AI Keynote Speaker in New York
Helen Sterling helps leaders and teams in New York work with AI, not against it, by building the human skills, mindset and culture needed to thrive as work changes. Helen is the speaker organisations remember because she builds the session around their business and goals.
TRUSTED BY
AI Keynote Speaker for New York: Sector Depth for the City Events
Helen Sterling has built a reputation across Wall Street, Midtown and Silicon Alley as the AI keynote speaker who does understands your industry and she is the author of The Irreplaceables and winner of Best AI and Future of Work Speaker of the Year 2026. New York organisations know generic AI content when they hear it. Her structured pre-event briefing builds every session around the specific sector, regulatory environment and commercial questions the audience in the room is actually dealing with.
250+ Keynotes Delivered
Across leadership, AI, innovation and future of work events
20+ Countries
Trusted by international business audiences
Author of The Irreplaceables
Five human skills for the age of AI
2026 Award Winner
Best AI and Future of Work Speaker of the Year, DKS Speaker Awards
AN AI KEYNOTE THAT EARNS ITS PLACE IN NEW YORK
New York leadership audiences have a low tolerance for sessions that do not justify their time. They have seen the big-name speakers, the consulting firm decks and the vendor-sponsored keynotes. What they consistently say they want is a speaker who has actually thought about their sector, understands the commercial pressures their people are under and gives them something they can do with.
Helen Sterling speaks about the human side of AI from a commercial perspective. How leadership teams in financial services, professional services, technology and media make better decisions when AI is shaping the information they work with. How organisations hold onto the expertise, judgement and client relationships that remain their real competitive advantage. How leaders manage the cultural and performance side of AI adoption without losing the people who matter.
She does not demo tools, pitch platforms or tell Wall Street audiences that AI is going to be fine. She gives them a clear-eyed view of what is changing in their organisations, what it means for their people and what the best-led organisations are doing about it.
This keynote works for senior corporate audiences, financial services and professional services leadership teams, technology organisations, HR and people functions and executive conference programmes. It is built around commercial outcomes, not technology enthusiasm. Audiences leave with a framework they can apply to the specific decisions they are already dealing with.
WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE WILL LEARN
1. A clear view of what AI means for their work
Audiences leave with a grounded, jargon-free picture of how artificial intelligence is reshaping decisions, roles and expectations across their organisation. Not the hype version, and not the doom version. The version they can use.
2. How to move from AI anxiety to confident action
The keynote replaces avoidance and overwhelm with a practical way of engaging with AI. Leaders and teams learn how to experiment, evaluate and adopt without being paralysed by the pace of change.
3. The 5 skills that become more valuable as AI grows
Drawing on her book The Irreplaceables, Helen identifies the specific skills that rise in commercial value as machines do more. These five skills: Judgement, Taste, Trust, Originality, and Courage, form the framework audiences take away from the session.
4. How to lead people and AI side by side
Leaders learn how to manage the cultural and behavioural side of AI adoption: reducing resistance, building psychological safety around new tools, and helping teams find their voice in an AI-shaped workplace.
5. How to turn AI readiness into commercial performance
Audiences learn how to translate readiness into measurable results: faster decisions, better collaboration, sharper customer outcomes and stronger commercial performance.
6. How to build trust in an AI-powered organisation
The keynote covers ethics, transparency and accountability in practical terms, so leaders can ensure people inside and outside the organisation trust how AI is being used.
WHY THIS AI KEYNOTE FITS NEW YORK'S BUSINESS AND INNOVATION AUDIENCE
New York is the world’s most consequential business city, the global headquarters of financial services, media, advertising, professional services, fashion and a growing technology sector that rivals Silicon Valley in talent density and investment. The city processes more capital, hosts more Fortune 500 headquarters and influences more business decisions than any other city in the world. As artificial intelligence becomes a defining force across all of those sectors, New York’s leadership community is at the centre of some of the most commercially significant decisions about how AI is adopted, governed and integrated into working life.
