No. 1
Hiring is the top issue for firms of 11 to 30 professionals
AICPA · 2026 PCPS Top Firm Issues SurveyPrivate AI for CPA firms
Private AI for CPA firms: client data never leaves your building.
Engagement letters, workpaper summaries, and client communications, drafted by your own AI and reviewed by your professionals. Installed in your building, measured in 90 days, guaranteed.
For professional-firm In-Building installations of 10 to 75 professionals. The written 90-day time-recovery target and participation requirements govern the guarantee. The assessment documents access, support, updates, and data paths. Location alone does not determine compliance.
30 minutes · No preparation · No client data
Private AI inside your walls2:04
Captions are included in the video.
The problem
Hiring is the pressure. An approved workflow is the next step.
34%
of professional-services workers report using unsanctioned AI tools
Thomson Reuters Institute · 202633%
name data privacy and security the top barrier, up from 23%
Bluevine 2026 Business Owner Success SurveyYour work
Three workflows. Your formats. Professional review.
Document drafting
Start with your approved engagement letters, memo formats, and firm language. Do not start with a blank prompt. Your professional reviews the draft before it is used.
Designed outcomeFirm-ready first drafts
Workpaper summarization
Turn dense workpapers into review notes, open items, and partner-ready context without re-reading every page. Your professional checks the summary against the source material.
Designed outcomeFaster review cycles
Client communications
Draft clear, consistent requests and explanations. Your professional reviews every word before it leaves your firm.
Designed outcomeLess inbox drag
Why private AI
Private AI, not public AI. Six reasons.
Your data stays yours
Nothing your team types, uploads, or asks ever reaches a public AI provider. It lives on your machine, in the United States.
Trained on your business
USA-sourced open-weight models, trained on your documents, your process, and your voice, so the answers are yours, not generic.
Nobody else's model, nobody else's prompts
Your AI runs for your company alone. No shared model, no one else's data in it, no one else's questions on it.
No per-seat meter
One private AI for the whole team. Add people, not subscriptions.
Terms that cannot change on you
No policy update from a provider can change where your data lives or what it can be used for.
Built and managed for you
We set it up, train it on your business, host it, secure it, and keep it current. You use it.
How it works
From first conversation to everyday use.
01
Fit call
30 minutes. No preparation. No slides. No client data.
02
Assessment
Two weeks, remote, with a written report.
03
Implementation or installation
The assessment scopes Cloud implementation or In-Building installation.
04
Managed for you
Updates, security, support, and new use cases. Quoted in your assessment.
How we handle wrong answers
What happens when your AI is wrong.
It will be, sometimes. Here is how it is built so that being wrong is cheap to catch and never reaches a client.
Every answer shows its source
The passage comes from your document. Your retrieval system pulls it from the actual file. Your model does not write the source passage.
It says 'I don't know'
When your documents do not contain the answer, your AI says so instead of guessing.
A person approves anything that leaves
Nothing goes to a client without approval from your named reviewer.
You get your own number
The first ninety days record how often drafts are accepted without correction, workflow by workflow. You decide where to rely on your AI.
Your people can talk to it. Only administrators can change it. Every question, answer, and change is logged.
Your AI can only see what you can already open. Permissions come from your systems, not from the AI.
It learns how your firm writes. It looks up what your firm knows, one question at a time, only from documents the person asking is allowed to open.
The 90-day Absorption Method
A written target. Measured in hours returned.
For CPA, law, insurance, and wealth management firms of 10 to 75 professionals on the In-Building track. We agree to a written 90-day time-recovery target. If the target is not met and participation requirements were satisfied, we keep working at no additional charge. Cloud has no guarantee.
Baseline
Measure three workflows and agree to the time-recovery target in writing.
Adopt
Train champions, redesign the approved workflows, and address friction each week.
Review
Use the dashboard to compare hours returned with the baseline. Your professionals review the work.
Participation requirements and the target are written into the engagement. The professional-firm program explains the framework.
Documentation for your security program. Your firm stays in charge.
