considerations, and thoughtful design all play critical roles in determining whether AI initiatives create lasting value.
Drawing on experiences across enterprise software, legal technology, and product design, the panelists explored the challenges organizations face when integrating AI into existing workflows and highlighted the importance of solving real customer problems rather than adopting AI for its own sake.
AIIA Startups Take the Stage
Following the panel discussion, founders from the AI Innovation Accelerator Program took the stage for a series of rapid-fire pitches, introducing their ventures to attendees from across New York’s entrepreneurial and technology communities.
The presentations showcased a wide range of applications for artificial intelligence and offered founders an opportunity to apply lessons from the day’s workshop and coaching sessions in front of a live audience. Together, the pitches highlighted both the diversity of innovation emerging from the cohort and the growing role AI startups are playing in shaping the future of industry.
Tips & takeaways
- Strong startup pitches build both empathy and belief, helping audiences understand not only the problem being solved but why the solution matters now.
- User trust and adoption remain critical factors in successful AI deployment.
- Direct feedback and iteration are among the most valuable tools founders can use to strengthen their message.
- The future of AI innovation will be shaped by founders who can both build transformative technology and clearly communicate its value.
