Tool Use - AI Conversations

In this engaging conversation, Mike Leslie, CEO of Revela and expert in AI for startups, shares insights on empowering non-technical founders with 'vibe coding' to create MVPs. He discusses the importance of building in-house AI capabilities and navigating the competitive landscape against giants like OpenAI. Leslie emphasizes structured data collection for fine-tuning AI models and warns against being overly dependent on third-party APIs. His advice for engaging customers and maintaining control in AI development is invaluable for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Sam Bhagwat, founder of Mastra and co-founder of Gatsby, sheds light on crafting effective AI agents. He discusses the advantages of using TypeScript for agent frameworks and highlights crucial design patterns for tools and prompts. Sam emphasizes the importance of memory types, including observational memory, and warns about the 'lethal trifecta' in security risks. He also shares insights into multi-agent communication and operational safety, aiming to demystify the complexities of building reliable AI agents.

Artem Zhutov, a physicist and AI enthusiast, dives into the fascinating world of coding agents and productivity hacks. He shares his journey transitioning to Obsidian for personal knowledge management and showcases how Claude Code automates daily routines—from job searches to organizing tasks. Listeners discover techniques like ‘just-in-time’ context loading, instant voice note transcription with WhisperFlow, and the power of customizable slash commands. Artem emphasizes the balance between structured workflows and the flexibility to adapt them based on progress.

Swyx (Shawn Wang), co-founder of AI Engineer and a developer tooling expert, dives into the evolving landscape of AI products. He discusses why vertical AI agents are vital for developers, advocating against the standalone vector databases hype. The conversation explores the shift from 'vibe coding' to structured engineering, stressing the importance of extracting prompts from codebases. Additionally, Swyx highlights the challenges of agentic browsing and the significance of concise product quality over just distribution.

In this insightful conversation, AI engineering consultant Kyle Clark shares his expertise on AI safety and risk mitigation. He discusses the dangers of prompt injection and AI web browsers, highlighting how they can be hijacked. Kyle emphasizes the importance of human-in-the-loop systems and the nuances of implementing AI safely in organizations. He also explores the build vs. buy debate for AI models and warns about context rot affecting AI performance. His advice? Keep humans involved and continuously educate yourself to navigate the AI landscape responsibly.

Richardson Dackam, founder and AI builder of n8n, shares insights on workflow automation that can revolutionize how developers operate. He highlights n8n as a powerful open-source tool capable of automating entire departments. The conversation covers practical applications such as email management and social media automation, emphasizing the importance of a human-in-the-loop approach. Richardson also discusses integrating various AI models, logging strategies, and common pitfalls, making it an essential guide for those looking to streamline their workflows.

In this conversation, Apurva Misra, founder of Sentick and an AI strategy expert, dives deep into the world of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). He explains how RAG optimizes context for LLMs, discusses the trade-offs between large context windows and targeted retrieval, and outlines strategies for creating effective embeddings. Apurva also highlights the importance of data quality, feedback loops, and introduces hybrid search combining keywords with semantic intent. A must-listen for anyone interested in enhancing AI workflows!

Lee Russell, founder of Minimum Viable Launch, shares over a decade of AI expertise focusing on personalization at scale. He discusses the importance of creating high-tech yet high-touch customer experiences, emphasizing qualitative data over typical metrics. Lee explains context engines and how to avoid generic 'AI slop' while creating unique outputs. He also highlights the power of no-code tools like n8n and vector databases to enhance data interactions, urging listeners to experiment and build their own AI agents for remarkable customer engagement.

Join the Tool Use Discord: https://discord.gg/PnEGyXpjaXStruggling to cut through the AI hype to find real operational efficiency for your business? In this episode, we're joined by Csongor Barabasi, CEO of Bonsai Labs, an AI value creation partner for private equity firms. Csongor shares his expert framework for deploying AI agents to achieve massive productivity gains.Learn the practical steps to progress from a simple AI co-pilot to a fully autonomous AI agent , and discover how to create a 'golden data set' and feedback loops to make your systems smarter over time. We cover the critical build vs. buy debate , strategies for process automation , data security considerations , calculating ROI for AI projects , and enabling non-technical teams to build custom workflows. This is your ultimate guide to using AI for tangible business results.Csongor is the founder/CEO of Bonsai Labs, a specialized AI transformation and value creation firm working with Private Equity portfolio companies. With engineering excellence at it's core, the they deliver AI workflow automations and build custom AI products with tangible impact within weeks.Bonsai Labs: https://bonsai-labs.comCsongor: https://linkedin.com/in/barabasicsongorConnect with ushttps://x.com/ToolUsePodcasthttps://x.com/MikeBirdTech https://x.com/barabasicsongor00:00:00 - Intro00:02:40 - The Framework: Co-Pilot to Fully Autonomous Agent00:11:26 - AI Solutions: The Build vs. Buy Debate00:16:03 - AI for Non-Technical Teams00:27:40 - How to Document a Process for Automation00:31:36 - How to Measure the ROI of AISubscribe for more insights on AI tools, productivity, and process automation.Tool Use is a weekly conversation with the top AI experts, brought to you by ToolHive.

Discover how AI coding agents are changing software development with Kiran's insights on optimizing your development environment. Learn about the importance of feedback loops, clear pipelines, and organized code to enhance AI performance. Kiran dives into Slate’s unique context management strategies that prevent common pitfalls and help agents excel in complex tasks. Explore why traditional software engineering skills are still crucial, and gain practical tips for structuring projects that maximize AI coding capabilities.