Finding Solid Ground In AI: A Practical Map for Smarter Decisions, Featuring Szymon Kulec | RavenDB
In this keynote from TechEx Global London 2026, Szymon Kulec, Lead Developer Advocate at RavenDB, explores how to navigate the rapidly shifting landscape of AI and agents without building "useless" features. By applying Wardley Mapping to modern software architecture, Szymon demonstrates how to identify what to build, what to buy, and how to use a mature database like RavenDB 7.2 to absorb change and eliminate fragile "glue code." Whether you are managing medical data in mobile labs or scaling enterprise AI, this talk provides a practical map for making smarter architectural decisions. Key Sections: 0:00 - The "Useless Feature" Test: Why we need a map for AI 1:45 - Introduction to Wardley Mapping for Software Architects 3:20 - Case Study: Democratizing Medical Services & Edge Connectivity 5:10 - Understanding Evolution: From Genesis to Commodity 7:30 - Mapping the AI Stack: Conversations, LLMs, and Security 9:15 - Reducing "Glue Code" with RavenDB's Built-in Features 11:00 - Data on the Edge: Solving Replication for Mobile Labs 13:30 - Three Lessons for Finding Solid Ground in AI 15:00 - Live Q&A: Buy vs. Build and AI Security Guardrails Stop fighting legacy infrastructure and start building with the database of the future. Download RavenDB 7.2 now or start your free trial on RavenDB Cloud: https://ravendb.net/download -- About RavenDB RavenDB is a multi-model NoSQL document database trusted by thousands of companies worldwide, built for teams that need to move fast without sacrificing stability. It includes ACID transactions, auto-indexing, secure clustering, and support for documents, time-series, vector search, and native AI features out of the box. Designed to reduce operational complexity, RavenDB helps developers build and run modern applications with confidence. 🌐 Learn more: https://ravendb.net 🚀 Get Started for Free: https://ravendb.net/download ☁️ RavenDB Cloud: https://cloud.ravendb.net 📖 Technical Documentation: https://docs.ravendb.net/7.2/start/getting-started/ 💻 GitHub Samples: https://github.com/ravendb/ravendb 🤝 Discord Community: https://discord.com/invite/ravendb 💼 LinkedIn: https://il.linkedin.com/company/ravendb 🗨️ X: https://x.com/RavenDB #ravendb #nosql #workshop #dotnet10 #aiagents #vectorsearch #cloudcosts #databasesecurity #dataarchitecture #softwareengineering #s3 #blobstorage #etl #datamigration #json #blobstorage #s3 #dotnet #databasemanagement #softwarearchitecture #vectorsearch #aiagents #generativeai #rag #acid #dataarchitecture #distributedsystems #databasemanagement #edgecomputing #datasecurity #fulltext