Nextcloud releases Assistant 2.0 and announces ‘AI as a service’ features

Nextcloud is partnering with key European cloud storage companies like IONOS to offer on-premise AI as a service. This move aims to address privacy issues by ensuring GDPR compliance. The integration of AI features is set to occur in 2024 due to high customer demand.

The company has also revealed a set of new AI capabilities that will be incorporated into the latest version of Nextcloud Assistant, version 2.0, which is available for Nextcloud Hub 7 users and the forthcoming Hub 8 release. The updated version provides major improvements such as Context Chat, Context Write, GPU acceleration, and the capacity to separate Nextcloud server and AI server.

The Assistant 2.0 update revamps both the user interface and backend operations.Context Chat lets users ask AI-assisted questions about their data, including documents, emails, and tasks. The Context Write feature enables the Assistant to rewrite text in a specific context or style, aiding in tasks like content generation or form filling. The user interface has been significantly improved, offering a unified access point for AI features, history tracking of created content, and the option to cancel operations.

Additional app integrations with the Assistant, including Talk room summaries and email 'suggested answers', are expected in the upcoming Nextcloud Hub 8. You can learn more about the upcoming new features here.