The AI Reality Check: Mapping Strategy vs. Hype

​Join us Wednesday, May 20 in Chicago for an afternoon that separates strategy from hype with people who are building, not just bookmarking threads. Leaders from Zapier and Polaris will kickoff the event by sharing new strategies they are learning in the field and how the most successful startups are leveraging AI. From there, you will rotate through three timed breakout rounds with new peers each time: 

• ​Where AI is already earning its keep versus where you are intentionally slow, and what evidence would flip you from wait to go.

• ​What tends to break when an AI initiative looks successful early but does not stick? 

• ​Where you want humans to own critical decisions for the next 18 to 24 months, with guardrails that stay durable as models improve. 

​You will leave with clearer language for your roadmap, operator-tested patterns, and a stronger sense of what to scale, what to fix, and what to protect.

​Stick around afterwards for a short happy hour to connect with other operators and leaders in the tech ecosystem!