What would it take for one person to manage an entire warehouse?

Brightpick CEO Dr. Jan Zizka sees that future taking shape through AI-powered picking, autonomous night shifts and robots that can ask for help.

In this episode of Automated, Brian Heater speaks with Jan about building warehouse automation that customers can deploy, operate and scale. The conversation traces his path from Slovakia and MIT to co-founding Photoneo and Brightpick.

Jan shares how childhood friendships helped shape his founding team, how Photoneo’s 3D vision technology gave industrial robots better ways to see and handle objects, and why Zebra Technologies became the company’s next home. He explains why Brightpick took a broader approach, building complete fulfillment systems around the customer’s operation.

Brian and Jan explore AI’s ability to pick unfamiliar products, the lights-out night shift at The Feed’s Denver warehouse, and the work that still needs people. Jan explains why human assistance and multiple fallback layers remain essential as automation expands.

They also discuss Gridpicker’s approach to throughput and storage density, a simulation reaching 50,000 order lines per hour, and Jan’s account of the Ocado injunction that interrupted its LogiMAT demonstration. Throughout, the conversation returns to deployment speed, ROI and the challenge of turning a capable robot into a reliable warehouse system.

Connect with Dr. Jan Zizka:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jzizka LinkedIn

Learn more about Brightpick:
https://brightpick.ai/ Warehouse automation made easy

Explore Brightpick Gridpicker:
https://brightpick.ai/gridpicker/ Brightpick

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Dr. Jan Zizka on Brightpick and the Future of Warehouse Automation

Automated with Brian Heater

Dr. Jan Zizka on Brightpick and the Future of Warehouse Automation