My AI team with Grok Bot: what it does better than OpenClaw and Hermes

The most important difference from a normal AI chat: I do not talk to one AI about everything, but to several Bots that each know one area. Each Bot keeps its own conversation history and learns over time how I work. It feels less like a tool and more like colleagues you hand tasks to.

My team today looks like this: a personal assistant for appointments, research and everyday tasks. A marketing Bot for ideas, drafts and content research. A sales trainer I use to practise conversations and objections. A bookkeeping Bot that sorts receipts and prepares documents. A Bot for research around investing. A developer. And an orchestrator that coordinates the others.

Two clarifications, because the roles sound like more than they are: the bookkeeping Bot prepares, responsibility stays with me and my tax adviser. And the investing Bot researches and summarises. It is not investment advice, and I make the decisions myself.

For me the most valuable Bot. It can be reached anywhere, whether I am in the car or on my phone on the go. I describe what should change, it works on its cloud computer and creates the change as a pull request, a proposal that is only merged after my review.

At my computer I then look at the result calmly, review it and decide. Waiting time becomes working time without unreviewed code going live. I never skip the review at the end.

The orchestrator hands tasks to the other Bots and takes care of what has to happen regularly. According to xAI's documentation, a Bot can save a multi-step workflow as a skill and repeat it on a schedule. Such routines keep running in the background, even when the app or phone is closed.

An example from my daily work: fixed jobs check whether all my websites are reachable and whether the important functions work. I used to do that on the side or forget it. Now it happens reliably, and I only hear about it when something is wrong.

I do not use Grok Bot only for the business. Privately the Bots help me with training, sport and supplements, with shopping and errands, and when I want to sell something: the Bot prepares the listing, I check it and approve it.

For the business it works similarly with orders. The Bot finds what I need, compares and prepares the order. I complete the purchase myself. How exactly I handle payments is described further below.

To be fair up front: OpenClaw and Hermes are open source projects that you run yourself, on your own computer or a server. That has real advantages, such as free choice of model and more control over where data lives. My criticism concerns everyday work with both, not the idea behind them.

OpenClaw: setting it up was a disaster for me. It took a long time until everything ran the way I had imagined. After an update it crashed, and I had to adjust a lot again. The connections to other services also needed a lot of manual work. In my view, setup and maintenance are only for advanced users. Today I no longer use OpenClaw.

Hermes: that went better. But the agent forgot things more often, and I had to stick very strictly to certain routines for it to work reliably. The interface did not convince me, and everything was less well connected than what I experience with Grok Bot today. I still use Hermes for one specific project, because it fits well there. For my everyday work, though, Grok Bot is clearly the better solution.

Grok Bot is what I had wanted from the start: the Bots work on their own computer in the cloud, with a browser, files and a terminal, and each Bot gets its own screen there. I can open the computer from a conversation and watch what is happening. The Bot operates the browser fully, including websites that have no ready-made interface.

I do not have to install anything, keep a server running or repair anything after updates. Work continues when my laptop is closed, and I reach the same Bot from my phone as from my computer. According to xAI, there are apps for macOS, Windows and Linux as well as for iPhone, iPad and Android.

At launch, xAI announced Grok Bot as a beta. According to the documentation, access is available through paid Cursor plans or a SuperGrok subscription. Please check the provider pages for which plans exactly that is today, because it changes quickly.

The handover of passwords and keys is solved the way I had wanted. According to the security documentation, for login, two-factor codes and payment the Bot does not type credentials itself but hands the computer over to you. You complete just that one step and then let the Bot continue. For supported connections there is a secure request in which the entered value stays masked and does not reach the model. Passwords and one-time codes, on the other hand, never belong in the normal chat.

My own rules: I have not given any Bot a credit card or bank access. My Bots have their own email address so they can sign up for services without my personal inbox being attached. They prepare orders, I pay myself.

A look ahead, as my assessment: I believe it will soon be common to give agents a payment option with a fixed limit. The agent fills everything in, but the purchase only goes through after a final confirmation by a person. Some people already work this way. For me that is the right approach: the agent prepares, the person decides.

One computer for all Bots: according to xAI's documentation, the cloud computer belongs to your account, not to an individual Bot. Files, browser sessions and logins on it are available to all your Bots. Separate Bots are therefore not separate security boundaries. Anything a Bot should not see does not belong on that computer.

Location and data protection: according to the provider, the computers currently run in the United States. Whether your data is used for training depends on the settings, in a team for example on Privacy Mode. That is why I do not put customer data, employee data or contracts in without a clarified basis. Whether a data processing agreement is enough in your case is for a data protection adviser to decide.

Lock-in to one provider: with Hermes and OpenClaw you choose the model and server yourself. With Grok Bot you use a finished service and are bound by its rules, plans and changes. That is the price of convenience.

Mistakes remain possible: even good agents make mistakes or misunderstand a task. Everything that goes out, costs money or cannot be undone, I check myself. I keep approvals switched on for sending, publishing, deleting and buying.

Grok Bot fits if you, as an owner or self-employed professional, want to hand off work without having to run technology. Research, preparation, recurring checks, drafts, preparing orders: for this it is currently the best solution I know.

Hermes and OpenClaw fit if data must stay in-house, you want to use a specific model, or an agent talks to customers permanently and is built deep into your own systems. Then the effort for setup and maintenance pays off, ideally with someone who takes care of it.

Slowly. Take one Bot and one task that bothers you every week, for example a piece of research, a regular check or preparing orders. Give the Bot its own email address, keep approvals switched on and do not hand out payment details. In the first days, look at the computer more often to see how the Bot works.

Once that works, add the second Bot. That is how my team came about, not in one weekend but step by step. This applies privately just as much as for business. If you have questions getting started, I am happy to help.