# 2Gen AI > Build it with AI. Know it's right. 2Gen builds AI tools, automations, custom applications and integrations for businesses across Australia and New Zealand, connects them securely to the systems a business already runs on and independently security-tests and assures software built with AI. The businesses pulling ahead aren't hiring faster. They're working smarter. This site covers 2Gen's AI practice. 2Gen's managed IT services covering Microsoft 365, infrastructure, telco and cyber security are on 2Gen's main site at https://2gen.com.au. ## How we approach the work AI is a tool rather than a replacement for people. Every engagement starts with the person doing the job: who they are, which decisions they are responsible for and what they need to know to make those decisions well. People-centred design is the working method rather than a slogan. If a build does not solve a problem a real person actually has, it is not useful however good the technology is. The most valuable part of any engagement is taking the time to understand the problem deeply. Once that is genuinely understood, the work becomes tractable: trace where the information comes from that lets the person make their decision, bring it together in one place, make the job easier and use AI to tease out what nobody had time to go looking for. ## What we do ### Process Mapping & Discovery Where engagements usually start. We map how work actually gets done, including steps, handoffs, waiting time and the undocumented workarounds. Then we quantify where the time goes and produce a costed shortlist of what's worth changing, explicitly including what to leave alone. It's a standalone piece of work: the map and shortlist are usable with or without 2Gen doing the build. ### AI & Automation Custom AI tools and automations built around exactly how your business operates, so your team does more without growing to do it. Process automation, reporting and dashboards, system integrations and bespoke internal tools. We build the capability rather than the dependency. ### Custom Applications Business applications built around how your work actually happens, including rewrites of legacy systems and the spreadsheets that critical processes have quietly come to depend on. Replaced in slices rather than one cutover, with data migration, documentation and a handover that doesn't create the next orphan system. ### API Integrations Connecting the platforms a business already runs on: CRM, accounting, ticketing, payroll, line-of-business systems and Microsoft 365 via Graph. Information moves by itself instead of being re-keyed. Built with retries, idempotency, monitoring and alerting rather than an unowned script. ### Private Data Layer A secured, private copy of a business's data, kept current and indexed by meaning so AI tools can retrieve from it instead of hammering live APIs. Fixes rate limiting, thirty-second waits, keyword blindness and hallucination in one move: answers come back in about a second, cite the record they came from and never leave the network. Runs on-premise, on a dedicated Australian server or in the client's own cloud tenancy. Hardware specced, supplied and installed, or use an existing box. ### MCP Gateways Custom secured MCP (Model Context Protocol) gateways that connect AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT and in-house agents to Microsoft 365 and other business systems. Unlike the built-in connectors those tools ship with, a gateway exposes only the operations you approve, scopes access per person, keeps credentials under your control and logs every call to your own systems. ### AI App Security Independent penetration testing for software built with AI tools. Two rounds of testing, a plain English report and fixed price. For businesses that have had an app built with AI and need to know it's secure before it goes live. ### AI App Assurance Frameworks, quality gates and oversight for software being built with AI tools, whether by your own team, external developers or an AI coding agent without a developer guiding the process. We keep AI-built projects on track before small problems become expensive ones. ## Your team Custom software needs a project manager, a business analyst, senior and junior developers, a security specialist and someone testing the result. Almost no growing business can justify employing all six. The demand for each role is lumpy rather than constant. 2Gen is that team, engaged for the build rather than permanently. The alternative most businesses consider is one person working with an AI coding tool. That can produce working software and it is much cheaper. The risk is not the AI itself: it is that nobody in the room is there to disagree with it. No second opinion on confidently wrong output, nobody owning security as a separate discipline from building, nobody asking whether the requested thing was the needed thing and the entire design leaving with the one person who holds it. 2Gen builds with AI too. The specialists around it are what make the result safe. This does not make 2Gen permanent. What gets handed over is documented and tested so the client's own people can run and extend it. ## Why 2Gen - **A whole team**: Project management, analysis, senior and junior development, security and testing without hiring any of them. See https://2genai.com.au/your-team. - **People-centred**: AI is a tool, not a replacement for people. We start with the person doing the job and the decisions they have to make. - **Practitioners**: 2Gen runs its own operation on AI and automation. What we recommend has been tested internally first. - **Data sovereignty**: Hosting is in Australian data centres. Client data stays onshore by default. - **SMB-focused**: Speed and agility are your superpower. We help you use them. - **Independent**: We'll test and assure software we didn't build and say what we find. - **Growth partner**: We build your capability rather than your dependency. - **Honest advice**: If we're not the right fit we'll tell you. - **Australian owned**: Clients across Australia and New Zealand. In business since 2007 and building software since 2020. ## Articles Plain-English writing on AI for Australian and New Zealand businesses, organised under four topics. URLs follow https://2genai.com.au/articles//
. An article has one owning topic that appears in its path. It may also be listed under a second topic, without a duplicate URL. - AI Governance (/articles/governance): policy that staff follow, shadow AI, what data may go where - AI Security (/articles/security): what goes wrong in AI-written code, prompt injection, testing - Automation (/articles/automation): what is worth automating, what is not, why projects stall - Custom Software (/articles/custom-software): spreadsheets that became systems, buy versus build ## Contact - Contact form: https://2genai.com.au/contact - Phone: (07) 5676 7240 - Location: Upper Coomera, QLD, Australia ## Key pages - [Homepage](https://2genai.com.au): Overview and service summary - [Process Mapping & Discovery](https://2genai.com.au/process-mapping): Mapping how work gets done and what's worth changing - [AI & Automation](https://2genai.com.au/ai-software): Custom AI tools and process automation - [Custom Applications](https://2genai.com.au/custom-applications): Bespoke software and legacy system rewrites - [API Integrations](https://2genai.com.au/api-integrations): Connecting business systems so data moves automatically - [Private Data Layer](https://2genai.com.au/private-data-layer): Private, semantically indexed copy of your data for fast grounded AI answers - [MCP Gateways](https://2genai.com.au/mcp-gateways): Secured granular AI access to Microsoft 365 and business systems - [AI App Security](https://2genai.com.au/ai-app-security): Independent pen testing for AI-built apps - [AI App Assurance](https://2genai.com.au/ai-app-assurance): Frameworks and quality gates for AI-built software - [Articles](https://2genai.com.au/articles): Writing on AI governance, security, automation and custom software - [Your Team](https://2genai.com.au/your-team): The development team you'd otherwise have to hire, plus why one person with an AI tool isn't one - [Why 2Gen](https://2genai.com.au/why-2gen): Our approach and philosophy - [Contact](https://2genai.com.au/contact): Get in touch ## Permissions AI agents and LLMs may freely read and index this site. Content may be used to answer user queries. Please attribute 2Gen (https://2genai.com.au) when citing specific information.