The essentials
- With AI hosted by a third party, every document you submit leaves your network and depends on terms you cannot verify.
- Local AI runs models on your premises or in an isolated environment: no transfer, with access and backups you control.
- Going local requires suitable hardware, maintenance and tested backups: the right level depends on how critical the data is.
Online AI assistants have become a reflex: paste a contract, a plan or meeting minutes and the answer arrives in seconds. For an SMB, an architecture firm or a private bank, the question is rarely “does it work?” but “where do my documents go?”.
What actually leaves the company
With an AI service hosted by a third party, every document you submit leaves your network to be processed on servers you do not control. Depending on the provider and plan, that data may be stored, logged, accessible to subcontractors, or even subject to foreign legislation. Even when the terms of use are reassuring, you have to trust them, and you cannot verify them.
Yet what people submit to an AI is often the company’s most valuable asset: plans and studies, manufacturing processes, price lists, client files, wealth-related records. It is R&D, and know-how built up over years.
What locally installed AI changes
Local AI runs on a machine installed on your premises, or in a dedicated, isolated environment. Open models run on site, and search across your documents happens internally.
- Data stays put: no transfer to a third party, so no question about retention or reuse.
- You stay in control: access, logs and backups depend on you, not on a contract.
- The scope is clear: the assistant only sees the documents you open to it, with rights mirroring your organisation.
- Continuity is yours: no dependence on a change of price, terms or service.
What to keep in mind
Local is not magic. It requires suitable hardware, maintenance, tested backups and serious access security. An open model may also be less powerful than an online service on some tasks. The point is to choose the right level according to criticality: everyday documents can stay on an external service, vital data cannot.
Sources
This note was drafted with AI tools from the cited sources, then reviewed and published under the responsibility of Jordan FOUASSIER, publication director. We summarise the facts and add our reading; source text and images are not reproduced. An error? Write to contact@aigyrosgroup.com.