Our Story

Built Different

4th Degree AI started with a question: what happens when you stop treating AI as a tool you use occasionally and start treating it as a development partner?

Dave Pataky — PhD, IT Consultant, lifelong builder — had spent years in traditional software development and corporate network and systems design and implementation. When AI coding tools crossed the threshold from "interesting demo" to "genuinely useful," he didn't just adopt them. He went all in. AI-assisted development building AI-powered apps. Others use their favourite solution and go looking for a problem but at 4th Degree we look at problems and develop the best solution.

The result is a company that ships real products (Thespis, WSBC DocGen), builds custom software for clients, and helps businesses figure out where AI actually fits in their operations. Real problems that need the best solution.

Our Philosophy

The Fourth Degree

Our name isn't arbitrary. It describes an evolution in how solutions get built — and we operate at the frontier. AI is a tool that provides speed, precision and detailed knowledge, but human understanding is what will recognize and translate your needs into real solutions that work, 100%, every time. We go beyond the Third Degree to interrogate our solutions and ensure no need goes unmet. Build with us, build with confidence, build the best!

The Team

Who's Behind This

Dave Pataky, PhD

Founder & Developer

IT consulting background turned full-time builder. Dave bridges the gap between understanding what businesses need and actually shipping the software that delivers it. He leans hard into AI-assisted development — not because it's trendy, but because when done right, it works.

⬤

HAL

AI Development Partner

Yes, the name is a nod to 2001. No, HAL won't lock you out of the pod bay doors. HAL is the AI system at the core of our development workflow — helping write code, analyze problems, generate content, and keep the whole operation running at a pace that would be impossible solo.

How We Work

What We Believe

Design Well, Ship Fast

Ideas are cheap. Deployed software is expensive and rare. We bias toward getting things into users' hands — learning from real-life problem analysis, not chasing problems with a solution.

Right Tool, Right Job

Not everything needs AI. Not everything needs a custom app. We'll tell you when a spreadsheet is the right answer — even if it means less work for us.

Honest About Tradeoffs

AI is powerful but imperfect. We'll be upfront about what it can and can't do, what the risks are, and what AI integration sucess looks like for your use case.