Run an AI employee on your own hardware
For admins and business owners
Move one of your AI employees onto a computer your company owns, and it answers with an AI installed on that computer. Its knowledge, files and private data stay in VEP's cloud.
Early access: switched on for selected companies.
Why it matters
If your company already owns capable hardware, your AI employee's answers can come from it and do not count as VEP usage. Each step of the move now does what it says, and the AI employee keeps answering while your computer is online.
- Before
- Choosing an AI employee for your own computer failed with an error, so the setup could not be finished.
- Now
- A few clicks put the AI employee on your computer, and it answers with the AI you chose while that computer is online.
What you get
- Pick the AI employee: choose which of your AI employees works from your computer. Until you apply the setup, it keeps answering from VEP's cloud.
- Choose the AI it uses: only an AI that is installed on your computer and can hold a conversation can be chosen, and you are told when it is not installed.
- Knowledge stays in VEP: its knowledge, files and private data stay in VEP's cloud, and only its answers come from your computer.
- Offline means paused: while your computer is offline, this AI employee does not answer, and the setup tells you so before you apply it.
- Outside VEP usage: answers from your computer are recorded at zero cost and do not count as VEP usage or toward the AI employee's daily spending limit.
How to use it
You need a computer your company owns, connected to VEP, with an AI installed on it. The setup guide shows how to connect one.
Open your computers in VEP
Open Compute Resources. On a phone, you find it under Usage & Billing.
Send work to your hardware
Tick Prefer Local Compute at the top of Compute Resources. AI employees you do not move keep answering from VEP's cloud.
Pick the AI employee
On your computer's card, click Assign Brain, choose one of your AI employees and click Assign Brain again.
Apply the recommended setup
Click your computer's card again, then click Apply Recommended Local Setup.
Choose the AI it uses
Click the card once more, pick one of the AIs installed on your computer from the list and click the assign button next to that list.
Keep the computer online
While the computer is online, the AI employee answers from it. While it is offline, the AI employee does not answer.
Good to know
- The code that connects a new computer works for 10 minutes. If it runs out, the computer's card gives you a fresh one with one click.
- The VEP software on your computer installs new versions by itself, after the work that is running has finished.
- If your AI employee does not answer while your computer is online, check that Prefer Local Compute is ticked. If it is, your own hardware may not be switched on for your company yet: ask VEP Support.
Updates to this feature
Set up your own hardware and new AI employees on clearer screens
A computer's details stay open until you go back, the list has room for its cards, and messages for a new AI employee give one clear next step.
Cards for your own hardware say what to do next
A newly connected computer shows that it is waiting to start and the one command that starts it, and only AIs that can chat are offered for it.
Answers from your own hardware show at zero cloud cost
Answers from your own computer show at zero cost, and only answers that run in VEP's cloud count toward the daily spending limit.
Setup guide for your own hardware matches what you see
The setup guide names each real button, and the setup steps in VEP show both install commands on separate lines and copy each in one click.
Manage your own hardware from Safari on iPhone and iPad
The list of your own computers keeps showing their state in Safari on iPhone and iPad, and the last step of connecting a new computer works there too.
Get a fresh connection code for your own hardware in one click
One click on a waiting computer's card gives you a fresh code and the time it works until, and a code that ran out is marked as expired.
VEP on your own hardware keeps itself up to date
The VEP software on your computer installs new versions by itself once running work is done, and goes back to the previous version if one fails to start.