What if the hardest part of building a humanoid robot isn’t the brain but the hands? Robot hands are half the complexity of a robot, a humanoid robot CEO told me a while back: they're insanely difficult to get right.In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Kyber Labs co-founders Tyler Habowski and Yonatan Robbins about why dexterity, maybe even more than AI, is the true bottleneck in robotics.Some of the quotes:- “There are literally zero robot hands deployed right now doing routine work.”- “The best hands are hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they break all the time …”Before the interview, you’ll see an exclusive demo of their next-generation robotic hand in action showing just how far manipulation technology has come.We dig into:• Why humans rely on force, not precision, to manipulate objects• The surprising flaw in most robotic hands today• How Kyber’s “torque-transparent” design works without expensive sensors• Why hardware—not software—is still the limiting factor• A practical path to real-world automation (without sci-fi hype)This isn’t about futuristic humanoids doing everything. It’s about solving real problems today ... from lab automation to manufacturing ... by building hands that actually work.⸻👤 GuestsTyler HabowskiCo-founder, Kyber LabsBackground: SpaceX, robotics manufacturingYonatan RobbinsCo-founder, Kyber LabsBackground: Industrial design, mechanical engineering, medical devices⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 Why Robot Hands Are So Hard01:30 Sneak Peek + Demo Setup01:30 Demo: Kyber Labs Robot Hand in Action05:30 Interview Start: Are Hands Half the Problem?06:45 Humans Use Force, Not Precision08:45 Why Most Robot Hands Fail10:45 How Kyber’s Hands “Feel” Without Sensors13:15 Back-Drivability vs Torque Transparency15:30 Hardware vs AI: What Actually Matters?17:30 Why Better Hands Unlock Better Robots19:15 Real-World Use Case: Automating Lab Work22:00 Vision vs Touch in Robotics24:00 Why Start With Stationary Robots25:45 Not Building Humanoids (Yet)27:15 What Is a “Minimum Viable” Robot Hand?29:15 The Problem With Today’s Grippers30:45 What the Ultimate Robot Hand Looks Like32:15 The Real Breakthrough: Deploy and Iterate33:30 Final Thoughts + Wrap-Up

What does the agentic enterprise of tomorrow look like? What happens when AI can build software in hours and agents can run entire business processes?

In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with UiPath CEO Daniel Dines and CMO Michael Atalla to unpack one of the biggest shifts in enterprise technology: the rise of the agentic enterprise.

We explore whether software is becoming disposable, why AI agents are fundamentally different from traditional automation, and what really happens to jobs as companies adopt these systems. Along the way, we dig into process orchestration, trust, judgment, and why human “taste” may become more valuable—not less—in an AI-driven world.

This is a deep, practical look at how AI is reshaping work inside real companies as they become agentic enterprises. This isn't just hype, but what’s actually changing right now and what’s coming next.

⸻

👤 Guests

Daniel Dines

Co-founder & CEO, UiPath

Michael Atalla

Chief Marketing Officer, UiPath

⸻

Sponsor: KindBody Fitness

kindbody.fitness

Be kind to your body with AI-driven fitness customized exactly to you. All the health with none of the gym bro nonsense.

⸻

🚀 What You’ll Learn

• Why AI is making software faster—and more disposable

• The difference between task agents, stage agents, and process agents

• What an “agentic enterprise” actually looks like in practice

• Why trust, judgment, and taste become more important with AI

• How AI could reduce enterprise costs—and even drive deflation

• The future of work: builders, sellers, and critics

• Why fully autonomous AI “swarms” aren’t ready for enterprise (yet)

⸻

🔔 Subscribe for more conversations on AI, tech, and the future of work

👉 https://techfirst.substack.com

NanoClaw is a new agent inspired by OpenClaw, but without the massive security risks you get with OpenClaw. Essentially, it's a safer OpenClaw.

What if you could run a powerful AI agent on your own machine: one that can browse, automate tasks, connect to apps, and even manage your workflow ... but without the massive security risks?

That’s the idea behind NanoClaw, a lightweight alternative to OpenClaw created by developer Gavriel Cohen. In just a few weeks, the project exploded on GitHub, attracting thousands of stars and a growing community of developers building their own AI agents.

In this episode of TechFirst, we explore:

• Why OpenClaw raised serious security concerns

• How NanoClaw isolates agents in containers

• Why a 3,000-line codebase is safer than 500,000 lines

• The rise of AI agents that can actually do work

• Why entire software categories may soon be replaced by prompts

• The future of AI-native workflows and “disposable software”

Gavriel also shares how his team uses AI agents in WhatsApp to run their sales pipeline automatically—and how developers are customizing NanoClaw with new capabilities like voice, images, and automation.

If you’re interested in AI agents, autonomous workflows, vibe coding, and the future of software, this conversation is packed with insights.

⸻

Guest

Gavriel Cohen

Founder, Quibbit

NanoClaw Creator

https://github.com/qwibitai/nanoclaw

⸻

If you enjoy conversations about AI, startups, and the future of technology, subscribe for more episodes:

https://techfirst.substack.com

⸻

00:00 Intro: A safe OpenClaw for TechFirst

01:22 Gavriel Cohen introduces NanoClaw

03:25 Why OpenClaw feels unsafe

03:55 Half a million lines of code vs. 3,000

06:03 Dependency sprawl and supply-chain risk

07:00 Why every agent needs its own container

09:30 What NanoClaw can actually do

10:16 Letting NanoClaw customize itself

12:56 How NanoClaw recreates OpenClaw with far less code

13:21 Memory, Claude Code, and agents.md

15:34 Running NanoClaw on a laptop, server, or VPS

16:22 What Gavriel learned from vibe coding

19:50 The OpenClaw phase shift: everything changed

21:16 From ChatGPT to real agents that do work

23:15 Why AI-native workflows beat traditional SaaS

24:46 Replacing CRM workflows with markdown and WhatsApp

25:54 Product categories becoming prompts

26:36 The key innovation: agents leaving the box

28:45 Agent swarms and one-person companies

29:22 Tokens, cost, and AI inequality

30:30 Building secure, customizable software

32:25 Self-modifying software and shared customizations

33:44 Disposable software and infinite composability

35:00 Outro