S2:Ep4 - Your Friendly Neighbourhood AI

Season 2 - Episode 4: Your Friendly Neighbourhood AIIn this episode of QInsight, hosts Steve Clarke and Alastair Jupp are joined by Vincent Sider, internationally recognised AI strategist and executive advisor, to explore how AI is getting smaller, cheaper, and closer to home.Vincent challenges the assumption that serious AI requires vast cloud platforms and enterprise-scale budgets. Through practical examples, he explains how powerful models can now run locally on modest hardware, and what this shift means for cost, performance, and control.The conversation digs into local inference, open-source models, and the rise of on-prem AI, particularly for organisations concerned about data sovereignty, governance, and unpredictable cloud costs. They discuss when it makes sense to use platforms like OpenAI or Copilot, and when running AI locally becomes the more sensible option.The episode also looks ahead to agentic AI, where specialised agents handle discrete tasks across sales, marketing, and operations, and why controlling cost, evaluation, and risk becomes critical as AI works continuously in the background.It’s a practical, demystifying discussion about right-sizing AI, lowering barriers to adoption, and helping organisations move forward with confidence rather than fear.