Radek Bartyzal

How would you describe your role at Miton?

I work at the Miton AI Lab, where we experiment with what the latest technologies have to offer businesses. That includes developing theses about where the world with AI is heading and what will retain value in a future full of agents. These days, you're bombarded with strong opinions ranging from "AGI by 2027" to "it's all just a massive bubble." The truth is somewhere in between — and on top of that, it's domain-specific — so there's no shortage of work :)

What technology fascinates you most right now?

Autonomous agents like OpenClaw and Hermes, which are looking more and more like real humans. They remember past conversations, have personality, can independently handle non-trivial tasks, iterate on a brief, experiment. When it comes to solving things within a closed computer environment, they're already capable of genuinely incredible things. Connecting with the real world and conveying context about what a person actually needs or means — that remains the main bottleneck.

What kind of projects interest you most — whether by sector or approach? Who should come find you

Anything around AI — doesn't have to be deep tech only :)

The main theses I'm working through right now revolve around the impact of AI agents on society and how companies operate. Will each of us have a personal agent that communicates with corporate agents on our behalf? If companies are to be truly AI-first, they can't avoid deploying agents. But that will necessarily lead to process and structural changes within organizations.

Which areas will AI agents push into the invisible infrastructure layer — and which will hold onto a strong brand? Google Search, for instance, was an enormously popular product that's increasingly becoming a background tool inside chat applications, just one of many infrastructure components. Will e-commerce meet the same fate?

What's your tech stack?

For historical reasons, I have a soft spot for Cline — it was the first thing that gave me that wow moment with agentic coding. Then of course, Claude Code; for reading actual code, I prefer PyCharm or VSCode. For notes, I use Obsidian, which works smoothly with agents.

What do you do with AI when you're not working?

I chat with my Hermes agent over Telegram and test how many things it can handle purely through chat interaction without breaking. I'm pleasantly surprised by how long it's held up — it's even survived a few auto-updates 😄

How would you describe your working style?

I find it really helpful to work through complex topics with people who aren't afraid to have strong opinions. I like discussing things from different angles, trying to get down to the core principles of a given problem. From there, finding solutions becomes easier. It often happens that when you unpack problem A, you discover it's actually caused by a different problem B — and solving B makes not just A and B disappear, but often the originally unrelated C and D as well.

Most of my career has been spent designing and building non-trivial production systems, where the key is balancing added value against growing complexity. Many improvement proposals simply aren't worth the complexity they bring — they slow down all future iterations, both the implementation of future improvements and the ability to pivot toward a new goal. Rewriting a live system from scratch is expensive and dangerous; it must remain flexible and retain the ability to iterate quickly. This thinking extends to team management and company structure, too, which are themselves complex systems of this kind.

Where do you spend most of your working time?

Most days you'll find me at the Miton offices in Karlín — I prefer working in person.

What book do you give away most often?

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho — no other book has given me so many parallels to real life. I've read it many times over the past 15 years, and I'm already looking forward to reading it again and discovering what new things I'll find out about myself. For a Czech pick, I often recommend Immortality by Milan Kundera — it's a masterpiece with a remarkable study of personality. Or, shorter but no less punchy, is Havel's essay The Power of the Powerless, which, to me, demonstrates the former president's real strength of character and what it means to face the inevitable. And finally, for relaxation with a touch of introspection, I love gifting Dinosaur Therapy by James Stewart — our son likes it too :)

What has stood the test of time for you — something you've been doing consistently for years?

In my free time, I regularly follow geopolitical developments — things like the effect of drones in the war in Ukraine, the frequency of incursions into Taiwan's airspace, and the like.

What are the five things you can't live without?

I'd definitely recommend an e-ink reader — I read every day on my commute, and it doesn't strain your eyes the way regular screens do.