What sets New York apart as a keynote audience is its pace, its commercial focus and its expectation of quality. Corporate audiences in New York have been exposed to a great deal of AI content, from board-level briefings and consulting-led strategy programmes to vendor presentations and media coverage. They tend to be demanding, commercially oriented and quick to disengage from content that does not earn its place in the room. They want substance, not spectacle, and they want to leave with something they can use.
That makes New York an excellent fit for Helen’s work. Her keynotes are built for commercially focused, sophisticated audiences who want both the strategic picture and the human implications of AI. She has spoken extensively across the sectors that define the New York economy and her sectoral knowledge of the US market is genuinely deep.
The keynote lands well across all of New York’s major sectors. Financial services teams on Wall Street and Midtown use it to think through AI in risk, compliance, client relationships and the workforce implications of automation. Media and advertising organisations use it to navigate generative AI’s impact on creative work and intellectual property. Professional services firms use it to address the specific AI leadership challenges of advisory businesses. Technology, healthcare, retail and consumer goods organisations all bring the keynote in for the same reason: the human and cultural side of AI adoption has not kept pace with the technology.
SECTORS HELEN STERLING WORKS WITH IN NEW YORK
Financial services: Wall Street and Midtown Manhattan
New York is the world’s leading financial centre, home to the global headquarters of JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, BlackRock and hundreds of hedge funds, asset managers, private equity firms and investment banks. Wall Street and Midtown Manhattan together employ more than 350,000 people in financial services. AI is reshaping algorithmic trading, credit assessment, fraud detection, wealth management, regulatory compliance and client advisory at a pace that is generating significant leadership and workforce challenges. JPMorgan Chase employed more than 2,000 AI specialists in 2025 and reported deploying AI tools across 200 distinct use cases. Goldman Sachs has publicly committed to AI-augmented coding, research and client communication workflows. The regulatory environment, shaped by the SEC, FINRA and the Federal Reserve, means that New York financial services leaders are navigating AI adoption in one of the world’s most scrutinised regulatory environments. Helen’s keynotes for financial services audiences address the specific tension between algorithmic decision-making and human accountability in regulated environments. For more on Helen’s work in this sector, see her AI in financial services keynote page.
Media, advertising and entertainment
New York is the global capital of media, advertising and entertainment, home to the headquarters of News Corp, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, The New York Times, Conde Nast, Hearst, WPP Americas, Publicis North America, Omnicom and IPG. Generative AI is disrupting content creation, advertising production, data journalism, licensing frameworks and the value placed on human creative skill across every one of these organisations. Helen’s The Irreplaceables framework, which names Judgement, Taste, Trust, Originality and Courage as the skills that rise in value as AI handles more, provides media and creative leadership audiences with a rigorous case for human creative value that does not dismiss AI’s genuine capabilities.
Professional services: consulting, law and accounting
New York is the global headquarters city for the most significant professional services organisations in the world. McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, EY, Accenture and Oliver Wyman all have their primary US leadership in New York. The US legal market’s most significant firms, including Sullivan and Cromwell, Cravath Swaine and Moore, Davis Polk and Skadden, are headquartered in the city. These organisations face the most commercially acute version of the AI leadership challenge. They are simultaneously advising clients on AI strategy and managing the implications of AI for their own workforce, advice quality and professional liability. Helen’s Human Edge and Trust in AI keynotes are the most frequently requested formats from professional services audiences in New York.
Technology: Silicon Alley and the New York tech ecosystem
New York has established itself as the second largest technology hub in the United States, home to the New York headquarters of Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta and a dense cluster of technology companies including Spotify, Etsy and a growing wave of AI-native companies. Silicon Alley, the corridor running through Midtown and Lower Manhattan, has become home to thousands of technology companies working across fintech, adtech, healthtech, proptech and enterprise software. New York’s technology leaders must communicate across finance, media, law, healthcare, retail and government audiences simultaneously, giving Helen’s Human Edge keynote particular resonance in the New York technology community.
