Who owns the AI we install — the firm or the vendor
The firm owns it. The brain, the prompts, the workflows, the voice library, and the data all live in the firm's own folder, on the firm's own Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or iCloud. Quiet Machines installs the brain and walks away — there is no portal, no proprietary platform, and no per-seat license that the firm depends on the vendor to renew.
What ownership actually means in practice
| Layer | Who owns it | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| The folder structure | The firm | M365 / Google / iCloud — whichever the firm already uses |
| The prompts and playbooks | The firm | Markdown files in the folder — readable in any text editor |
| The voice library | The firm (and always was) | Same folder, indexed for the model |
| The model itself | Anthropic | The firm's own Anthropic account, billed to the firm's card |
| The operator software | Anthropic (Claude + Cowork) | The firm's own Claude Team subscription |
| The install methodology | Quiet Machines | QM keeps the SOP; the firm gets the resulting files |
What this means if you cancel Lights-On
Nothing about the brain changes. The folder is still there, the prompts still run, the model still answers. Lights-On is optional remote support — not a runtime dependency. Several installed firms run for months on the runbook alone before adding a workflow that prompts a check-in.
What this means if Quiet Machines stops existing
The firm still has a working brain on Friday. The model is on the firm's account. The files are in the firm's folder. The runbook is printed. Any technical operator the firm hires can pick it up.
What Quiet Machines does not own or control
- Your data. Never touched by QM infrastructure — it stays on the firm's storage.
- Your model account. Set up under the firm's name. QM has no admin access after handoff.
- Your billing. The firm pays Anthropic and Microsoft directly. QM does not resell, re-bill, or take over tool billing.
The one thing QM keeps
The methodology — the SOP for how to run an install. That's what Quiet Machines sells to the next firm. Each install is a fresh build of the same pattern in a new firm's data, not a copy of the previous client's output.
Why this ownership model is non-negotiable for an RIA
An RIA is required by SEC Rule 204-2 to keep books and records the firm itself controls and can produce on demand. A vendor-hosted brain that disappears with the vendor is a books-and-records problem, not just an inconvenience. Folder-native ownership puts the firm on the right side of that rule by default — every client note, every drafted letter, every prompt the model used is sitting in the firm's own storage with the firm's own retention policy applied to it. That posture also protects the firm during a sale, a succession, or an SEC exam, because the diligence answer to "show me where your AI's outputs and inputs are stored" is the same shared folder the firm already uses for everything else.
The second reason is governance. When the firm owns the prompts, the firm — not a vendor — gets to decide what the brain says about Roth conversions, what disclosures it appends, and which households it never drafts to without principal review. Those rules live as plain text in the folder, version-controlled by the people who are actually accountable for the advice. No vendor release note can quietly change them.
What firms commonly get wrong about ownership
The most common confusion is treating the model account as a vendor lock-in. It isn't. The Anthropic account is provisioned in the firm's name, billed to the firm's card, and the firm can rotate models or providers without touching the brain itself, because the brain is just files and prompts. The second confusion is assuming the install is portable to another consultant — it is. Any technically literate operator who can read markdown can pick up the runbook and keep the install moving. The methodology QM keeps is how to install in the first place; what runs after install is fully readable by anyone the firm chooses to bring in.
Sources
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