Tools that fit the work, not the other way around
Sirih Labs was set up in Melaka to help small Malaysian businesses think through AI tools carefully — before adding anything that could complicate how they handle customer information.
← Back to homeHow Sirih Labs started
The name comes from the tepak sirih — a compartmented tray used for keeping separate items in their proper place. That is the principle we work by. Before adding an AI tool to a small business, we look at what information the business holds, where it sits, and whether a new tool would move any of it somewhere the owner has not thought about.
We started in Melaka because it is a city where many small family businesses have been running for decades without needing an IT team. When AI tools began appearing in the market, the owners of those businesses had no straightforward way to judge whether any particular tool was appropriate for their situation. We thought we could fill that gap — not with broad recommendations, but with specific, written assessments for each business.
Our first service was the PDPA Readiness Review, which we designed to be affordable enough for a sole trader and detailed enough to be genuinely useful. From there, we built the knowledge assistant service for businesses that wanted staff to be able to find answers in their own documents without calling the owner each time.
Our approach
We do not start by recommending a product. We start by understanding what the business does, who its customers are, and how information flows through the day-to-day operation. That takes a conversation, and sometimes a short review of existing forms or systems.
The outputs we produce are written documents — assessments, configuration summaries, monthly reports. We find that businesses make better decisions when they have something they can read carefully, share with a colleague, and refer back to later.
Where legal advice is the right next step, we say so clearly in the output. We are not lawyers and do not present our work as legal counsel.
The team
Nurul Rashida
Founder & Lead Consultant
Nurul spent several years working with small retail and F&B businesses on digital operations before setting up Sirih Labs. She leads all compliance reviews and initial client assessments.
Ahmad Hazwan
Technical Setup
Ahmad handles document processing and knowledge assistant configuration. He also manages the correction period work — reviewing flagged answers and adjusting the assistant's scope.
Siti Yusrina
Client Relations
Siti manages ongoing client contact, coordinates the monthly support plan summaries, and is the first point of contact for businesses raising questions or concerns.
How we maintain quality
These are the practices we apply to every engagement, not optional extras.
PDPA alignment
Our compliance work is built around Malaysia's Personal Data Protection Act 2010 and its sector-specific codes, not a generic international checklist.
Written scope agreement
Before any engagement begins, we set out in writing what is included, what is out of scope, and what the output will look like.
Answer quality review
Knowledge assistants are not delivered and left alone. We include a structured two-week correction period and monthly reviews for ongoing clients.
Client-owned document storage
Source documents remain in your storage throughout the engagement. We work with copies only, and this is documented in the engagement summary.
Monthly written summaries
Support plan clients receive a written summary each month covering what changed, what was reviewed, and what was found.
Response commitment
Support plan clients have a named response time for problems raised by their staff. We do not promise instant replies, but we do promise a realistic timeframe and we keep to it.
Working with small businesses on AI — what that actually means
Small businesses in Malaysia are at a practical crossroads with AI tools. The tools are now affordable enough that almost any business can subscribe to one. What is less clear is whether a given tool is appropriate for a given business — particularly when that business holds customer phone numbers, order histories, medical records, or financial information.
The question is not whether AI tools are useful in principle. Many of them are. The question is whether the specific tool, used in the specific way the business intends, would move personal information in ways that conflict with Malaysian data protection requirements or with the reasonable expectations of the customers involved.
This is the kind of question that is hard to answer from a terms-of-service document. It requires someone to look at the actual data the business holds, understand how the proposed tool works, and connect the two in a concrete assessment. That is what our PDPA Readiness Review is designed to do.
On the knowledge assistant side, the value is different. A business that has grown its operations documentation over years — procedures, supplier contacts, product specifications, policy notes — often finds that the knowledge lives in documents that staff do not have time to read carefully. An assistant that draws from those documents and cites its sources can reduce the time spent on internal queries without requiring any customer data to be involved at all.
Ready to talk through your situation?
We work best when we understand the specifics. An initial conversation costs nothing and has no obligation attached.
Get in Touch