Private AI: When Your Data Should Never Leave the Building

For most organisations, cloud AI is the right starting point. But two forces push some workloads on-premises: data that regulation or contract says cannot leave the building, and per-token costs that, at scale, exceed the cost of owning the hardware.

This article sets out the decision test — residency obligations, sustained inference volume, sensitivity of the data, and the total cost comparison over three years — and describes what a private AI box actually involves to run.

For the right workload, a fixed asset you own ends both the residency risk and the metered bill.