Tam
aka Zhiy Tam · Founder & AI Builder
Tam is the Founder & CEO of MINDLINK TEC LTD, an AI creator and product builder building creative AI tools including Mica and Bobi.
Skills & Expertise
Generative AI
Building production AI products end-to-end — from diffusion-based image generation in Bobi to agentic tool-use in Mica. Hands-on experience shipping LLMs, diffusion models, and prompt-to-action pipelines into real products.
NLP
Turning natural language into dependable software actions. Mica's core is NLP — parsing intent, mapping it to spreadsheet operations, and generating formulas people can actually trust.
Product Design
A zero-learning-curve philosophy: if a tool needs a manual, it isn't finished. Designed Bobi and Mica so first-time users create something real without reading a single instruction.
Creative Technology
Treating AI as a medium, not a utility. Exploring how generative systems can amplify personal expression — stylized portraits, fresh aesthetics, and tools that make imagination feel reachable.
Background
Before founding MINDLINK TEC LTD, Tam gained deep experience in modern product engineering — from crafting user-facing interfaces to architecting cloud-native systems. His fascination with AI began during early experiments with generative models, which quickly evolved into a conviction: AI is not just a tool for automation, but a medium for creative expression. Based in cyberspace, he continues to push the boundaries of what AI-powered creative tools can do.
Milestones
Led the development of Bobi — a zero-learning-curve AI image tool. Upload a photo and transform it into multiple styles instantly, no prompt engineering required.
Led the development of Mica — an AI Agent-powered Excel assistant that turns natural language into spreadsheet actions. Reached 1,000 active users in the first week.
Founded MINDLINK TEC LTD with a mission to make AI-powered creativity accessible to everyone.
Projects
Mica
An AI Agent-powered Excel assistant. Describe what you need in natural language, and Mica handles spreadsheet operations, data analysis, and formula generation — making Excel as easy as having a conversation.
Bobi
A zero-learning-curve AI image tool. Upload a photo and generate stylized portraits and creative images across multiple aesthetics — no prompt crafting needed.
Philosophy
I believe technology is at its most powerful when it enables people to express themselves in ways they never thought possible. With Bobi, I'm building tools that lower the barrier to creativity — letting anyone, regardless of technical skill, create art that feels personal and meaningful. Every feature starts with the question: "Does this help someone see themselves differently?"
Articles by Tam
24 articles across 2 series
AI-Native Spreadsheets vs Excel AI: What Dies, What Stays (2026)
AI-native spreadsheets vs Excel AI in 2026: the Rows shutdown as a case study, the developer MCP edge, and which category actually survives.
ChatGPT for Excel: Guide, Pricing, and 5 Alternatives (2026)
ChatGPT for Excel in 2026 — what the add-in does, real pricing and availability, what it won’t do, and the best alternatives that actually execute.
Claude for Excel: Guide, Pricing & the Best Alternatives (2026)
Claude for Excel in 2026 — what cell-level citations give you, real pricing, what citations can’t do, and the alternatives that actually execute.
Formula Bot Alternatives: 6 Better Excel Formula Tools (2026)
Six real Formula Bot alternatives compared on price, execution, and data safety in 2026 — and who should switch from the browser-based generator.
Microsoft Copilot for Excel: Complete Guide & Is It Worth It? (2026)
Microsoft Copilot for Excel in 2026 — what it does, how it runs in the cloud with Microsoft 365, real pricing, and whether it’s worth it versus local execution.
Excel Data Cleaning with AI: 7 Steps (2026 Guide)
Excel data cleaning with AI — why it eats 80% of analyst time, the seven most common cleaning tasks, how AI executes them in your sheet, and a delivery checklist.
Excel Formula Errors: Fix #VALUE! #NAME? #REF! and #1004 (2026)
Fix AI-generated Excel formula errors in 2026 — what #VALUE!, #NAME?, #REF! and the macro #1004 mean, and how to break the paste-and-repair loop.
Excel AI for Finance: Tools for FP&A and Analysts (2026)
Excel AI for finance and FP&A in 2026 — the use cases that save the most analyst time, tools compared on execution, privacy, and audit, plus a month-end workflow.
Excel AI for Freelancers: Get More Gigs, Bill Faster (2026)
Excel AI for freelancers in 2026 — speed up deliverables, keep thin margins, take client-confidential gigs safely, and bill faster on every job.
Automate Excel Without VBA: 5 Ways in 2026
Automate Excel in 2026 without VBA: five methods — Power Query, Power Automate, Office Scripts, AI workbook agents, and formulas — plus a worked example.
Mica: Excel AI That Works Where You Are — Local, No Cloud
Mica runs Excel AI on your own computer — no cloud upload, no subscription. Sign in with the account you already have (Microsoft, Google, or GitHub) and pay with Alipay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or card, from any region.
Mica Data & Benchmarks: Install Time, Speed, Privacy (2026)
Mica data and benchmarks in 2026 — install time, task speed, and no workbook uploads, with each number carrying its method so writers can cite it directly.
Best Excel Formula Generators in 2026 (Free & Paid)
Best Excel formula generators compared — Formula Bot, GPTExcel, ChatGPT and Mica — on price, functions like XLOOKUP, and whether they actually run the formula.
8 Free Excel AI Tools That Actually Work in 2026
The genuinely free Excel AI tools in 2026 — what "free" means, eight tools on price, limits, execution, and data, and local options that never upload your files.
What Is Mica? A Local Excel AI That Does the Work (2026)
What is Mica — a local, action-type Excel AI for Windows that executes tasks in your workbook, shows every step, and keeps data on your machine.
Gemini in Sheets: Guide, Pricing & Excel Alternatives (2026)
Gemini in Google Sheets for Excel users in 2026: what it does, the Workspace pricing and platform requirements, and how it compares to Excel AI.
Why Mica Opens in a Browser: Local Engine, Always Current
Why Mica runs in a browser tab — the local engine that does the Excel work on your machine, the always-current window, and what stays local versus what travels.
What Is an Excel Workbook Agent? vs AI Add-ins (2026)
What is a workbook agent — the Excel AI type that operates inside your file rather than suggesting code, how it differs from AI add-ins, and who it is for.
ChatGPT vs Claude vs Copilot for Excel: Who Actually Works?
ChatGPT vs Claude vs Copilot for Excel — the execution-vs-advice difference, a full six-column comparison, and how to choose which one does the work.
How to Use Mica: Install, Connect Excel, and Run Your First Task
How to use Mica in 2026: install the Mindlink launcher, authorize Excel, run your first task with batteries, and resolve common setup problems.
Mica Pricing: Free Download + Pay-Per-Use Batteries
Mica pricing: free to download, batteries consumed as you use Mica — new users get a trial allowance, then $18 for one battery and $80 for a pack of five — and how that compares to cloud subscriptions.
Is It Safe to Upload Your Excel Files to AI? (2026 Guide)
Is it safe to upload Excel files to AI — what cloud tools see and store, what local execution keeps on your machine, and how to check any tool's data policy.
How Mica Works: Local Execution, Shown Step by Step
How Mica works — local execution, the step-by-step task flow, permission and verification, and why seeing every step in your workbook helps you learn Excel.
Mica Security & Privacy: Excel Data Stays on Your Machine
Mica security and privacy — what data Mica processes, the local execution architecture, and how you can verify that your workbook file never leaves your machine.