Open-source AI gives small and mid-sized businesses a practical way to adopt modern AI capabilities while maintaining control over their data, costs, and technology choices. By leveraging modular, open-source tools—from lightweight application interfaces and language models to retrieval pipelines, event-driven systems, and governance frameworks—organizations can start with focused pilots, scale gradually, and avoid vendor lock-in. For Richmond-area businesses, this approach is especially powerful when combined with the region’s growing AI talent ecosystem and community initiatives, enabling…