Download
Blog · Guides

Local vs cloud AI agents: why where it runs matters

Cloud agents work on a remote computer. Local agents work on yours. What that changes for logins, blocked sites, privacy and control.

October 31, 2026

There are two ways to give AI a computer to work on. You can rent it one in the cloud, or you can let it use yours. Both are called "AI agents", and they behave very differently.

Cloud agents: a computer far away

A cloud agent spins up a fresh virtual computer in a data center, opens a browser there, and does the job. You get a summary at the end, sometimes with a recording.

That’s convenient for public web research. It gets harder as soon as the task touches your life:

  • Logins. The cloud computer isn’t signed in to anything. You either hand over passwords or sign in through a remote screen.
  • Blocked sites. Banks, government services and many shops see a visit from a data center in another country and block it, or throw CAPTCHAs.
  • Your software. A cloud computer doesn’t have your desktop apps, your licensed tools or your files.
  • Seeing it late. You find out what happened when it’s done.

Local agents: your own computer

A local agent like ands works where you work. That changes each point above:

  1. It uses the logins you already have. You never type a password into the agent, and ands never reads password fields. Password managers are blocked by default.
  2. It visits from your network. To a website, it looks like you, because it’s your browser on your connection.
  3. It works in any app you have, including old software with no API. See Automating software without an API.
  4. You watch it live. An orange hand moves on the screen. You can stop or correct it at any step, not after.

The trade-off

A local agent uses your computer while it works, the way a person borrowing your desk would. For most chores that’s a few minutes. You can step away; anything sensitive waits for you.

Which one to choose

If the task is public and research-shaped ("compare these five products"), a cloud agent is fine. If it touches your accounts, your files, your installed apps, or a site that cares where you are, a local agent does it the way you would, with the same access you already have.

What is AI that controls your computer

Questions

An agent that runs on a virtual computer in a data center. It opens its own browser there, works, and reports back to you.

An agent that works on your own computer, in your own apps and browser, with the accounts you are already signed in to. ands is a local agent.

Your files and logins stay on your computer, and ands never reads password fields. What the AI needs to see to do the task is sent to plan the next step, and you can always see what it is doing.

Keep reading

Guides

AI agent vs chatbot: what’s the difference?

A chatbot tells you how. An AI agent does it. What changes when AI can use your computer, and when you need which.

Guides

How to automate repetitive computer tasks without coding

Copying, renaming, filling the same form again. How to hand the boring clicks to AI in plain words, step by step, with no scripts.

Guides

RPA vs AI agents: which one for office automation?

RPA bots replay recorded steps. AI agents decide each step from what they see. Where each one wins, and why most small teams can now skip the RPA project.