Healthcare and life sciences
New York City is one of the world’s most significant healthcare and life sciences markets, home to the headquarters of Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Health System, NYU Langone Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center. AI is being deployed across drug discovery, clinical decision support, revenue cycle management, patient engagement and hospital operations. The challenge for New York’s healthcare leadership is integrating AI into cultures built on patient safety, evidence-based medicine and regulatory accountability in one of the world’s most complex healthcare systems. Helen’s Trust in AI keynote addresses this directly, and her work with healthcare and pharmaceutical leadership teams is supported by a dedicated sector page.
Retail, fashion and consumer goods
New York is the headquarters city for some of the world’s most significant retail, fashion and consumer goods organisations, including Ralph Lauren, PVH Corp, Tapestry, Estee Lauder, Colgate-Palmolive and the US headquarters of dozens of major global consumer brands. The city’s retail and fashion sector is navigating AI across trend forecasting, supply chain optimisation, pricing, customer personalisation, digital commerce and creative development. The challenge for retail and fashion leadership is maintaining the brand identity, creative distinction and human judgement that define great retail while deploying AI systems at the scale and speed that competitive pressure demands.
KEYNOTE TOPICS
KEYNOTE THEMES AVAILABLE FOR NEW YORK EVENTS
Helen delivers four core keynotes across global markets, however, custom keynotes can also be built for specific audiences or themes on request.
1
This keynote helps leaders and teams move from reaction to readiness. It looks at what AI is genuinely changing across the organisation, where the most important leverage points sit, and how to build the mindset and capability to convert disruption into competitive advantage. Audiences leave with a practical view of where they are on the readiness curve, what they need to do and what to focus on next.
Why This Matters in New York:
New York’s organisations operate under intense commercial pressure and at global scale. AI readiness helps leaders build capability and cultural confidence at pace, so teams can convert disruption into competitive advantage rather than being paralysed by the pace of change.
2
This is Helen’s signature keynote on the human side of AI leadership. It explores why some teams become more creative, adaptive and effective with AI while others feel overwhelmed or left behind. Leaders leave with a clear language for talking about AI with their people, a framework for managing the cultural side of adoption, and a sharper sense of what their own role looks like in an AI-shaped organisation.
Why This Matters in New York:
New York values performance, collaboration and human judgement in high-stakes environments. This keynote helps leaders preserve and develop those qualities while guiding their teams through the transitions that AI adoption brings.
3
This keynote is built for organisations that have moved past initial AI experimentation and now have to redesign the way work actually gets done. Helen unpacks how skills, roles, culture and performance shift in an AI-powered workplace, and what leaders need to do to keep the human core of the organisation strong as the tools around it evolve.
Why This Matters in New York:
New York’s industries span every sector at world-class scale and commercial intensity. This keynote helps leaders understand how to support high-performing teams as they adapt to new tools, new roles and new expectations in an AI-shaped workplace.
4
This keynote tackles the ethical, cultural and practical questions that determine whether AI initiatives earn lasting trust inside and outside the organisation. Helen helps leaders think through transparency, accountability, fairness and communication, and gives them a framework for leading AI use that customers, regulators and their own people can stand behind.
Why This Matters in New York:
New York’s regulatory environment, its global client base and its role at the centre of the world’s financial and professional services systems make responsible AI adoption essential. This keynote helps leaders build and maintain trust as they introduce intelligent technology at scale.
IDEAL FOR NEW YORK CONFERENCES, LEADERSHIP EVENTS AND CORPORATE MEETINGS
Every keynote is tailored to the audience. Helen runs a structured pre-event process to understand the sector, the strategic context, the audience makeup and the outcomes the organiser is looking for. The session is then built around that, so the room feels spoken to rather than spoken at.
