All participants in the Microsoft roundtable with Israeli Mapped in NY, held at Calcalist’s Mind the Tech New York 2025 conference in collaboration with Bank Leumi, agreed that without transitioning to AI, every company— from startups to industry giants—will struggle to survive.
Alon Haimovich, Israel Country GM at Microsoft, stated at the event’s opening: “We had to change our market approach. During the global slowdown, many companies struggled to generate revenue, but Microsoft’s dominance helped us. We built a model to assist startups with sales through joint product development, globalization, sales acceleration, and co-marketing.”
Haimovich informed participants that “Israel is the fastest-growing country in Microsoft’s global startup ecosystem. Currently, there are 7,000 startups in Israel, and 2,000 of them have already implemented AI capabilities.” He added, “We want to deepen our involvement with these capabilities. I feel a great responsibility to strengthen the high-tech ecosystem by fostering stronger connections between entrepreneurs, investors, and global technology companies.”
Nir Alfandary, High-Tech & Digital Native Partnership Director at Microsoft and the event’s initiator, emphasized, “When it comes to deep-tech solutions, the investment strategy should focus on rapid adoption and revenue growth. An extreme yet successful example is Cursor.ai, which reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2024—an astonishing 9,900% growth from just $1 million in 2023. Writing code is an area where AI is advancing the fastest. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has even stated that within a year, AI may be writing nearly all code.”
Guy Franklin, founder and partner at Israeli Mapped in NY, welcomed participants, saying: “I founded Israeli Mapped in NY, a $5 billion company operating primarily in North America. We started with 56 companies and have grown to 400. Three years ago, it became a full-time endeavor alongside an investment arm I launched. I believe the timing of our collaboration with Microsoft is ideal, especially with the mayor’s support for the New York City AI Capital Initiative. Many companies have recently relocated here, all incorporating AI capabilities.”
Adi Hofstein, SVP & Global Digital Growth Leader at Genpact, shared: “I founded an Israeli startup that was acquired by Genpact in 2016. We provide general back-office services. A decade ago, we realized we were no longer competitive, prompting a technological transformation through acquisitions and self-development. This shift created significant value for our customers. But two years ago, we saw that even this wasn’t enough—enter AI.”
Hofstein detailed the transformation: “Imagine a company with thousands of employees performing manual office tasks that decides to completely overhaul its operations with AI. We began with invoice processing, where tens of thousands of employees handle hundreds of millions of transactions. Partnering with Microsoft on Copilot, we developed a product that manages the entire invoice lifecycle. We built development capabilities in Israel with a 400-person team. Now, with our new AI-driven tool, we’ll process 15 million invoices annually. Traditional companies we work with needed a major shift, so we changed our revenue model to be based solely on traffic. This significantly lowers costs for our clients while increasing our earnings. It’s a profound change—soon, we’ll significantly reduce our workforce, yet revenue will rise. We realized that if we didn’t adapt, we wouldn’t survive. This is the biggest transformation in our company’s history.”
At the meeting, Adi Hod, co-founder and CEO of Velotix, stated: “We founded a data security company and raised over $30 million. We work with major clients, but today, disruptive technologies emerge every few months, demanding constant adaptation. The CTO has become the most critical role in an organization—tasked with identifying which technologies are essential. If I stick to the same roadmap without adjusting, I won’t survive. For example, if I ignore GenAI, I won’t survive. At this stage, I should be investing more in development rather than sales. Technological shifts create major barriers.”
Gili Lichtman Kurtz from Hyro.AI noted, “We focus on service providers and the healthcare sector. Every healthcare organization is thinking about AI. We operate in the administrative—not clinical—side of healthcare and aim to integrate AI into every aspect of our work.”
Daniel Frankenstein of Joule VC added, “There’s very little real AI on the market today. Like any disruptive technology, AI has potential, but you have to look carefully and find those who truly understand how to apply it. It’s easy to spot who’s faking it and who’s genuine.”
Yair Adato, founder and CEO of Bria.AI, highlighted that “everything is happening faster today, yet the focus remains on technological shifts rather than business impact.”
Eric Rosenfeld of the Sixth Street Growth investment fund offered a different perspective: “I invest in late-stage companies, and every company is asked why competitors can’t overtake them. They all have a story about why they lead, and it always comes down to data. Buyers want AI capabilities, they care about the results—but not necessarily about the underlying technology itself.”