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Groundset

AI agent · automation · hardware · South Africa

An AI agent for business and home.

Built to earn its keep.

Groundset sets up AI agents, automation and connected hardware for South African businesses, homes and workshops, then keeps them running.

Admin done by handDone by the agent, on your hardware

Watch the agent work
Groundset agentWhatsApp · 17:55 · 1/6
Inbox
Show my latest emails.17:55
Here are your most recent emails: 1. Statement, from your billing system. Billing, 4 h ago. 2. New ClientZone login, from your host's support desk. 1 d ago. 3. RE: New ClientZone login. Billing, 2 d ago. Draft reply ready. 4. Track your electricity spend, July report. 4 d ago.17:55

Real exchanges from our own WhatsApp log, over an illustrated backdrop.

The agent already runs our own business

Every service we sell has run for us first. Measured on our own stack on 13 September 2026.

  • 22

    services running at snapshot

  • 22 796

    agent runs since December 2025

  • 362

    fixes applied without a phone call

  • R0

    the agent's cloud AI bill. All its calls run on local models

What the agent does

Four things, in the order they land.

Step 1 of 4

  1. 01 · automate

    Automate the office

    The agent reads the inbox, answers staff on WhatsApp and replies to every lead. A person approves anything that goes out.

    • 01

      Lead response

      A new enquiry gets an acknowledgement and a scoping email within the hour, any time of day.

    • 02

      Inbox triage and draft replies

      Every email read, filed and answered in draft before you open your laptop.

    • 03

      Team WhatsApp assistant

      Staff ask a question on WhatsApp and get an answer from your own records. No new app.

    A small black appliance with one green light on a shelf in a dim office
    Illustration: the machine we set up in your building
  2. 02 · know

    Know what is happening

    One screen shows the day. Reports arrive on schedule. Your own paperwork answers questions, with the source shown.

    • 04

      Document vault and search

      Invoices, contracts and statements go in once. A question gets an answer with the source.

    • 05

      One-screen reporting

      One screen for what is happening and a report on schedule, instead of five logins.

    A wall display showing an abstract sensor dashboard in blue
    Illustration: deliberately unreadable. The real screen is the console below
  3. 03 · connect

    Wire the building in

    Sensors, switches and energy monitors on your own network. When the part does not exist, we build the board.

    • 06

      Site sensors and switches

      Power, temperature and equipment status read every few seconds. Switches you flip from your phone.

    • 07

      Custom sensor hardware

      When the part does not exist on the shelf, we design and build the board.

    A sensor node in a small enclosure beside a distribution board, with a current clamp on the supply
    Illustration: a sensor node beside a distribution board. The readings below are real
    Our Home Assistant at snapshot79 entities · 34 sensors
    • Office light off
    • Sonoff switch on
    • Air pressure 973.54 hPa
    • Backups idle
    • Updates waiting 5
  4. 04 · maintain

    Keep it running

    We watch what we built and fix known failures by playbook. You hear from us before you notice.

    • 08

      Watch and fix

      We watch what we built and fix known failures by playbook, before you notice.

    A monitor on a desk showing our monitoring panel
    Illustration: the figures on the screen are ours, measured at snapshot

What we set up

What we set up.

We put an assistant on a machine in your building. It reads your inbox, reminds, reports, and switches things on and off. Your data stays with you. There is no monthly cloud bill. When something breaks, the person who built it fixes it.

  1. 01

    Lead response

    A new enquiry gets an acknowledgement and a scoping email within the hour, any time of day.

    Live on this site since 5 September 2026. Every lead lands in our own inbox with a message to our phone.

    No agent talks to your customers. It writes the draft; you decide what goes further.

    Once-off
  2. 02

    Inbox triage and draft replies

    Every email read, filed and answered in draft before you open your laptop.

    Runs on our own inbox: 206 emails filed and 94 replies drafted in the 30 days to 13 September 2026.

    A person sends. The agent never does.

    Setup, then monthly
  3. 03

    Team WhatsApp assistant

    Staff ask a question on WhatsApp and get an answer from your own records. No new app.