Helen speaks at a wide range of New York events, including:
- Leadership and executive conferences
- AI and future of work summits
- Innovation and transformation events
- Sales kick-offs and commercial meetings
- HR, people and learning conferences
- Senior leadership offsites and strategy retreats
- Association and industry conferences
- Client and partner events
QUICK REFERENCE AND FORMATS
Quick reference for event organisers
Best suited for: leadership conferences, future of work and AI events, innovation and transformation summits, executive offsites, sales kick-offs, HR and people conferences, association events and senior internal meetings.
Core themes: AI readiness, human skills, leadership in the AI era, organisational culture, decision-making, trust and responsible AI.
Audience level: non-technical, business, leadership and mixed corporate audiences. Senior leaders through to wider employee populations.
Languages: English.
Typical lead time: 8 to 16 weeks. Shorter notice can sometimes be accommodated for the right event.
Speaker formats
Keynote: Best for conferences, main-stage sessions, leadership events. 45 to 60 minutes
Conference Talks: Best for multi-speaker programmes, partner events. 20 to 30 minutes
Fireside Chat: Best for intimate executive audiences. 30 to 45 minutes
Executive workshop: Best for Leadership teams, strategy sessions. 90 minutes to half a day
Panel: Best for industry panels, summits. Event-dependent
Virtual delivery: Best for global teams, hybrid events. Flexible
Every booking includes a pre-event discovery call, content tailoring to the audience and event objectives, an audio-visual requirements document for the production team, and post-event materials where relevant.
NEW YORK VENUES, CONFERENCES AND BUSINESS CONTEXT
New York events are often hosted in venues such as the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the New York Hilton Midtown, the Marriott Marquis Times Square, Cipriani Wall Street, Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers, the Rainbow Room, the Metropolitan Club and a range of landmark hotels and private event spaces across Midtown, Lower Manhattan, Tribeca and the Financial District. For organisers using these or similar settings, the keynote can be scaled for main-stage conferences, executive meetings, client events and internal leadership sessions.
Major recurring conferences and events that bring AI, leadership and future of work onto the New York agenda include the Bloomberg Technology Summit, the Wall Street Journal CEO Council, the Fortune Global Forum, the Advertising Week conference, the HR Tech Conference and a year-round calendar of sector-specific leadership forums across financial services, media, technology and professional services.
New York’s extensive subway, taxi and rideshare network makes it logistically manageable for delegates arriving from all three airports, and most major conference venues are within a short distance of Midtown hotel clusters.
BOOKING HELEN STERLING FOR NEW YORK: LOGISTICS
Getting to New York
New York is served by three major airports. JFK serves the majority of transatlantic and long-haul traffic and is approximately twenty-five kilometres from Midtown Manhattan. Newark Liberty in New Jersey connects to Penn Station by NJ Transit in approximately thirty minutes. LaGuardia serves domestic and some Canadian routes and is approximately fifteen kilometres from Midtown. For speakers travelling from the UK, direct overnight flights from London Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester arrive at JFK and Newark with journey times of approximately seven hours. International travel and accommodation are factored into the booking proposal for New York engagements.
What to expect from a New York audience
New York corporate culture is fast-paced, commercially focused and direct. Audiences expect a speaker who earns their attention from the first minute, who delivers substantive content without padding and who connects ideas directly to commercial outcomes. New Yorkers are comfortable with challenge, quick to spot content that has been recycled from other events and appreciative of genuine expertise and sector-specific knowledge. Helen’s structured pre-event briefing process, which shapes the keynote around the specific audience, sector and strategic context, is designed for exactly this kind of sophisticated room.
North American and transatlantic city combinations
New York pairs naturally with Nashville, Chicago, Boston and Washington DC for multi-city North American programmes. Chicago is approximately two hours twenty minutes by air. Boston is approximately one hour by air or three hours forty minutes by Amtrak. Washington DC is approximately one hour by air or two hours forty-five minutes by Amtrak. For transatlantic programmes, New York connects directly with London, Amsterdam and Paris. Helen’s team can work through combined US and European programme logistics on request.
