For business data security, your future AI tools may not be connected to "The Cloud."

The development and deployment of AI systems that are not connected to the outside world may be your best bet to insure security for condidential documents and materials.

One possible strategy to protect confidential data is to restrict the access of your AI searches and prompts. It's called "Local AI" or "Small langauge models" (SLM's).

Prediction: You will see SLM use explode with local computer servers as the emerging dimension of AI useage over the coming months and years.

SLM's can be brought to office and residential desktop computers. These "smart models" are restricted and operate as specialized experts. For data sovereinty and governance compliance, this scaled down technology is a potential key strategy to battle Shadow AI.

Using this approach, data breach risks are reduced, because there is no connection to the outside internet..."the Cloud" if you so choose. The data you use never leaves your environment and does not go into the public internet. Small and medium size business enterprises can employ Local AI servers which can pay for themselves over time. They provide sovereignty and data privacy.

Think of it like this over-simplified example. When desktop and laptop computers were first deployed, most people never dreamed of the small cellular phone as a computer. The size was dramatically reduced. Instead of using massive data centers, businesses can use scaled-down hardware to run their office and work space data, on your premises. It's "off-grid."

Even with SLM local AI, the risks of Shadow AI persist. For example, if an employee uses unapproved AI tools outside of the Local AI closed circuit, and that information goes to the Cloud without permission, there is still a major threat to your business.

Explore more about this topic by signing up for one of our webinars, here.