TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 AI Stage lineup announced
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- TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 runs October 13–15 at Moscone Center in San Francisco, with its AI Stage presented by Google for Startups and focused on AI-driven business models, unsolved security gaps, and newly created job categories.
- Arsalan Tavakoli, Co-founder and SVP of Field Engineering at Databricks, will lead a session on what enterprise AI security actually requires in 2026, covering observability, governance, and the deployment architecture separating trusted AI systems from risky ones.
- Dean Leitersdorf (CEO of Decart) and Amit Jain (CEO of Luma AI) will discuss the shift from visual AI demos to real-time inference and physical reasoning, framing generation crossing into 'genuine intelligence.'
- Kareem Amin, Co-founder and CEO of Clay, will lead a session on GTM engineering — a role he describes as not existing two years ago but now one of tech's fastest-growing, with independent practitioners building million-dollar businesses.
- The conference expects 10,000+ startup, tech, and VC leaders across all stages plus Startup Battlefield, with a pricing window closing soon offering up to $300 in ticket savings.
Why it matters: Three of the confirmed sessions (Databricks on enterprise AI security, Decart/Luma on visual AI frontiers, Clay on GTM engineering) target operational pain points for AI founders heading into 2026 — pricing commoditized models, rebuilding security for autonomous agents, and staffing a sales function that didn't exist before. With 10,000+ attendees expected and Google for Startups as the presenting sponsor, the agenda signals which categories incumbents want founders debating right now.
