Season 1 · Episode 64 · August 5, 2026 · 56 min

Local AI: How to Run Private, Low-Cost AI on Your Own Computer

Show Notes

What if your AI ran entirely on a laptop you own, added nothing to your monthly bill, and never sent your data anywhere? That's local AI. It might sound too good to be true, but as token costs climb and concerns about data privacy grow, local AI and small language models could be the solution.

In this episode, Jess and Kyle get into what local AI actually is, why running smaller models on your own machine has become a real option, and where it fits for a non-technical business. They cover the difference between small language models and the big cloud tools, what open weight models change, the jobs local AI is best suited to, the hardware it takes to run one, and why a hybrid of local and cloud is the right answer for almost every small business rather than going all in on either.

MCP Episode:

Small Language Model Episode:

Enterprise Nation AI Agent Webinar

What You'll Learn:

What local AI actually means
How running a small language model on your own laptop keeps sensitive data off a third party's servers
The difference between a small language model and the large models
What "open weight" models are
What jobs local AI is good at
Considerations for the hardware needed to run local AI
What apps you can use to run local AI

Resources:

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Weekly Updates

04:45 What Local AI Actually Means

07:45 Small Language Models Explained

13:55 What Open Weight Models Are and Why They Matter

13:55 Understanding Open Weight Models

17:31 The Rise of Local AI and Its Applications

27:25 Hardware Considerations for Local AI

33:17 Privacy, Control, and Cost in AI Usage

34:32 The Rising Cost of Tokens

37:45 Speed and Efficiency in AI Models