Hundreds of innovators gathered at Nokia Bell Labs for the first-ever OverdriveAI Summit, hosted by TechUnited:NJ. From thought-provoking panels to hands-on demos, one message resonated across every conversation:
AI isn’t a someday conversation – it’s shaping how we work and live today.
As TechUnited CEO Aaron Price put it:
“When it comes to AI, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Here are the ideas and insights that defined the day – and what they tell us about where AI is headed next.
The Art in Artificial: Why Creatives Should Lean In
PJ Pereira, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Silverside AI, opened the Summit with a talk that set the tone for the day – urging creatives to see AI not as a replacement, but as a collaborator.
Pereira shared how artists and storytellers can use AI to accelerate ideation, test creative directions, and visualize concepts faster than ever before. Used with intention and transparency, he said, AI can expand imagination without diluting originality.
His takeaway: the tools may be new, but the essence of creativity – human insight, emotion, and storytelling – remains the same.
🎥 Watch: The Art in Artificial — Why Creatives Should Lean In
AI Is Moving from Curiosity to Commitment
Following Pereira’s keynote, Aaron Price, CEO, TechUnited:NJ, and Thierry Klein, President of Bell Labs Solutions Research, explored how AI is reshaping the physical world – from energy systems to global networks.
Klein shared how Bell Labs is building infrastructure that enables AI to process data closer to where it’s created, powering faster, smarter, and more efficient systems. Price emphasized that this kind of progress requires collaboration between research, industry, and government – all working together to move from experimentation to real-world deployment.
Their conversation captured the moment perfectly: AI has graduated from theory to practice, and the challenge now is building what comes next.
🎥 Watch: Frontier AI — Networks, the Physical World, and What’s Ahead
The New Moat Is Speed — Not Scale
Moderated by Mark Yackanich, Partner, BetterFuture Labs, this session featured Mike Wilner, Go-To-Market, Startups, OpenAI, discussing how startups can outlearn the giants by moving faster and experimenting fearlessly.
“There’s a widening gap between what models can do and what organizations are actually doing with them,” Wilner said. “The companies that close that gap fastest will win.”
Yackanich and Wilner explored how founders can iterate quickly, take calculated risks, and treat progress as a series of experiments. Success, they agreed, isn’t about being the biggest player in the room – it’s about being the one that learns the fastest.
🎥 Watch: Outlearn the Giants — Differentiating in the OpenAI Era
From Pilots to Production: How Enterprises Are Making AI Work
In one of the day’s most practical sessions, Mano Mannoochahr, Verizon’s Chief Data, Analytics & AI Officer, described how Verizon has integrated AI throughout its operations – from network reliability to customer experience.
Verizon now runs hundreds of models in production, making AI part of everyday decision-making. Mannoochahr emphasized that the key to success isn’t just deploying models, but aligning teams around outcomes and ethics.
His message to enterprise leaders: progress happens when technology and empathy evolve together.
🎥 Watch: Work Reimagined — The Next Era of Enterprise Intelligence
The Future of Intelligence Is Collaborative
Justin Trugman, Co-Founder and Head of Technology at BetterFuture Labs, challenged the audience to rethink how intelligence itself works in an AI-driven world.
He described a future powered by multi-agent systems – networks of AIs that collaborate, reason, and solve problems collectively. These systems mimic the way human teams operate, opening new possibilities for automation and creativity.
“The future isn’t one superintelligent model,” Trugman said. “It’s millions of AIs working together.”
How a 37-Year-Old Company Became a $4B AI Powerhouse
Dan Van Tran, CTO of Collectors, shared one of the day’s most surprising success stories – how a 37-year-old collectibles company reinvented itself through AI.
By automating grading, authentication, and pricing, Collectors unlocked new efficiencies and created more than $3 billion in additional value in just over a year.
“Two percent of our code is now AI-written,” Van Tran noted. “And that efficiency compounds across everything we do.”
It was a powerful reminder that transformation isn’t limited to startups – established companies can move fast, too.
Collaboration Is New Jersey’s Superpower
Moderated by Frances Simowitz, CEO, Quay Acceleration, this panel featured Corey Sanders, Senior Vice President, CoreWeave; Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer, NJEDA; and Liat Krawczyk, Executive Director, NJ AI Hub – showing how New Jersey’s unique ecosystem is fueling responsible AI innovation.
From CoreWeave’s GPU infrastructure to NJEDA’s investment in research and startups, the discussion revealed how collaboration, proximity, and shared purpose are shaping the region’s growing AI identity.
As one panelist put it, “It’s not just about GPUs. It’s about people building together.”
🎥 Watch: Underrated — Why New Jersey Might Just Win the AI Race
AI Will Take Tasks — Not Jobs
Moderated by John Lynn, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Quay Acceleration, this closing panel brought together Tracy Quitasol, AI-LLM Consultant, Perplexity; Ismael Faro, Vice President of Quantum + AI, IBM; and Barclay Blair, Senior Managing Director, AI, DLA Piper, to explore how automation is reshaping knowledge work.
The panelists agreed that AI will automate tasks, but not replace the creativity, empathy, and context that define human intelligence.
“Don’t fear the tools,” Quitasol said. “Play with them. The fastest learners will lead.”
🎥 Watch: No One’s Safe — What Happens When Knowledge Work Gets Commoditized
Closing Thought
Across every session, one message stood out: AI’s future belongs to those who participate.
Whether you’re a founder, researcher, or enterprise leader, the opportunity isn’t someday – it’s right now.
🎬 Watch all sessions → youtube.com/@WeAreTechUnited