Booking lead times
For the Javits Center, the New York Hilton Midtown, the Marriott Marquis and comparable large New York venues, ten to sixteen weeks is a typical lead time. For private corporate leadership sessions, executive offsites and internal events, shorter windows are often workable. Transatlantic bookings benefit from a little more planning time to manage travel logistics comfortably. Send the event date, venue and audience size via the contact form to check availability.
YOUR NEW YORK AI SPEAKER
WHY EVENT ORGANISERS CHOOSE HELEN STERLING
New York event organisers book Helen because she does not waste the room’s time. Her keynotes are designed for business audiences who can spot generic content in the first five minutes, and who want a speaker who connects artificial intelligence to leadership, decision-making, behaviour and commercial performance with real sector knowledge behind it.
The credentials hold up. She is the author of The Irreplaceables: The Five Human Skills That Make You Indispensable in the Age of AI and was named Best AI and Future of Work Speaker of the Year 2026 at the DKS Speaker Awards. She has spoken at leadership conferences, corporate events and international summits, and works with organisations across financial services, professional services, media and technology.
She also does her homework. Every booking starts with a structured briefing process so the keynote arrives already shaped around the audience, the sector and the specific commercial and regulatory context. New York organisers do not have to choose between a speaker who is great and one who is prepared. Helen is both.
New York and American Events
Professionals Reached at American Events
Years working in the USA
HOW TO BOOK HELEN FOR YOUR NEW YORK EVENT
Send an enquiry with your event details: date, venue, audience profile, format, and any context that would help us understand what you are trying to achieve.
Discovery call. We arrange a short call with you to talk through the event, the audience and the outcomes you want from the session.
Tailored proposal. Within a few working days, you receive a proposal covering the keynote concept, format, fee and logistics.
Confirmation and briefing. Once the booking is confirmed, we run a structured content briefing with you and your team to shape the final session.
Delivery and follow-up. Helen delivers the keynote on the day, with full production support, and follows up afterwards with any agreed materials.
FEES AND AVAILABILITY
Speaker fees depend on the format, audience size, level of customisation, location and travel involved. International travel, accommodation and any extended customisation are billed separately and confirmed in the proposal.
To request availability and a tailored quote for a New York event, share the event date, venue, audience profile, format and any context that would help shape the right proposal.
NEW YORK TESTIMONIALS
Feedback From New York Organisations
“Helen delivered a keynote that combined strategic insight with a deep understanding of human behaviour. Our teams in New York left with clarity and a stronger sense of direction.”
Julia Feldman
Senior Managing Director
“Helen’s message resonated across a diverse audience. She helped our leaders understand the human side of AI adoption and provided a practical foundation for moving forward.”
Marcus Stein
Executive Vice President
Frequently Asked Questions
Helen Sterling is a leading AI keynote speaker for New York financial services, corporate leadership and technology events, with a track record delivering to the demanding Wall Street and Midtown audiences that set the highest commercial standard for keynote content in the world. She is the author of The Irreplaceables and was named Best AI and Future of Work Speaker of the Year 2026 at the DKS Speaker Awards.
New York audiences have seen the vendor decks, the consulting frameworks and the conference-circuit AI speakers. What consistently lands is specificity: genuine sector knowledge, content that has clearly been built for the organisation in the room, and practical frameworks rather than inspiration alone. Helen’s structured pre-event briefing delivers exactly this: every session is built around the specific audience, sector and event objectives rather than adapted from a standard deck.
The SEC’s evolving AI guidance, FINRA’s rules on algorithmic supervisory obligations, Federal Reserve model risk frameworks and state-level financial regulatory requirements all shape how New York’s financial institutions must approach AI adoption. For Wall Street and Midtown financial services audiences, the regulatory context is not a background issue: it is central to every AI investment and deployment decision.
Helen’s keynotes address this landscape directly. She helps leaders understand how to build AI governance frameworks that satisfy SEC, FINRA and Fed expectations while maintaining the commercial agility and client trust that competitive advantage in New York’s markets demands. For legal and professional services firms, she covers how AI affects professional liability, advice quality standards and the expectations of bar associations and audit standards bodies.
