June Meetup: AI in production and Functional Programming

This June meetup we have 2 great talks. Dudu from Cato Networks will show us how they built a system translating English to search request using LLM (in production), while Boris from HiBob will give an intro talk on logging and error handling the functional way and why it made their code better.

Thanks to Cato Networks for sponsoring and hosting the event!

AGENDA

18:00–18:30 Mingling, food, and drinks
18:30–18:40 Opening words
18:40–19:30 From Filters to Prompts: Building a Natural Language Filtering Service with LLMs / Dudu Oliel - Cato Networks
19:40–20:25 No exceptions: functional error handling and logging / Boris Kushnir - HiBob

From Filters to Prompts: Building a Natural Language Filtering Service with LLMs
In this session, I’ll walk through how we built Cato Networks' Natural Language Search (NLS) service—enabling users to filter UI content using plain language instead of traditional filters. I’ll share the architecture behind the scenes, including how we use LLMs with enriched prompts and JSON schema to translate free-text queries into structured filters.
We’ll dive into practical techniques for controlling LLM output, explore the engineering tools we used (GraphQL and Spring, devcontainers, and custom AI provider logic), and discuss real-world production challenges like rate limits, multilingual support, and prompt engineering strategies.
Finally, I’ll reflect on our lessons learned and why I plan to adopt Spring AI in future services.

Dudu Oliel / Cato Networks
I'm a software engineer with 21 years in the industry and over 12 years of experience as a team leader across several companies. For the past year, I've been leading a development team at Cato Networks. I specialize in Java and Scala. I focus on delivering scalable and reliable solutions tailored to each project's needs using modern technologies and best practices

No exceptions: functional error handling and logging
We used to handle errors with try-catch, logging and moving on - and that works. But what if there’s another approach that feels cleaner, more composable and surpassingly comfortable once you try it?

Boris Kushnir
Tech Lead at HiBob, passionate about technology and people, and how technology can make people’s live better. Speaker at Reversim, Scala Matters and a blogging enthusiast with broad experience in backend and mobile development - often working at the intersection of object-oriented and functional programming.

FOOD
Light food, light drinks, and beer will be served courtesy of Cato Networks.

RECORDING
We are recording, as always, this meetup and uploading it to our YouTube channel (be sure to subscribe), but please keep in mind asking questions about stuff you don't understand is only possible when you attend the live event.

ADDRESS
Cato Networks Offices
Floor 38
Landmark tower
Leonardo DeVinchi 2
Tel Aviv