Alex Lieberman moved from Morning Brew toward AI because he wanted to work near the frontier for the next 20 years.
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Through Tenex, he works with mid-market and enterprise companies on using AI in their businesses.
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The summit will cover AI labs, startups, academics, consultants, and large companies, with both a look back and a practical view of what comes next.
Summary
Alex Lieberman opens the AI Engineer Code Summit 2025 by welcoming attendees from cities and countries around the world. He explains why he is hosting an AI engineering event despite coming from a newsletter background. After leaving Morning Brew, he decided to spend the next 20 years close to the frontier of AI, which led him to co-found Tenex, an AI transformation firm that helps mid-market and enterprise companies learn to use AI in their businesses. Lieberman says he now spends most of his time with AI engineers and is the only non-technical person at the company. He frames the summit as both a review of the industry's progress and a practical view of where companies are going. He then introduces the range of speakers and thanks the event sponsors before handing the day over to the program.
Lieberman begins by asking attendees where they came from. New York, San Francisco, and Austin are represented, but the room also includes people who traveled from Ecuador and New Zealand. The exchange gives the opening a direct sense of the event's international audience before the formal welcome. Lieberman jokes that New Zealand will be hard to beat as the furthest journey. He then welcomes everyone to the AI Engineer Code Summit 2025 and introduces himself as the day's master of ceremonies.
Lieberman chose AI as the field where he wants to spend the next 20 years
Lieberman addresses the obvious question about why someone known for newsletters is hosting an AI engineering conference. After leaving Morning Brew, he asked himself which space would let him build something consequential while spending time with some of the smartest people he had met. He says the answer was to get as close to the frontier of AI as possible. That decision moved his work away from his previous media role and toward the companies and engineers building with AI.
Tenex helps established companies learn how to use AI
Lieberman says he co-founded Tenex, an AI transformation firm that works with mid-market and enterprise companies. Its work focuses on helping those businesses learn how to use AI inside their operations. He says he now spends basically all of his time with AI engineers. He is also the only non-technical person in the business, a position he says he would not change. His description puts the firm between AI engineering practice and the needs of established companies.
The summit combines a review of the industry with practical company-level discussion
Lieberman describes the day as both a look back at where the AI industry has been and a tactical view of where companies are headed. He says the program will address companies of different sizes and ages. The framing is practical rather than limited to research announcements. It connects the recent progress of the field with how AI will be used in businesses, which fits his experience working with enterprise and mid-market organizations.
The program brings together labs, startups, researchers, consultants, and large brands
The speaker previews a broad set of contributors. Attendees will hear from AI labs, unicorn AI startups, academics, management consultants, and Fortune 50 brands. Lieberman presents these groups as different perspectives on the same event theme, from frontier research and startup building to academic work, consulting, and deployment inside large companies. Before those sessions begin, he pauses to thank Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and the other sponsors that made the day possible.
"I would think of today as both a look back on where we've been as well as a tactical view of where we are headed in companies small and large, old and new."01:47
Who should watch
You are attending or considering AI Engineer Code Summit 2025 and want a short explanation of the event's scope before choosing sessions.
You work on AI adoption inside a mid-market or enterprise company and want context on why Lieberman moved into AI transformation work.
You want an opening welcome rather than a technical presentation, with a preview of the kinds of speakers and organizations represented at the summit.
