The Horizon Search Institute (HSI) officially launched Tuesday night its first salon series in Manhattan, New York City, bringing together senior figures from finance, healthcare, law, venture capital, government, academia, and international organizations to examine one of the most pressing questions facing institutions today: how to govern artificial intelligence in highly regulated industries.
Held at the historic House of the Redeemer, the invitation-only gathering convened fourteen leaders for a private dinner and moderated discussion focused on the growing role of AI in shaping decision-making, managing risk, and redefining accountability across sectors where oversight and public trust are paramount.
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The event also served as the public introduction of HSI’s first major research publication under its Responsible AI initiative, “Horizon Scan 001: AI Governance in Regulated Industries.” The report explores how organizations in financial services and healthcare are moving away from traditional approval-based oversight models and toward continuous monitoring and lifecycle accountability for AI systems.
Ashwin Telang, one of the report’s lead authors, presented key findings from the research before participants engaged in a discussion informed by both the Horizon Scan and the Institute’s inaugural Research Brief.
The evening opened with remarks from Ramu Damodaran, a longtime United Nations leader who helped establish the UN Academic Impact initiative and previously served as editor-in-chief of the UN Chronicle. The program also featured Abdullah Ishak Khan, HSI’s inaugural Global Fellow and deputy director at the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority under the Prime Minister’s Office, who spoke about emerging opportunities for the next generation of governance researchers.
Closing remarks were delivered by David Lovejoy, who emphasized the importance of treating governance as a strategic capability rather than a regulatory obligation.
Throughout the discussion, participants repeatedly returned to three core issues shaping the future of AI oversight.
The first centered on financial services, where institutions are adapting governance frameworks originally developed under the Federal Reserve’s SR 11-7 model risk management guidance to address increasingly autonomous AI systems capable of evolving between review cycles.
The second focused on healthcare, where leaders debated the ethical challenges of deploying AI in patient care and policy settings, including questions about who ultimately benefits from algorithmic decision-making and how accountability should be assigned.
A third theme examined transparency and trust. Participants discussed what meaningful transparency should look like when employees, patients, and customers are expected to rely on AI-generated decisions that may not be fully visible or easily challenged.
“Oversight used to end at approval. It now begins there. The institutions that grasp that early won’t simply be compliant — they’ll be ahead. That is what it means to treat governance as a source of advantage rather than compliance theatre,” David Lovejoy, Executive Director, Horizon Search Institute.
According to HSI, the newly released report spans approximately 8,200 words and draws on fifty sources across healthcare and financial services. Authored by Cynthia Chen and Ashwin Telang, with contributions from Hernando Liu and Gloria Chen and editing by David Lovejoy, the study argues that industries with historically different regulatory approaches are increasingly arriving at a common expectation: AI systems require ongoing oversight throughout their operational life cycle rather than a one-time approval process before deployment.
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Founded as an independent nonprofit research institute, Horizon Search Institute focuses on the broader institutional implications of the AI transition, including how governance, accountability, and human judgment must evolve as advanced technologies become embedded in critical sectors. Its research agenda spans Responsible AI, Human Performance, Planetary Futures, and Governance & Diplomacy.
HSI said the Manhattan gathering marks the beginning of a broader salon series designed to bring policymakers, researchers, business leaders, and practitioners into direct conversation. The institute plans to continue those discussions with its next salon scheduled to take place in London later this year.