AI & THE ART MARKET
Artificial intelligence is rapidly redefining many industries. While there are parts of the Art Market to which it may never apply, it would be foolish to think that our industry won't be strongly impacted. This sprint course - designed and moderated by Marc Spiegler, and featuring experts from inside and outside the artworld - will examine where things stand now, where they're likely to go and how you can deploy artificial intelligence to the benefit of your art world activities.
COURSE SCHEDULE
April 21, 2026
ONLINE
ONLINE
THE BIG PICTURE
Alan Lau, Deputy Chairman of M+ museum, CBO at Animoca Brands
Module Summary: Where AI stands today, how it's affecting other industries, and what it can mean for the artworld.
April 21, 2026
ONLINE
ONLINE
LEGAL ISSUES IN AI
Aimée Scala, Partner, Mazzola Lindstrom LLP, Part-Time lecturer at the UCLA School of Law.
April 23, 2026
ONLINE
ONLINE
ART-MARKET CASE STUDIES
Tim Schneider, the Gray Market
Module Summary: How innovative galleries, artist studios, auction houses and advisors are currently deploying AI
April 23, 2026
ONLINE
ONLINE
DON'T BE BASIC
Ty Ahmad Taylor, Board Trustee at SFMOMA and Chief Product Officer at Kantar
Module Summary: Learn how professionals deploy agents and combine task-specific AIs to outperform Claude and Chat GPT at complex tasks
GUEST LECTURERS
ALAN LAU
Deputy Chairman of M+ museum, CBO at Animoca Brands
Alan Lau is Vice Chair of M+, Hong Kong’s largest contemporary art museum. He has been a champion of Asian artists for two decades, and co-chairs the Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee of Tate, and the Asia Art Circle of Guggenheim.
He has been a technologist for 20 years, with leadership roles in McKinsey, Tencent, and Animoca Brands. He founded McKinsey’s digital practice and led as Asia Head, co-founded Tencent’s insurance arm WeSure and served as CEO, and currently leads investment and manages a portfolio of 500 companies as CBO of Animoca.
He advises the Oxford University and HK University on AI, Creativity & Ethics, and promotes AI adoption and policies as a founding member of The AI Association of HK.
In the broader culture sphere, he serves on the board of Tapestry, which owns Coach and Kate Spade, and previously served on the digital board of Burberry. He also makes angel investments in F&B, entertainment, and technology.
AIMÉE SCALA
Part-Time lecturer at the UCLA School of Law
Aimée Scala is a Partner in the Los Angeles office of Mazzola Lindstrom LLP where her practice focuses on litigation as well as transactional law, particularly in the areas of fine art, intellectual property, media, and entertainment law. Aimée represents clients in a variety of creative fields, including the visual arts, new media, emerging technologies, photography, publishing, and entertainment industries.
A part-time lecturer at the UCLA School of Law, past Chair of the Entertainment Law and Intellectual Property Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and a leader of the Art Law section of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Aimée speaks often on art law, copyright, emerging technologies and generative AI, and the fair use defense.
Prior to entering the legal profession, Aimée was the photo editor of Artforum magazine from 2004-2013. Her extensive professional background in the arts informs her analysis of client matters, as she is familiar with the many players and facets of the art world, from scholars and researchers to artists and galleries, as well as museums, auction houses, libraries, archives, and nonprofit arts organizations of all kinds.
TIM SCHNEIDER
The Gray Market
Tim Schneider is the founder of The Gray Market, the conversation-starting art-industry newsletter, and a private consultant for artists and businesses in the cultural field. His work—which assesses the art trade through the lenses of economics, technology, data analysis, law, and adjacent markets such as film, music, and fashion—has also appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and the Business of Fashion, among others. Following nearly a decade working in the commercial gallery sector, he spent a combined seven years as the art market editor for The Art Newspaper and the art business editor for Artnet News. His past speaking engagements range from Art Basel’s Conversations series and the Art Business Conference to lectures at Yale University and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. In 2017 he published his first book, The Great Reframing: How Technology Will—and Won’t—Change the Gallery System Forever.
TY AHMAD-TAYLOR
Board Trustee at SFMOMA, Chief Product Officer at Kantar
Ty Ahmad-Taylor has a deep and extensive background in product development and strategy across major technology, media, and consumer electronics companies, including leadership roles at Kantar, Snap Inc., Meta, THX Ltd., Samsung, Viacom, Comcast, and @Home Networks. His career spans over 30 years in consumer-facing software and product development. Read more: ldv+2
He is a proven entrepreneur, having founded FanFeedr, a real-time sports aggregation platform, which was successfully acquired by Samsung in 2012. This experience provided him with valuable lessons in building a startup, raising capital, and the critical importance of human capital in the tech industry. Read more: laxallstars+1
Ahmad-Taylor is actively involved in corporate governance, serving on the Board of Directors for GoPro since 2018, where he is the Lead Independent Director. He also contributes to industry shaping as a member of the Board of Industry Leaders for the Consumer Technology Association and on the board of the Urbanworld Film Festival. Read more: gopro+1
His career began in journalism at The New York Times as a Reporter/Graphics Editor, and he later instructed Information Graphics at the Journalism Graduate School at UC Berkeley, demonstrating an early foundation in information design and communication that underpins his later product development roles. Read more: ldv
Ty Ahmad-Taylor is a thought leader who has written about career development and job seeking strategies, emphasizing the importance of a 'growth mindset,' self-awareness in choosing opportunities, and building strong professional networks. He advocates for inclusive teams and thoughtful leadership. Read more: fire-exit+1
