From Tools to Teammates: The New Product Development Reality

Join CTO Forum & PMALA for a practical exploration of how leaders make real-time decisions about AI delegation, combining philosophical questions about trust with operational realities from entertainment and automotive industries.

This event weaves together the essential trust questions with implementation reality:

• Human Insight vs. AI Analysis: What happens when trusted team instincts conflict with AI recommendations?
• Trust in Practice: How do you benchmark and build confidence in AI decision-making over time?
• The Delegation Spectrum: Frameworks for determining safe vs. risky AI delegation with real guardrails
• Testing Trust: What benchmarking must happen before trusting AI with critical decisions?
• AI as Strategic Challenger: When should AI counterpoint leadership decisions with data-driven insights?
• Organizational Trust Building: Managing team dynamics when AI authority increases

Real Implementation Examples You'll Explore:

• How Carvana built trust in Sebastian AI agent (45% call reduction) while maintaining quality
• WME's approach to AI governance in creative industries - protecting human relationships while leveraging data
• Specific testing protocols before delegating high-stakes decisions to AI
• When AI recommendations challenged leadership assumptions - and what happened next
• Building "trust thresholds" and escalation protocols in practice

Panelist Line Up:

Kristen Huntley - Senior Vice President, Product and Engineering - WME | William Morris Endeavor

Dan Gill - Chief Product Officer - Carvana

Moderator:

Oded Noy - CTO - Crexi, Co-founder and chairman of CTO Forum

Oded Noy is a technology leader and board advisor to SaaS companies. Noy currently serves as the CTO of Crexi, transforming the world of commercial real estate. In his private equity work as an active senior operating partner and board member, he has participated in multiple acquisitions and exits. He is a founder and managing partner for 12 years in the early stage fund Amplify.LA. He is co-founder and chairman of the CTO Forum. He holds 7 technology patents

LA CTO Forum:The mission of the LA CTO Forum is to foster the SoCal technology ecosystem. We believe that by helping our members to be more effective CTOs, we can have a positive impact on the ecosystem. The Forum is a vibrant, private, invite-only network of software CTOs who exchange ideas, share experiences, and help each other when needed. We conduct monthly meetings, quarterly roundtables, and discuss different business and technology topics.To find more information visit: https://lactoforum.org

PMA LA is LA’s largest community of Product People, with over 3,000 members. We provide free networking and learning opportunities through monthly meetups, afterwork events, and our annual Product Conference. Our community focuses on Product Management, User Experience, and Digital Product Strategy, and tech leaders. For more information visit: www.pma.la

PARKING

• Venue will have designated areas for parking, but space might be limited.
• *The parking lot has a vehicle gate managed by the landlord that closes at 7pm. It will automatically open when driving out of the lot.

• There is some street parking available as well, just ask your guests to be mindful of the signage, as some areas have no parking after 6pm.
• Note: Specific details for parking will be sent by email one day in advance of the event due date.

Sponsorship

Special thanks to Zefr for hosting us and all of our wonderful speakers.
Special thanks to Dualboot Partners for their support in making this event possible.