Helen speaks across the full range of New York’s conference calendar. At the large-conference end, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center hosts many of the city’s most significant technology and industry events. The Bloomberg Technology Summit, the Wall Street Journal CEO Council and the Financial Times Global Banking Summit are among the high-profile formats where Helen’s content fits naturally.
For corporate leadership events, Helen speaks at Midtown and Lower Manhattan venues, financial district conference facilities and the executive education programmes of New York’s major institutions. Private leadership sessions, board advisory discussions and executive team workshops are all formats she delivers regularly in New York.
Yes. Every booking includes a structured pre-event briefing that shapes the content around the specific audience and sector. New York’s media and advertising community is navigating one of the most significant AI disruptions of any sector: generative AI is reshaping content production, creative strategy, advertising targeting and the economics of publishing simultaneously.
Helen’s content for New York media and creative audiences focuses on where human creative and editorial judgement holds its commercial value, how organisations define and maintain quality standards as AI handles more of the production work, and how creative leaders manage the cultural and talent implications of the transition. For technology organisations in Silicon Alley, the content addresses the leadership paradox of building AI for the world while managing the disruption inside the organisation.
Yes. Helen travels to New York regularly for in-person events. Transatlantic travel, accommodation and any extended logistics are confirmed in the proposal and factored into the overall fee structure for the booking.
For New York organisations that want in-person delivery for their New York leadership alongside virtual delivery for teams in London, Singapore, Dubai or other locations, Helen’s team is experienced at coordinating combined programmes across multiple formats and time zones. An initial availability enquiry will always be responded to within 24 hours.
Speaker fees for Helen Sterling depend on the format, audience size, level of customisation and logistics. For New York bookings, international travel and accommodation are factored into the proposal. Helen’s team provides a full cost breakdown including all expenses as part of the initial proposal.
Standard formats include a 45 to 60 minute keynote, shorter conference talks, fireside chats, executive workshops and virtual delivery. To request a tailored quote, share the event date, venue, audience profile and format through the contact page.
New York corporate audiences tend to be direct, commercially focused and quick to identify content that is not built for them. What works in this environment is specificity: specific sector knowledge, specific examples, specific implications for the organisation in the room. Generic AI content, however well delivered, tends to get filtered out quickly.
Helen’s structured pre-event briefing is the mechanism that builds this specificity. The briefing identifies the sector context, the strategic challenges the audience is navigating and the specific questions they need answered. The keynote is then built around those inputs rather than around a standard framework that is the same for every audience.
For major New York conferences at the Javits Center and similar large venues, confirmed speakers are typically booked four to six months in advance. For corporate leadership events, executive offsites and private sessions, shorter lead times of six to ten weeks are more common.
For transatlantic bookings, earlier is always better to allow time for travel logistics and the pre-event briefing process. Helen’s team will always confirm availability within 24 hours of an enquiry.
Helen Sterling’s standard keynote runs 45 to 60 minutes. Shorter formats include 20 to 30 minute conference talks and 30 to 45 minute fireside chats. For leadership teams, 90-minute to half-day executive workshops are available for deeper strategic engagement.
The format is confirmed during the pre-event briefing based on event objectives, audience size and the overall programme.
Send an enquiry through the contact page or email Helen’s team with the event date, venue, audience profile and format. Helen’s team will arrange a short discovery call, then follow up with a tailored proposal covering the keynote concept, fee, travel logistics and timing.
To explore Helen’s full keynote range first, see the keynotes overview page or for workshop sessions find out more on her workshops page.
BOOK HELEN STERLING FOR YOUR NEW YORK EVENT
Planning an AI keynote for a New York leadership conference, a Wall Street forum or a corporate event at the Javits Center or a Midtown venue? Use the form below to share the event details and Helen’s team will come back with availability, logistics and a proposal built around your audience.