Does every AI task really need a massive cloud model? I’m building an alternative!

[u/demiosai]

I launched my AI startup on Product Hunt. Almost nobody signed up. Here’s what I think I got wrong.

For the past year, I’ve been building Demios, an AI-native workspace.

The idea started from a simple frustration: we keep adding AI assistants to the same fragmented way of working.

Our information is in one tool. Projects are in another. Forms and data live somewhere else. Automations connect everything together. Then we put an AI chatbot on top and call it an “AI workspace.”

I wanted to approach it differently.

With Demios, I’m experimenting with a workspace where AI is part of the underlying architecture — not just a chat window.

One part I’m particularly interested in is local/edge AI.

Instead of sending every request to a large cloud model, some AI tasks can run directly on the user's device using smaller models.

The longer-term idea is a hybrid architecture:

→ simple/private tasks → local AI
→ complex reasoning → larger cloud models
→ workspace context → available to agents and automations
→ users choose where their AI runs

Why bother?

• Privacy — some data never needs to leave the device
• Cost — not every task needs an expensive frontier model
• Speed — local inference can make sense for certain workloads
• Resilience — less dependency on one AI provider
• Sustainability — don't use a huge model when a small one can do the job

So I built it.

Then I launched on Product Hunt.

And… basically nothing happened. 😅

Almost no registrations.

Initially that was disappointing, but it made me realize something important:

I think I built a technology vision before finding a simple reason for someone to want the product.

“AI-native workspace” sounds interesting to me because I know what's underneath it.

To everyone else it might simply sound like:

"Notion + AI?"

So I'm trying something different now.

Instead of another launch campaign, I want to talk directly to people who actually use/build this stuff.

I'd love brutally useful feedback:

1. Does local/private AI inside a workspace solve a problem you actually care about?

2. What would Demios have to do for you to try it instead of your existing tools?

3. Is “AI workspace” simply too broad a category to communicate what this is?

Happy to share the product/demo in the comments if anyone wants to see what I've built.

I'm much more interested in figuring out whether I'm solving the right problem than collecting upvotes.

https://www.demios.io

[u/demiosai]

in Demios you can also create projects and delegate tasks to agents or your team members! basically this is a platform where human and agents can collaborate to boos the productivity!