Summary
AI has become an operating metric—now tracked alongside revenue, user growth, and backlog in quarterly reports. This keynote examines how engineering leadership must adapt as the industry shifts from building user-facing applications to architecting systems around autonomous agents, APIs, and real-time orchestration. With compute emerging as a supply-chain constraint, regulatory frameworks lagging, and investors prioritizing measurable adoption over technical demos, the demands on engineering leaders are changing fast. This session explores the key trends driving the AI-first transition—and what they mean for the future of technical leadership.
Speakers
Lake Dai is a globally recognized speaker on AI innovation, ethics, and governance, with a track record of advising industry leaders and institutions shaping the future of AI. She has delivered keynotes and training sessions for the UK Parliament, the State of California, MIT Sloan Management Review, UC Berkeley Law AI Institute, Singapore Wealth Management Institute, and Fortune 500 companies.
Lake is the Founder and Managing Partner of Sancus Ventures, a venture fund investing in early-stage AI software companies driving generational innovation. Backing repeat founders responsible for over $80B in prior enterprise value—including Databricks, Twitch, and Opendoor—Sancus combines deep AI expertise with a founder-first approach, delivering capital, stage-critical customers, and strategic support to generational category leaders.
She previously held pivotal roles at Apple, Alibaba, and Yahoo, where she led machine learning platforms as early as 2002. Since 2016, she has served as an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, teaching Applied AI and AI Governance. Lake is a mentor for the Google AI Accelerator, serves on the advisory board of AngelList, and was named one of the 100 Women in AI and a Top AI Boardroom Talent by BoardProspects in 2024. She also co-founded Benevolent AI Future and Shinect Accelerator, and continues to advise founders, governments, and enterprises on the responsible development and deployment of AI.
on ELC Annual 2025