Where the thinking happens.

Every cloud assistant works the same way: your question, and often your file, travels to a server you will never see. The model answers there, and the answer comes back. The terms of that trip are the vendor's, and they change.

Local AI changes one thing: where the computer sits. The model runs on a machine in your office, bought once and owned like the rest of your equipment. You chat with it just as you would with a cloud assistant. The difference is that it reads your documents and writes its answers on your own hardware, and it keeps what your clients told you in the room where they told you.

What it does for a firm of 5 to 30 people.

The jobs are the ones every office knows. It reads the whole file and tells you what is in it, with page cites. It reads the inbox and drafts the replies; a person clicks send. It runs research and shows its sources. It keeps the calendar, flags who has not confirmed and drafts the reminders. It makes letters, reports and meeting notes in PDF, Word or Excel. It transcribes dictation without an internet connection.

Then it learns your trade. A CPA firm gets 1099 tie-outs and close binders. A law office gets deposition digests. An architecture and engineering firm gets RFI logs and field reports. These are tools your week already contains, built in, not bolted on.

What it needs.

A workstation with a dedicated graphics card, a quiet corner and a power outlet. The card is what lets it read whole files instead of snippets. The size depends on how many people use it at once, not on headcount. For a firm of eight, that is not a server room. It is one box under a desk.

What still touches the network.

Two jobs need the network by their nature. Email has to reach your mail server, and web research has to reach the web. Both fail gracefully offline, and neither sends your documents anywhere. Everything else runs without a connection. Halfway through every demo, with your permission, we pull the cable, and the machine keeps reading and answering.

Is it as capable as the big cloud models?

Honestly, no, not at everything, and we will not pretend otherwise. The big cloud models are stronger at open-ended reasoning. For the jobs this machine actually does (reading your documents, triaging mail, drafting replies, checking the calendar), a well-fitted local model is more than capable. And it is the only kind that gets there without sharing your clients' files.

Who installs it, and what it costs.

We do. Homestead Systems builds, delivers and installs across Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, and the demo happens at your conference table. Published tiers run $7,500 to $23,300, paid once. Each total is the hardware at cost, from the receipts, plus a 15% procurement, assembly and testing fee, plus a software & setup fee that covers installation, configuration, training and 90 days of support. Current figures live on the investment page. The guarantee is plain: working in your office within seven days of the parts arriving, or every dollar back.

Not sure it fits your firm? The AI Exposure Review settles it: $500 flat, about half a day in your office, credited in full toward an install for 90 days. If you would rather see the machine work first, book a private demo.