AgentAI: Reimagining Work — A High-Energy Exploration of Agentic AI
On April 23, the Corporate Startup Lab, a joint initiative of Carnegie Mellon University’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and the Tepper School of Business, hosted AgentAI: Reimagining Work. The event brought together nearly 300 attendees and showcased ideas on the future of agent-based artificial intelligence from academia, industry, startups, and venture capital.
As the Corporate Startup Lab (CSL) continues to lead the conversation on growth through entrepreneurship and innovation, AgentAI: Reimagining Work proved a powerful reflection of CMU’s interdisciplinary strengths and commitment to shaping the future of business through technology.
“At CSL, we believe in the power of bringing together the corporate, startup venture and academic worlds to create growth opportunities through entrepreneurship and innovation,” said Jim Jen, Director of the CSL and Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship. “The talks and conversations throughout the day were both stimulating and eye-opening; I think everyone left with greater urgency to define how AI agents will be deployed in their environments.”
The agenda was anchored by eight high-level Lightning Talks featuring leaders from Deloitte, TIAA, RBC, 412 Venture Fund, Profitmind, BlastPoint, RevealAI, and CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. These talks delivered diverse insights from the startup trenches to enterprise-scale deployments and policy discussions in academia.
Speakers included: DJ De Ray, Sara Moussawi, Rezzan A. Kose, Dr. Mark Chrystal, Sonam Jha, Bob Dimicco, David Solganik, and Alison Alvarez, as well as our breakout leaders Adam Paulisick, Hemathri Balakrishnan, Param Vir Singh, Anisha Sagi, Sriram Nagarajan, and Krishna Vadhyar.
"This event series continues to be a great mix of cross-industry leaders, start-ups, and academics,” said Jon Valenti, MBA ‘04 and a Principal at Deloitte. “Given AI’s impact on how we work with and engage customers, it’s important to bring all these perspectives together to discuss use cases, understand the pace of change, and imagine new possibilities. The level of discussion and the progress we’ve seen since our first ImpactAI event have been truly remarkable."
The event also featured keynotes from Mark Sullivan, Senior Vice President at Salesforce, and Graham Neubig, a leading AI researcher from CMU’s School of Computer Science, shared academic perspectives on the frontiers of AI agents and language models.
In-depth breakout sessions were led by Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, and Adam Paulisick, Professor of AI and Entrepreneurship, offering attendees an opportunity to engage more directly with the challenges and opportunities of Agentic AI in business settings.
The day concluded with a networking reception and Startup Expo, where seven Agent AI-based startups showcased cutting-edge applications and technologies shaping the next wave of enterprise AI.