The Hard Thing
A personal publication on applied AI beyond the demo, agentic commerce, and product judgment. The perspective is grounded in experience across engineering, product development, startups, and enterprise technology.
Written byWojciech GruszczykLatest writing
If AI makes delivery cheap and roles keep overlapping, does Product decide what matters, or has it become the bottleneck everyone routes around?
Original illustration for The Hard Thing.
Tech-first companies optimise for what is possible. Give talented engineers room and ideas appear. Shipping them feels like progress, but a stream of features is not a strategy. Somebody still has to decide what deserves company time.
Most AI agents use the same models and patterns, making them easy to copy. The defensible advantage lies in proprietary data and the knowledge of how your business actually works.
K5 Future Retail Conference Berlin 2026 | Image based on K5 Mediathek recording material.
At K5, I kept seeing the same promise in different packaging: an AI agent that searches, advises, decides, or buys. Many of the demos were impressive. Yet once I looked under the hood, one uncomfortable question kept coming back: if the intelligence is rented through an API and the solution can be copied, where is the competitive advantage? In my opinion, it is not in the agent. It is in proprietary data and the knowledge of how your business actually works.
An exploration of agent marketplaces, past tech patterns, MCP, and the timeless lesson: feasibility isn’t value; real success comes from solving real problems.
Photo by Charles Chen on Unsplash
In the era of fast-paced business and intrusive communication, we often fall prey to the idea that speed is the key to success. But is it really? Let's explore the concept of 'slow is smooth and smooth is fast' and how it can help you become successful as an entrepreneur.
Photo by shawn henry on Unsplash
Managing people is a tough task. Especially for those who are new to it, consider themselves introverts or are engineers who were promoted to a managerial position. In this post, I'm sharing my experiences and tips on how to manage people effectively and have a bit of fun while doing it.
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash