Contact Overview
Name: Andrei Papancea
Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Co-Founder
Company: NLX
Location: New York, NY
LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/andreipapancea](http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreipapancea)
Social: [X (Twitter) – @ndrppnc](https://x.com/ndrppnc)
Professional Background
Andrei Papancea is the CEO and Co-Founder of NLX, a leading conversational AI firm headquartered in New York City. Under his leadership, NLX has established itself as a critical provider of AI-driven conversational solutions for enterprise clients, powering prominent brands including United Airlines, Comcast, Red Bull, and Toyota.
Before launching NLX in 2018 together with CTO Vlad Papancea and co-founder Peter Szerzo, Andrei built the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) platform at American Express, where his engineering leadership enabled the processing of millions of customer conversations across core AmEx servicing channels.
Andrei also serves as an Advisor on Technology to Altai Ventures, providing guidance on technological innovation and market alignment.
Key Achievements and Responsibilities
- Executive Leadership: Manages the vision, strategy, and growth of NLX and guides its positioning as a leader in practical, accessible conversational AI.
- Enterprise Customer Success: Champions partnerships with major global enterprises, ensuring NLX drives tangible improvements in customer experience and operational efficiency.
- NLX has raised over $25 million in funding, fueling significant expansion and product development.
- Oversaw NLX’s collaboration with Toyota to use conversational AI for automating and parsing millions of technical documents, as highlighted in a recent TechCrunch feature (June 2025).
- Recognized as a thought leader, Andrei frequently speaks on the future of AI, advocating for practical and user-centered solutions for enterprises (see interviews in Medium, Skift Live, and VUX World podcasts).
Technical and Academic Involvement
- Academic Engagement: Andrei teaches cloud computing and AI engineering at Columbia University and New York University, contributing to the education of the next generation of technologists.
- Prior experience includes developing and deploying large-scale, enterprise-grade AI systems at American Express.
- Regularly advises on cloud-based AI architecture and best practices for both startups and global corporations.
NLX – Company Snapshot
- Founded: 2018 in New York City by Andrei Papancea, Vlad Papancea, and Peter Szerzo.
- Mission: Empower businesses and individuals to build, deploy, and scale conversational AI applications with accessibility and inclusivity at the core.
- Positioning: NLX’s no-code/low-code platform allows a broad range of users—from developers and product managers to copywriters—to design and implement conversational experiences.
- Strategic Partnerships: Actively collaborates with enterprise technology stack providers (AWS, Cisco, GCP) to enhance solution delivery and customer integration options.
- Customer-Centric Philosophy: NLX maintains a highly practical approach to AI, discouraging hype and advocating solutions that deliver measurable, real-world value for customers.
- Executive Team: Alongside Andrei, the executive team includes Vlad Papancea (CTO), Derrick Bradley (Chief Product Officer), Brian Dawson (Chief Strategy Officer), Alexandra Shainskaya (CFO), Christian Wagner (Chief Customer Officer), and Melanie Vargas (Chief People Officer).
Professional Interests and Insights
Andrei Papancea is deeply invested in broadening the adoption of conversational AI and driving thoughtful automation in enterprise contexts. He emphasizes the need for customer-centric, practical, and inclusive AI solutions, seeking to make advanced technology accessible regardless of user technical skill.
His leadership reflects a blend of technical innovation and market pragmatism, aiming to enable organizations to reimagine digital engagement through conversation. Andrei’s unique combination of hands-on engineering expertise, executive management, and educational involvement positions him as a key influencer in the conversational AI sector.
Actionable Insight:
Given Andrei’s focus on enterprise scaling, partnership, and accessible AI solutions, value-driven engagement that articulates practical use cases, ROI, and scalability will resonate with his perspective. His executive background, hands-on technical expertise, and deep network in tech and academia present multiple avenues for strategic, solution-oriented dialogue.
