TLDR: Clarifai has launched ‘AI Runners,’ a new solution enabling developers and MLOps engineers to deploy AI models locally while seamlessly scaling them through Clarifai’s cloud platform. This offers a ‘best of both worlds’ approach, addressing the escalating compute demands of agentic AI by providing flexibility, control, and a cost-effective path to production.
WASHINGTON – July 8, 2025 – Clarifai, a global leader in artificial intelligence and a pioneer of the full-stack AI platform, today announced the introduction of ‘AI Runners.’ This groundbreaking offering is designed to provide developers and MLOps engineers with unparalleled flexibility in deploying and managing their AI models, allowing them to connect models running on local machines or private servers directly to Clarifai’s robust and scalable platform via a seamless, publicly accessible API.
This innovative solution offers what Clarifai describes as a ‘best of both worlds’ approach for modern AI development. It directly addresses the unprecedented demand for computing power driven by the rise of ‘agentic AI’ – AI systems capable of self-directed thinking, goal setting, and complex problem-solving using protocols like Model Context Protocol (MCP).
Alfredo Ramos, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Clarifai, emphasized the strategic importance of this launch. “Agentic AI is driving significant compute demands, and AI Runners provide a practical, secure solution for every developer,” Ramos stated. He further elaborated, “It’s essentially ngrok for AI models, letting you build on your current setup and keep your models exactly where you want them, yet still get all the power and robustness of Clarifai’s API for your biggest agentic AI ideas.” Ramos added that Clarifai’s overarching goal is to make advanced AI development, from initial code to deployed application, “genuinely easier and more budget-friendly for creators everywhere.” He also highlighted that “AI Runners is a pivotal feature that sets Clarifai apart, as it is currently the only platform offering this capability, providing a crucial competitive advantage.”
AI Runners deliver several distinct advantages for both developers and enterprises:
Unmatched Flexibility & Control: Clarifai stands out as the only platform currently allowing developers to run their models or MCP tools anywhere – be it on a local development machine, an on-premises server, or a private cloud cluster – and connect them to the Clarifai API without complex networking configurations. This ensures that sensitive data and custom models remain within the user’s environment, leveraging existing compute infrastructure and eliminating vendor lock-in.
Supercharge Models with a World-Class Platform: The new offering enables instant serving of custom models through Clarifai’s scalable, publicly accessible API, facilitating easy integration into any application. Users can construct sophisticated multi-step AI workflows by chaining local models with the thousands of models already available on the Clarifai platform, all managed and monitored from a unified dashboard.
A Streamlined and Economical Path to Production: AI Runners simplify the development workflow, making powerful AI development accessible and cost-effective. Developers can begin locally and then scale seamlessly to production within Kubernetes-based compute clusters on Clarifai. The solution features a straightforward onboarding process and transparent pricing, allowing users to start small and expand operations as needed. Further cost savings can be achieved by leveraging Clarifai’s Compute Orchestration across multiple clouds and on-premise Kubernetes clusters, which supports traffic-based autoscaling to and from zero, request batching, spot instances, and GPU fractioning, maximizing hardware utilization.
Clarifai is introducing a new Developer Plan at a promotional price of $1 per month for the first year, with a standard price of $10 per month thereafter. This plan empowers developers to utilize AI Runners and access hundreds of the latest AI models on the Clarifai platform for creating sophisticated AI workloads. Clarifai AI Runners are available now.
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Founded in 2013, Clarifai is a global leader in AI and a pioneer of the full-stack AI platform, assisting organizations, teams, and developers in building, deploying, and operationalizing AI at scale. The company’s cutting-edge platform supports modern AI technologies including Large Language Models (LLMs), Large Vision Models (LVMs), Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), automated data labeling, and high-volume production inference. Available in cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments, Clarifai’s platform has been instrumental in building over 1.5 million AI models, serving more than 400,000 users across 170 countries. The venture-backed company has raised $101 million over four funding rounds, including a $60 million round in October 2021, with investments from firms such as New Enterprise Associates Inc., Menlo Ventures LP, and Union Square Ventures.
