Using AI on your office's own documents without uploading them

Small offices sit on piles of documents: contracts, policies, client files, past reports, price lists. A local AI that runs on-site lets your team ask questions of those files without sending them to a cloud service.

What staff actually do with it

• Ask "what does our leave policy say about carrying over days?" and get an answer taken from the policy.
• Find the clause in a long contract or the price in an old quote.
• Summarise a long report in a few bullet points.
• Draft or tidy an email, using the office's own documents as the source.

How it works, briefly

Your files are split into small pieces and indexed on the computer in your office. When someone asks a question, it finds the pieces that match, and the AI model writes the answer from them. The answer lists which documents it used, so you can open the original and check. There is a longer explanation on how it works.

Keeping it sensible

• Give each person their own login, and keep separate document sets for teams, such as HR, finance and general files, so people only see what they should.
• Check important answers. It can get things wrong or miss something. It is not legal, financial or medical advice.
• Be careful with web search. It is off unless you switch it on. When it is on, the words being searched go to a search engine, so keep confidential details out of it.
• Know your own obligations. Keeping files on your own machine is a good start, but you are still responsible for your privacy and professional obligations. If you are unsure what applies to you, ask your adviser.

Who it suits

It suits small businesses and offices such as law firms and accountants that handle confidential documents and would rather keep them in the office. See the features for what your team and your administrator get.

Read more: Private AI vs ChatGPT and What to ask before you buy.