The AI Effect: How Enterprises Are Actually Winning - #NYTechWeek - Panel Discussion

Earlier in June, Kizen brought together founders, builders, and innovators at our NYC AI Innovation Hub as part of New York TECH WEEK by a16z, and the conversations did not disappoint!Our Head of FDE Maya M Washington led a fireside chat with Adrian Trzaskus, COO of Bluprintx and founder of AI Exec Board, and Kizen co-founder and CEO John Winner, diving into what it actually takes to drive measurable enterprise AI impact beyond the hype.

📌 On AI adoption, Adrian said: "Achieving 5–10x faster outcomes isn't the hard part. The real challenge is continuous integration — you have to keep going and connect AI to everything else in your organization. If anyone tells you they have AI all figured out, they're not being honest. It's evolving too fast. The real work is driving adoption — meeting people where they are and enabling value quickly."

📌 On leadership and nurturing a curious experimentation culture, John said: "We're in the early innings of AI. The most important thing leaders can do right now is help their teams understand that AI is here to help them, not replace them. It's only natural to be skeptical. But whether you're an early adopter or not, one thing is true: curiosity about AI is an opportunity to build real advantage for yourself and your organization right now. The most successful organizations embrace failure. Set aside an experimentation budget, create a safe environment to test, and whatever you do — don't experiment in production."

📌 On the topic of implementation, they both shared learnings from their founder journeys: "Think carefully about where you want to start with AI and which teams you bring along first. AI isn't just a tool upgrade — it's an existential evolution for how organizations operate." – said Adrian."The industry spends too much time framing AI as a cost-savings play. The better question we should be asking is: what does AI help us achieve? That shift in thinking is where the real value starts." — John concluded

🎤 Maya closed the fireside chat by encouraging everyone in the room to turn to someone they hadn't met yet to start a conversation, a fitting end to a conversation built around the idea that the future of enterprise AI gets built in community.Thank you to everyone who joined us. Gatherings like these are how we keep innovating and building together!