SESSION NOTES
AI agents I built to run an industrial automation company
Session two is done. The team behind the company, the hub it runs on, the security rules around it, and how to start your own. The full playbook is free below.
The hour in four lines
The second live sharing by Dean Lai, Ts. professional technologist and founder of TGE Innovations Sdn Bhd, an industrial automation company in Malaysia.
01An agent is a control loop
Read, think, act, check. The same loop that runs a plant, with AI doing the deciding and a person doing the checking.
02A team in eight departments
Sales, engineering, projects, procurement, finance, product, marketing and admin, each with its own agents. Agents use judgement; scripts do the exact work the same way every time.
03The only human part
Walk the plant, commission on site, set the price, sign every quote and PO, say no, keep the relationship.
04Your first AI partner
Pick one boring job. Write it down. Let it do it, and you check.
Eight departments, one chief of staff
One box in the office. Run from a phone.
Everything runs on a Mac mini in the office. Telegram on the phone is the remote, and only one account may talk to it. It plugs into Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, the pipeline sheet and the accounting software. The AI model is rented by the call and sees only what a task needs.
| TIER | WHAT | HOW IT IS AUTHORISED |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Read | Automatic |
| 1 | Draft | Automatic |
| 2 | Update our own records | Automatic, logged and read back |
| 3 | Anything a client, supplier or bank sees | A tap on Telegram |
| 4 | Delete, pay, share outside, touch the keys | Blocked, even if asked |
Three steps
- Pick one boring jobSomething you have done three times. A weekly report, a quote, an invoice reminder.
- Write it downOne page, like briefing a new hire: what goes in, where it is saved, who gets it, what must never happen.
- Let it do it. You check.It drafts, you read and send. Every correction becomes one new line in the page.
Don't leave your AI hanging.
Most people get the steps from the AI and stall at deploying, or walk away after the first result misses. Keep asking until it is built and it meets what you expected.
Six questions, straight answers
- What does it cost each month? Should I stick to one model?No fixed figure: it is built over months. Start on the lowest paid tier, watch token use, and ask the AI to restructure itself to save tokens if it burns fast. Pick one model and stay with it.
- Which AI is best for data, graphs and illustrations?The crown moves every week. What matters is how well your AI understands what you want. Train one like an intern and correct it until it matches.
- How do I use AI to market my services?Search and AI-search optimisation of your website and product pages, plus illustrations. Every business needs at least a landing page and an online channel.
- How do you go from non-coder to deploying agents?With AI, coding is no longer the barrier. Determination and a painful enough problem will find the way.
- How do you manage the agents' memory?Session logs in Obsidian, plus a two-way loop: every build is pushed to Google Drive, and every new build reads Drive first.
- Is it risky to give confidential documents to an AI?Yes. You are the gatekeeper. Client recipes, process parameters and machine designs never go into the AI, and confidential documents live on a separate machine no AI can reach.