After months of planning, cajoling speakers, and sketching out every detail of the event space, Techonomy 25 is finally here. The final agenda is now live—though, in the spirit of honesty, there may still be some fine-tuning as we finalize the details. That’s the nature of any good convening: it evolves right up until the morning the doors open.
This year’s theme—Human Agency Meets Machine Autonomy—is one of those phrases that looks crisp on a banner but reveals more layers the longer you sit with it. Machines are increasingly acting rather than just assisting. They’re making decisions, shaping culture, accelerating science, augmenting creativity, and redistributing expertise. The real question is: What do humans uniquely bring to the table now, and how do we design a world where that still matters?
That’s the throughline of the day, and every speaker pushes on it from a different angle.
Pablos Holman: A Shot of Unfiltered Innovation
We’re opening with someone who has spent his entire career ignoring the boundaries the rest of us quietly accept. Pablos isn’t content with AI that makes ads more efficient or optimizes logistics by a half-percent. He argues that we’ve become addicted to incrementalism—apps, dashboards, models—but we’ve lost the courage to tackle the big problems: climate change, energy, food systems, biomanufacturing, and planetary-scale infrastructure.
For a preview, listen to his recent conversation with Tim Ferriss:
Julie Samuels: Cities as Experimental Labs for AI
Julie has been doing the kind of work that reshapes entire technology ecosystems. Her session breaks down how cities—not federal agencies—may actually become the proving grounds for AI regulation, procurement, and adoption. She’s going to talk about the mechanics: how public institutions should buy AI, how oversight can work in practice, and how cities can set standards that industry actually follows. The hyperscalers may be racing to build AGI, but New York City is putting it to work today.
Alison Moore: Leadership When the Team Is Human + Machine
Alison Moore—CEO of Chief and someone who’s spent her career operating at the intersection of technology, media, and organizational culture. What I appreciate about Alison is that she doesn’t treat leadership as a motivational poster; she treats it as a design challenge. When algorithms take over entire categories of workflow, what does it mean to build a genuinely inclusive leadership architecture?
Adam Lewis: The New Pipeline From Molecule to Medicine
Every year, there’s at least one session that makes people reconsider everything they thought they understood about innovation timelines. This year, it’s Adam Lewis on AI-powered drug discovery. He’ll break down how AI models and quantum-inspired algorithms are compressing R&D cycles from years to months. Not metaphorically—literally.
Manoush Zomorodi: Staying Human in Smart Environments
Host of the TED Radio Hour, Manoush is always the voice that pulls the conversation out of abstraction and back into lived experience. Her session examines the growing tension between attention, autonomy, and technology—how constant sensing and machine “intuition” reshape our understanding of choice and presence.
Andrew Yang: Incentives, Accountability, and the Systems We Build
Andrew brings a rare combination of startup pragmatism and civic imagination. He’s talking about incentive structures—the invisible architecture that determines whether AI systems ultimately amplify human well-being or simply optimize for engagement, scale, and revenue. He’s one of the few voices willing to propose actual new models rather than simply critique old ones. And given our current situation, that matters.
Douglas Rushkoff: The Cultural Reckoning We Can’t Ignore
I’ve followed Douglas’s work for decades, and he’s consistently months—sometimes years—ahead of where the cultural conversation eventually ends up. His closing talk, Team Human Now, is precisely the grounding we need at the end of a full day. For a primer, check out Program or be Programmed–first published nearly 25 years ago and still relevant.
Wyclef Jean: Creativity as a Form of Agency
And then there’s Wyclef—a featured Techonomy speaker and our closing performer.
What people may not realize is that Wyclef has been deeply involved in technology for years, experimenting with new creative workflows, digital rights models, and ways to bridge the distance between artist and audience. He’s speaking on the role of creativity in an autonomous world—how music, storytelling, and improvisation remain deeply human domains even as machines get more capable.
Then he’ll take the stage, a much bigger stage actually, again that night for a performance at Webster Hall for our closing party. The party will be a celebration of the day’s discussions and an excellent opportunity to network and connect with other like-minded individuals in a more relaxed setting.
Why I Want You in the Room
This isn’t a conference about AI in the abstract. It’s about the choices we make now—design choices, policy choices, creative choices, scientific choices—that will shape what autonomy looks like in practice. It’s an event designed for those who are passionate about AI, technology, culture, and innovation, and who want to be part of shaping the future.
Techonomy has always been the place to have those conversations.
Next week, I want to have that conversation with you.
And yes, the “Dan399” code still knocks $350 off the ticket price. (You can also enter the ticket raffle.)
However, if you need a complimentary pass, please reach out. If the goal is to get sharp, curious people in the room, and if you have read this far, that is curious enough for me.