    The same agent answers us on WhatsApp, Telegram and by voice: 22 796 runs since December 2025.

    Read-only from chat. It cites the record or says it does not know.

    Setup, then monthly
  4. 04

    Document vault and search

    Invoices, contracts and statements go in once. A question gets an answer with the source.

    Our own vault indexes every upload on local models. Nothing leaves the machine.

    Scoped to the document types we agree on. Every answer shows where it came from.

    Setup, then monthly
  5. 05

    One-screen reporting

    One screen for what is happening and a report on schedule, instead of five logins.

    The console on our home page is that screen. Three panels, refreshed from the stack before every deploy.

    Every report states its source and the time it was true.

    Setup, then monthly
  6. 06

    Site sensors and switches

    Power, temperature and equipment status read every few seconds. Switches you flip from your phone.

    79 entities and 34 sensors on our own network, with energy monitors we built into the distribution board.

    Alert thresholds agreed in writing. A licensed electrician signs off any wiring in a board. Nothing safety-related switches on its own.

    Per site, plus hardware
  7. 07

    Custom sensor hardware

    When the part does not exist on the shelf, we design and build the board.

    ESP32 boards and purpose-built PCBs run in our own monitoring today.

    Priced as a project. Lead time is weeks, and we say so up front.

    Project
  8. 08

    Watch and fix

    We watch what we built and fix known failures by playbook, before you notice.

    Sentinel has applied 362 fixes on our own stack without a phone call.

    Known failures only, with response times agreed per contract. No blanket promise.

    Monthly add-on

Our own console

Three screens from our own stack.

Every figure measured on our own systems on 13 September 2026.

Token Meter30 days · 13 September 2026
5.6M
tokens processed on our own hardware, R0
local calls
5 362
cloud calls
961
cloud spend
$7.81
  • qwen3:30b-a3b5.5M
  • claude-haiku-4-51.4M
  • gemini-3.1-flash-image136k
  • qwen2.5:14b73k
The agent’s own calls: 251, all on local models. Metered since 19 August 2026.
Mission Control9 agents · 13 September 2026
23k
automated runs since December 2025, 5 of 9 agents live
  • Atlas Financial Analyst19 312
  • Forge Autonomous Executor1 072
  • Cipher Email Intelligence590
  • Alfred Chief of Staff446
  • Sage Deep Research30
Resident model: qwen3:30b-a3b. 30 scheduled agent sessions in 30 days.
Email CentreCipher · 13 September 2026
206
emails read and sorted in 30 days
replies drafted
94
sent, approved
12
threads watched
718
Actionable mail by category
  • Billing 46
  • Other 36
  • High Priority 30
  • Legal Documents 20
68 follow-up nudges sent on threads that went quiet. Drafts wait for approval; nothing sends itself.

How we work

Consult, build, run.

  1. 01

    Consult

    We learn your business first. What are your people doing every day that they should not have to? We map it and scope only what is worth building.

  2. 02

    Build

    The agent, the workflows and any hardware go on your infrastructure, configured for how you actually work.

  3. 03

    Run

    We monitor it. You forget it is there. Support comes from the people who built it, not a helpdesk that has never seen your system.

How we think

How we think

No licences, no kits. We build systems, run them in our own business first, then offer them.

  • Start with the problem

    No scope before we understand what is actually costing you time.

  • Run it ourselves first

    Nothing ships to a client until it has run in our own business.

  • Your hardware, your data

    Local models, local storage, your network. Nothing leaves unless you say so.

  • A person stays in the loop

    Nothing goes out to a customer and nothing switches in a board without a person saying so.

Who it is for

Two ways in.

  • For businesses

    Lead response, inbox triage, a WhatsApp assistant for staff and one screen for the day.

    • 02Inbox triage and draft replies
    • 03Team WhatsApp assistant
    • 05One-screen reporting
  • For homes and workshops

    Sensors and switches on your own network, boards we build when the part does not exist, and someone watching it.

    • 06Site sensors and switches
    • 07Custom sensor hardware
    • 08Watch and fix

Start with a 30 minute conversation.

Tell us what is taking up your time. We say what is worth automating and what is not.