Your information is being held hostage. And most people don’t even realize it.
Think about how this has played out. A few years ago, all your knowledge lived inside your SaaS systems - your CRM, your project management tool, your email. Locked away behind logins.
Then AI chat came along, and suddenly everyone started “training ChatGPT” on what they are and how they work. Which sounds great - until you want to switch models, or try a different tool. That year of context? Stuck in someone else’s database. You don’t own it.
The shift to co-work makes this even more urgent. For AI agents to work for you effectively, they need to actually know you and your organization. Writing style. Company context. How you think about customers. Your internal language.
That’s your second brain - and right now, the most practical place to keep it is a set of local files you control.
It’s not glamorous, but it means no platform can lock you out of your own knowledge.
The good news: a whole category of tools is being built right now to solve exactly this. Your personal and team “AI brain” as a flexible, portable system you own. Watch for it - this year is when this gets real.