Vards AI — Private AI for Australian Professional Firms

The problem

The AI problem nobody in your firm is admitting to

Right now, somebody on your team has ChatGPT open. They are pasting a client's portfolio details, a draft SOA, or a confidential email into a browser tab that sends every keystroke to a server in another country. They are doing it because it is faster than the alternative — and because no one has given them a better option.

Generic AI tools were not built for regulated businesses. They do not know your SOA format, your compliance checklist, or the way your firm speaks to clients. They treat a sole-practitioner accountant and a thirty-person wealth firm exactly the same. And every prompt is a small, untracked disclosure of information you are responsible for.

The choice most firms quietly make is to look the other way. There is a better one.

How it works

Four steps. No IT department required.

Install it on your hardware

Vards AI runs on a Windows or Mac machine inside your office. Setup takes about as long as installing any other piece of business software.

Connect your AI provider

Bring your own account with Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google. You own the relationship, control the cost, and choose the model that suits each task.

Build your agents

Use a simple form to create specialists — a compliance officer, a portfolio reviewer, a client comms writer. Give each one its instructions, tone, and area of expertise. No code, no consultants.

Start working

Open a conversation with any agent, or put a group of them in a room together. Upload documents, ask questions, delegate tasks. Everything happens inside your firm.

Key features

Built for the way professional firms actually work

Specialist agents you design yourself

Build a team of named, role-specific AI experts — each one configured around your firm's templates, regulations, and standards.

Multi-agent conference mode

Put your strategy, finance, and compliance agents in the same room. Watch them respond in sequence, critique each other's work, and arrive at a reviewed answer.

Document reading and analysis

Upload SOAs, contracts, spreadsheets, and policy documents. Agents read them, extract data, answer questions, and use them as the basis for new work.

Persistent memory

Agents remember client names, past decisions, ongoing matters, and your preferences. You stop repeating yourself.

Self-hosted privacy by design

The application runs on hardware you own and control. Curonian Group never has access to your agents, your conversations, or your data.

Choice of AI model

Run Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, or mix providers across different agents. Switch models when better ones launch. You are never locked in.

Why serious firms choose Vards AI

Your data never leaves your building.

The reason serious firms choose Vards AI.

When your team uses ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or any other cloud AI tool, every word they type — client names, portfolio figures, draft legal matters — travels to a server operated by a technology company overseas. You cannot see what happens to it. Your clients did not consent to it. And your obligations under the Privacy Act do not pause when your staff open a browser tab.

Vards AI is built on a different premise. The application is installed on hardware you own. Conversations, uploaded documents, and agent outputs all live inside your environment. Curonian Group has no access to any of it — not to read, not to audit, not to recover. The only outbound connection is the prompt your firm chooses to send to your chosen AI model provider, and that connection is yours to review and govern.

For firms operating under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, that architecture meaningfully reduces the surface area of APP 8 (cross-border disclosure) and APP 11 (security of personal information). Prompt-level disclosure to your chosen API provider is a residual risk each firm should assess against its own obligations — but the bulk transfer of client data to a third-party platform, the part that most cloud AI tools quietly require, is removed entirely.

For AFSL holders, Vards AI sits naturally within the operational risk framework expected under s912A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and ASIC's RG 104 guidance on adequate risk management systems. Whether the product is suitable for your specific licence conditions is a firm-by-firm assessment — but the underlying architecture is designed to make that assessment a straightforward one.

This is a description of the product architecture, not legal advice. Firms should obtain their own legal and compliance advice on their specific obligations.

Use cases

Three firms. Three workflows. One tool.

Wealth management

Statement of Advice production

A boutique advisory firm uses Vards AI to turn the three-hour SOA into a forty-five-minute review job. The drafting agent produces a full first draft in the firm's template. The compliance agent flags RG 175 considerations. The editing agent matches the firm's tone. The adviser reviews and signs. At four SOAs per week, the firm reclaims more than a working day every week.

Accounting

Year-end client reporting and queries

A mid-sized accounting practice uses a research agent to interrogate client trial balances, a drafting agent to produce client letters, and a compliance agent configured around current ATO guidance. Routine queries that used to interrupt partners are handled in seconds. Year-end letter production drops from weeks to days.

Legal

Document review and matter management

A small commercial law firm uses agents configured for contract review, due diligence summarisation, and client communications. The review agent extracts key clauses and flags departures from standard positions. The drafting agent produces first-pass advice letters. Solicitors review near-finished work instead of starting from a blank page.

Time and cost outcomes vary by firm, workflow, and AI model performance. These examples are illustrative.

Pricing

Straightforward annual pricing. No per-seat games.

Solo

$490/year

AUD, annual billing

For sole practitioners

1 user
Unlimited agents
All core features
Email support

Start free trial

Boutique

$1,990/year

AUD, annual billing

For firms of up to 5

Up to 5 users
Unlimited agents
Multi-agent conference mode
Priority email support

Start free trial

Questions firms ask before they trial

What actually happens to my data?

It stays on your hardware. Vards AI is installed locally and runs locally. Curonian Group has no access to your agents, your conversations, or your uploaded documents. The only outbound connection is the prompt your firm chooses to send to your selected AI model provider — and that relationship is held directly between your firm and that provider, not through us.

Which AI model does it use?

Whichever you choose. Vards AI supports Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT-4), and Google (Gemini). You sign up directly with the provider you prefer, bring your own API key, and can mix providers across different agents. If a better model launches next quarter, you switch.

Do I need technical skills to set it up?

No. Installation is comparable to any other desktop business application. Building an agent is done through a simple form — you give it a name, a role, and instructions in plain English. If you want a hand, our onboarding package walks your team through their first agents and use cases.

What if my firm already uses Microsoft 365?

Vards AI sits alongside Microsoft 365 — it does not replace it. Word, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint keep doing what they do. Vards AI handles the AI work that you would otherwise be doing in a browser tab, and keeps that work inside your firm rather than on Microsoft's cloud.

Is it suitable for AFSL holders?

The product architecture is designed with AFSL operational risk obligations in mind — particularly s912A of the Corporations Act and ASIC's RG 104 expectations around adequate risk management of third-party technology. Whether Vards AI is suitable for your specific licence conditions is a firm-by-firm assessment, and we recommend obtaining your own legal and compliance advice. We are happy to walk through the architecture with your compliance team as part of evaluation.

Can I try it before buying?

Yes. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial. No credit card required to start. If you would like a demonstration using your own documents and workflows before trialling, we offer that too — book a demo and we will tailor the session to your firm.

Your AI team. Inside your firm. Nowhere else.