Pulse NYC’s AI Week Puts Production-Grade Agentic AI Under the Microscope

AI has entered a phase where the applause for experimentation is fading faster than the budgets funding it. Companies spent the last 24 months stacking pilots, hoping velocity would translate into market position. Now the conversation has changed. Boards want accountability. Investors want durability. Operators want systems that survive regulation, compliance, distribution, and customer trust. That pressure is separating theatrical demos from infrastructure that can carry weight.

That is the backdrop for The Production Stack: Scaling Agentic AI across Finance, Film, and Enterprise, taking place May 13 in Midtown Manhattan during AI Week New York by Pulse NYC. Hosted by Jacob Navok, Pulse NYC, Ben Zarrour, and Sahar Mor of Bond AI, the event is less interested in speculative futurism and more focused on what happens after the prototype survives its first real collision with the market.

The room itself feels intentionally engineered around consequence. Finance executives navigating governance and customer trust. Creative leaders wrestling with generative production workflows and distribution economics. Enterprise operators trying to scale agentic systems without exposing brand, IP, or organizational risk. Different industries, same pressure point. Everyone is trying to answer the same uncomfortable question: what does production-grade agentic AI actually look like once the legal, financial, and operational realities arrive.

Jacob Navok, CEO and Co-Founder of Genvid, brings one of the more unusual perspectives in the market right now. Genvid spent the last decade building audience-driven interactive experiences tied to some of the most recognizable IP in gaming and entertainment, earning Emmy and Webby recognition in the process. Now the company has pushed directly into AI-native storytelling with The Seeker, positioned as the first commercially released generative AI feature film, reportedly produced for under $2K in generation credits. That number alone changes the economics conversation around media production, and people across the startup ecosystem are paying attention.

Ben Zarrour, CEO and Founder of Renaissance, arrives from the intersection of enterprise finance, venture investing, and AI infrastructure. His background includes Radiate Ventures investments tied to companies like Affirm, Klarna, SpaceX, Discord, Epic Games, Stripe, and Airbnb, alongside work on the founding investment thesis for Dubai Future District Fund. Renaissance itself is focused on AI operating systems for enterprise workflows, placing Zarrour directly inside the conversation around orchestration, scalability, and defensible operational infrastructure.

Ajay Swamy, Senior Executive Director of GenAI, AIML, and Governance at JPMorganChase and Founder of FundLens.ai, carries the institutional lens into the room. His work leading firmwide generative AI strategy and governance inside one of the world’s largest financial institutions gives immediate gravity to conversations around regulation, trust, and deployment risk. Prior experience building AI and ML solutions at AWS across financial services, media, and SaaS adds another layer of operational credibility that matters in this cycle.

Sahar Mor and Bond AI help anchor the broader connective tissue around the event, while Lowenstein Sandler LLP adds the legal and venture infrastructure layer that many AI conversations conveniently avoid until the paperwork arrives. Their Emerging Companies & Venture Capital group has helped launch hundreds of businesses and close thousands of transactions, sitting directly between capital formation, innovation, and long-term company building.

The evening moves from panel discussion into networking reception while The Seeker screens in the background like a live case study. Not promotional wallpaper. Evidence. A visible reminder that production changes the conversation. Inside the startup ecosystem, that distinction is becoming impossible to ignore.