You Can Host AI Privately: A Better Way Than Banning AI Tools

This is a companion post to the latest episode of the Tech Your Business podcast. Tune in to the full episode for a deeper dive into private AI hosting.

Have you noticed more companies banning AI tools because of privacy worries? I’ve seen this trend growing recently, and it’s concerning. Why? Because many businesses don’t realise there’s a better option than giving up on AI altogether.

The truth is, you can use AI fully in your business without your data ever leaving your premises. In fact, your AI doesn’t even need to be connected to the internet. That’s what I explored in the latest episode of the Tech Your Business podcast – the concluding part of our three-episode series on AI security and compliance.

What’s the difference between public and private AI?

When most of us think about using AI in business, we imagine signing up for ChatGPT, Claude, or another service, then sending our data back and forth. But there’s another approach entirely.

Private AI means hosting the AI model on your own server, whether that’s physically in your office or on a cloud you control. Everything stays within your environment. The data, the processing, the outputs, none of it leaves your premises.

Why consider private AI for your business?

1. Complete control of your data

No more worrying about privacy policies, where your data is processed, or if your information is being used to train models that your competitors might access. Everything stays with you, full stop.

You decide who sees what, how the model is used, and you can even take it completely offline to eliminate certain security risks. Fancy having a comprehensive audit trail? That’s easier too when everything’s in-house.

2. It actually makes business sense

Yes, public AI models seem cheap (or even free), but what’s the true cost when you factor in:

• Risk of data leakage
• Potential privacy law violations (remember those GDPR fines we discussed last week?)
• Licensing costs when scaled across hundreds of employees

When you run the numbers properly, private AI often makes financial sense, especially for data-sensitive industries.

3. Better performance for your specific needs

Public AI models are built to work for everyone but your business isn’t everyone, is it?

With private AI, you can train the model on your business data, your customer information, and your knowledge base. The results are tailored to your company’s terminology, processes, and specific needs. This customisation means you’ll get more relevant and useful outputs than from general-purpose models.

Is switching to private AI complicated?

It might sound like a massive undertaking, but for most use cases, it’s simpler than you’d think. At a basic level, you need:

1. A server (either physical or cloud-based)
2. Your AI model
3. Configuration for your specific needs

Depending on your use case, implementation typically takes around 90 days to set up, test, and integrate with your existing systems.

Getting started with private AI

If you’re considering private AI, here’s a simple approach:

1. Audit your current AI usage: What are you using AI for now? Customer support? Data analysis? Content creation?
2. Decide on hosting: Physical server in your office or cloud-based solution?
3. Set up and customize: Configure the model with your specific business data
4. Test thoroughly: Compare with your current public AI solutions and refine as needed

Want to learn more?

This post is just scratching the surface of what we covered in the podcast. If you’re interested in learning more about private AI for your business, listen to the full episode of Tech Your Business.

And don’t forget to check out the first two episodes in this series, where we discussed data security with AI and GDPR compliance issues.

Got questions about implementing private AI in your business? I’d love to chat about your specific needs—get in touch and let’s see how we can help.

This concludes our three-part series on AI security and compliance. Join us next week for a brand new topic on the Tech Your Business podcast.