Local AI, Explained Plainly
"Local AI" means the AI model runs on a computer you own — a workstation in your office, a small server in a closet — instead of in a provider's data centre. Your staff use it the same way they'd use ChatGPT: a chat window, questions, drafts. The difference is where the thinking happens. With local AI, the documents you paste in, the questions you ask, and the answers you get never travel beyond your own network.
What You'll Find Here
- What local AI is — the mental model, without jargon
- How it compares to ChatGPT, Copilot, and other cloud AI for an office that handles sensitive information
- How the pieces work — models, hardware, and the software that ties them together, at the depth an owner needs (and no deeper)
- A glossary — every term you'll meet on this site, translated into plain language
Every guide carries a last verified date, states what it is not, and ends with a worked example: a realistic (fictional) office, what was deployed, and what changed.
All Basics Templates
The Local AI Glossary: Every Term, in Plain Language
LLM, on-prem, inference, RAG, data residency, quantization — the jargon of local AI translated for non-technical readers, in one page.
View template →Is ChatGPT Safe for Confidential Information? An Honest Answer
What actually happens to text you paste into ChatGPT, what OpenAI's own policies say plan by plan — training defaults, data retention, admin controls — when it's genuinely fine, when it isn't, and what offices with sensitive data can do about it.
View template →Local AI vs Cloud AI: What Actually Happens to Your Data (and What Each Really Costs)
A plain-English comparison of local AI (models running on hardware you own) and cloud AI like ChatGPT: where your text physically goes in each model, what the vendors' own policies say, and an honest cost and capability trade-off for a small office.
View template →What Is Local AI? A Plain-Language Explanation for Business Owners
Local AI means the model runs on a computer you own — your questions, documents, and answers never leave your network. Here's how it works, what it can do, and what it honestly can't.
View template →External Resources
Authoritative references and tools related to this documentation type.
AI that works here. Data that stays here.
Talk to an engineer about what a local AI setup looks like for your office — scope, hardware, and a real number.