Tech:NYC Digest: September 5

Tech:NYC Digest: September 5

September 05, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Welcome back (and hope you’re staying cool)! In today’s digest, the push to make jobs accessible to asylum seekers, adding student loans back into your monthly budget, and our roundup on the red-hot market for AI talent.

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  • A group of 100+ business leaders in NYC are calling on the Biden administration to provide the city with more federal assistance on the migrant crisis, including expedited efforts to grant work authorizations to asylum seekers settling here. (Gothamist)

  • A new law requiring landlords to register with the city in order to maintain their short-term rental listings takes effect tomorrow. (New York Times)

  • Interest has resumed accruing on federal student loans as of Sept. 1, and payments are set to resume on Oct. 1 following the expiration of the pandemic moratorium. Here’s more details on what to know.

  • Happy back-to-school week! For the parents making final preparations, here’s what Chancellor David Banks says to expect.

In other reading:

  • Finding the soul of AI on a NYC rooftop at sunset (VentureBeat)

  • This Brooklyn pizza crawl proves the superiority of the New York slice (Washington Post)

  • The city’s most exciting new fine dining spot is in a subway station (Crain’s New York)

If you’re worried about AI replacing your job, maybe …. don't be! A wave of new research we’ve compiled over the last week sheds more light on how workplaces are thinning about AI adoption.

What’s new: Research from Upwork found companies plan to hire more as a result of generative AI.

  • Another study by McKinsey found that, in the first half of 2023, demand is currently outpacing supply when it comes to data science and natural language processing skills. (Axios)

  • Job postings mentioning generative AI skills have grown the fastest — yet, the study found skills in greatest demand have less than half as many qualified people per job as the global average.

The talent crunch will likely only get more competitive: The need for workers with AI expertise — in tech and many other sectors — is pushing salaries sky-high.

  • But, as Axios notes, the demand for non-technical skills will also change as AI transforms the workflows we’re used to. A recent Microsoft study found that while 49% of people are worried about job displacement, a significantly higher percentage — 70% — said they would delegate as much work as possible to AI to streamline their workloads.

By the way: Nearly 400 open roles currently listed on the Tech:NYC Jobs Board are seeking AI-specific talent. 

In other reading:

  • How Zoom’s new assistant is bringing more AI to your meetings (Axios)

  • The Office Mandates Pitting Spouse Against Spouse (Bloomberg)

  • 3 successful founders on the aha moment that led to their career pivot (Fast Company)

  • Aditude, a NYC-based ad operations technology solution for online publishers, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Volition Capital led the round.

  • FirstMate, a Brooklyn-based platform that lets NFT creators build digital storefronts, raised $3.75m in seed funding. Dragonfly led the round and was joined by Coinbase Ventures and NextView Ventures.

  • Geek Ventures, a NYC-based firm focused on immigrant founders, raised $23 million for its debut fund.

  • Harmonya, a NYC-based provider of product data analytics for CPG brands, raised $20m in Series A funding. Bright Pixel Capital led the round and was joined by Team8, J Ventures, Silicon Road Ventures, Allen & Co., LiveRamp Ventures, and Susa Ventures.

  • September 12: In-person: Entrepreneurs Roundtable, with Eniac Ventures co-founder and general partner Hadley Harris. Hosted by ERA. Register here.

  • September 13: In-person: The Founder’s Guide to Product Market Fit, with Innovatemap principal Katie Lukes. Hosted by Innovatemap and Industrious. Register here.

  • September 20: In-person: Fundraising in Today’s Market When You Don’t Fit the Traditional Mold, with New Age Capital managing partner Ivan Alo, One Way Ventures partner Lex Zhao, Vesey Ventures founding partner Julia Huang, and Zeal Capital Partners investor Evelysse Vargas. Hosted by FirstGen and Free Agency. Register here.

  • September 21: In-person: New Climate Futures, with Revel CEO Frank Reig, Brooklyn Navy Yard CEO Lindsay Greene, Activate co-founder Matt Price, and more. Hosted by Newlab. Register here.

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