The FTC Safeguards Rule requires covered firms to maintain a written information security program. PrivateStride provides documentation for your AI system’s data flows and controls and coordinates with your Qualified Individual. Your firm decides how the deployment fits into its written information security plan (WISP). Read the Safeguards Rule and AI guide.
IRC Section 7216 and its regulations govern certain uses and disclosures of tax return information by tax return preparers. Data location is one part of the analysis. An on-premises architecture reduces external data flows, but location alone does not determine compliance. Your firm and its advisers evaluate intended uses, disclosures, consents, and contractual arrangements. Read the Section 7216 and AI guide.
NVIDIA and Apple hardware hosted in the United States. USA-sourced open-weight models, trained on your documents, your process, and your voice.
PrivateStride provides technical and implementation support, not legal advice or a certification of compliance.
The first step
Start with an assessment. In writing.
AI Assessment
In-Building Private AI Assessment: $9,500
Two weeks · Done remotely · Written report
For companies and firms that want the equipment inside their walls. NVIDIA and Apple hardware hosted in the United States.
The report quotes installation and Managed AI by quarter. It also covers site and network review, equipment placement and power, the installation plan, and training after installation.
Credited in full toward installation within 90 days.
Book a fit callBoth assessments are done remotely, by video and phone. Nobody travels.
Firms that prefer not to house equipment can start with the Cloud-Hosted Private AI Assessment, $4,500. Cloud has no guarantee. Both assessments are done remotely, by video and phone. Nobody travels.
Most private AI implementations cost less than a third of the fully loaded cost of your next hire.
This is for
- CPA and tax firms of 10 to 75 professionals considering the In-Building firm program.
- Partners who are done waiting for the hiring market to save them.
- Leaders willing to assign champions and back a better workflow with real leadership.
This is not for
- Not an unsupervised tax-answering system
- Not consumer AI with a policy memo around it
- Not for leaders unwilling to assign champions
Your questions, answered.
Can our staff put client data into ChatGPT?
Only in a workflow your firm has expressly approved for that data class. Before using client information, review the exact service, account, data flows, access, terms, and any consent requirements with your Qualified Individual and advisers. A personal account or a product label is not approval to use client data.
What does this do to our WISP?
PrivateStride documents your AI system’s data flows and controls, including access, logging, updates, and remote support. We coordinate with your Qualified Individual so your firm can decide how to incorporate the deployment into its WISP. Your firm retains responsibility for its security program.
Does an on-premises system satisfy Section 7216?
No. Data location is one part of the analysis. Keeping processing in your building can reduce external data flows, but your firm and its advisers still need to evaluate the intended uses and disclosures of tax return information, any applicable consent requirements, and contractual arrangements.
How is busy season handled?
We baseline your three workflows in weeks 1 to 2 of the 90-day Absorption Method. We schedule the 90 days around your season. The assessment scopes the rollout and responsibilities before installation, including champions, training, and weekly review.
Do we need IT staff?
No internal IT department is required. We install, monitor, update, and maintain the system within the agreed service scope. If you have an internal team or managed service provider, we coordinate responsibilities with them.
What if our people don't use it?
The Absorption Method is designed to address adoption. We train champions, review usage weekly, and address friction while the rollout is active. Participation requirements and the written time-recovery target are agreed in the engagement. For eligible professional firms of 10 to 75 professionals on the In-Building track, if the target is not met and participation requirements were satisfied, we keep working at no additional charge. Cloud has no guarantee.
Who stands behind the work
DJLRC, Inc.
An Arizona corporation, d/b/a PrivateStride.
6751 N Sunset Blvd, Suite 320Glendale, AZ 85305
+1 (212) 960-8293
partners@privatestride.com
David Le Rouse (DJ)
Leads fit and assessment. BS Accountancy and MBA, Arizona State. Thirty years across technology, accounting, and strategy consulting.
Alex
Leads the technical review.
Book a fit call
Thirty minutes. No preparation. We never need your data to have the conversation.
Tell us about your company. We will discuss Cloud-hosted or in-building and the assessment that fits.
Book a fit call 30 minutes · No preparation · No client data