The practice of Matthias Funke
Hands-on agentic AI. I build it, teach it, and explain it to the people who sign the cheques.
I help teams put AI agents to work on real tasks, in the tools they already use, with a person still in charge of every decision that matters.
Public workshop
Build a Second Brain with Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini
You are the manager; the AI is the executor. In two live hours you set up an assistant that keeps your notes, tracks your projects and people, and writes you a ranked daily briefing. No code, and nothing gets sent without your approval.
Not on Claude? The workshop also runs with OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini.
Live on Zoom. You'll need a laptop, a paid subscription to Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, and Obsidian.
Upcoming dates
Nothing that suits you? Ask me about other dates, or start with the free kit.
Work with me
Half a day
Agent Audit
I map a department's work and find the three to five tasks worth automating, with a realistic view of what AI can and can't do today. You leave with a shortlist your team can act on.
One day, for one team
Build Your First Agent
A hands-on day for executives, managers or technical teams, in Claude, Copilot or Gemini. Everyone works on their own real tasks and leaves with something running on their own machine, not a slide deck.
Several weeks
Agent Pilot
One working agent for one real job, such as email, calendar or CRM triage, daily briefings or a document pipeline. I scope it, build it with your team and hand it over, remotely or embedded with you.
How it starts
Step 1
A 30-minute call
Free. We work out whether I'm the right person for this.
Step 2
A short proposal
What we would do, for whom, and what it costs.
Step 3
The work
On your real tasks, in the tools you already use.
Step 4
A closing review
What your team can now do without me, and what to do next.
Training firm or consultancy? I also co-facilitate, deliver when your team is booked, and develop hands-on course material. Sessions in English, German, Spanish or French, remote from London or on site.
Recent teaching
- An agentic AI workshop for INSEAD alumni, October 2026.
- A session for the management team of a South African training provider, October 2026.
- The paid Second Brain workshop above, October 2026.
Things I've built
Second Brain starter kit
The onboarding interview, rulebook and daily briefing from my workshop. Free to download. Get the kit
Objectify
Turns a text prompt or an image of a diagram into an editable one that you can refine by chatting with it. See the code
Superhistorian
An AI history explorer built around a timeline you can zoom into indefinitely. My favourite side project. See the code
About
I'm Matthias Funke. I've spent my career in enterprise software, at companies including VMware, Silicon Valley Data Science, Alation, MOSTLY AI, Coin Metrics and Talos, mostly in the client-facing work between a product and the people using it. Twice I was the first employee in Europe.
I studied physics at RWTH Aachen and have an MBA from INSEAD. An agent runs my own working day: it triages my mail, tracks my projects and writes my morning briefing. Most of what I teach about safe use, like approval gates and human checks, I learned the hard way.
Why Distant Proximity? AI lets you work at a distance from the detail. The judgment still needs you up close.
Get in touch
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