Amit Shah
Founder and CEO of InstaLILY, the autonomous AI platform for the physical economy. Over 20 years of experience building and scaling technology-driven businesses, from early-stage innovation to public-company leadership.
Amit has spent more than two decades building and scaling technology-driven businesses, from early-stage innovation to public-company leadership. Before founding InstaLILY, he served as President of 1-800-Flowers.com, where he helped grow the company to more than $2 billion in revenue, after beginning his career at McKinsey & Company.
He currently serves on the board of Groupon, where he is the inaugural Chair of its board-level AI Committee, and previously served on the board of Blue Apron. He has also served on the boards and executive committees of trade associations and nonprofit organizations, including the Marketing + Media Alliance. Amit is also Co-Founder of AI Trailblazers, a leadership community for operators, investors, and technologists shaping the future of AI.
He holds a master's degree from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, and lives in New York City.
Perspectives on leading through the AI shift.
Op-Eds & Written Commentary
- A running series of op-ed responses on the MIT Sloan Management Review expert panel, on responsible AI, governance, and enterprise leadership.
Podcasts & Video Interviews
- On The Product Market Fit Show (Ep. 93), leaving a $2B ARR company to build AI agents and reaching $1M ARR in under six months.Nov 20, 2025
- On AI Heroes & Headaches (Ep. 2) with Vivienne Wei, on how scaling a consumer brand prepared him for AI, founder mode versus coach mode, and personalization as the real unlock.
- A Google for Startups video interview on building AI agents that work alongside people inside real enterprise workflows, powered by Google's AI stack.Mar 2026
Speaking & Appearances
- At the Applied AI Symposium (Texas A&M), a closed-room operator panel on designing organizations for an AI-augmented workforce, arguing speed is now the defining advantage.Jun 10, 2026
- Hosted and kicked off the Rare Connections Healthcare AI Summit (NY Tech Week) with Sumantro Das, centering 100+ leaders on where AI gets therapies to patients faster.Jun 3, 2026
- Headlined InstaLILY's Canadian debut at Toronto Tech Week in a fireside with Google's Naveen Nigam, on learning speed over specialization.May 25, 2026
- Presented at YC × Google DeepMind Startup Day with Sumantro Das, alongside Demis Hassabis and Garry Tan, unveiling InstaLILY's Small Data Center.Apr 24, 2026
- On the Celtra Creative Connect panel, arguing AI is already infrastructure and the real question is what you build with it.Apr 16, 2026
- At the Jefferies Private Growth Conference, comparing notes with founders and investors on what separates real AI-native companies from dressed-up software.Apr 14-15, 2026
- A FutureProof Project fireside with Adam Kleinberg on why security and data stall most AI initiatives, and what unblocks them.Mar 26, 2026
- On the MXV Capital Summit, on how enterprises run on hidden tribal knowledge and how InstaBrain turns it into shared memory for people and agents.Nov 18, 2025
- At the Collage Group Cultural Fluency Summit, making the case that AI raises the stakes for authenticity rather than replacing it, ushering in what he calls Autonomous Culture.Nov 5, 2025
- At the NACD Directors Summit 2025, with Shiv Singh, telling directors the era of look-back governance is over: boards now oversee systems that act, not just advise.Oct 12-15, 2025
- At Everest Group Elevate (Dallas), on execution over abstraction: moving agentic AI from early deployments to systems of action inside enterprise workflows.Sep 10-12, 2025
- Co-hosted the InstaLILY × SRS Distribution AI Summit, leading the panels on real AI deployment in distribution and the shift from Artificial Intelligence to Action Intelligence.Sep 4, 2025
- On the McKinsey × Marvin VC founder panel, offering his throughline on agentic AI: a future where people reach their potential working with AI, not replaced by it.Jul 28, 2025
- At the MMA Global CMO & CEO Summit 2025, a board he has served on since 2013, as the room converged on AI becoming marketing's operating system.Jul 20-22, 2025
News & Press Mentions
- A TechRadar Pro Q&A on why enterprises win by owning their intelligence rather than renting models, and how the Small Data Center gets there.Jun 21, 2026
- An Axios Pro exclusive on InstaLILY's $60M Series B for Lily, its AI forward deployed engineer, at 5x revenue growth over the past year.Jul 14, 2026