Is it safe to use AI for therapy notes?

It can be, with informed client consent, a tool whose data handling you have checked, and every draft reviewed and signed by you. The main risks are session data held by a third party, notes that state things the session did not support, and drafts signed without reading.

Can an AI scribe work offline?

Only a local one. Cloud tools need a connection because the speech recognition and the model run on their servers. A local tool needs the internet to download its models and, for a subscription, to check its licence from time to time.

Do I need my client’s consent to use an AI note tool?

Recording a session needs the client’s informed consent: what is recorded, where it is processed and kept, who can see it, and how they can withdraw. Check what your professional body and the law where you practise require.

What computer do I need for a local AI scribe?

It depends on the tool. Olive Grove runs on Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, chooses its notes model by the computer’s memory, and does not require a graphics card, though one makes it faster.

Olive Grove guide

Private AI for therapy notes: what “local” means, and what to ask any AI scribe

Updated 23 October 2026

Most AI note tools send the session’s audio or transcript to a company’s servers, where the speech recognition and the language model run. A local tool runs both on your own computer, so the recording and the transcript never have to leave it. Either can be used with care. What matters is that you know exactly what leaves your computer, who can read it, whether it is kept or used for training, and that your client has agreed to it.

The Playbook in Olive Grove for a fictional client: where the client is now, then interventions grouped by approach, each card with why it fits, its steps and a phrase to try.

How an AI scribe works

Every AI note tool does three things: it records the session, transcribes the speech into text, and has a language model turn the transcript into a note. The privacy question is where each step happens.

Aspect	Cloud AI scribe	Local AI scribe
Speech recognition	On the company’s servers	On your computer
Note writing	A model on the company’s or a partner’s servers	A model on your computer
Where audio and transcripts are kept	Their servers, for as long as their policy says	Your disk, until you delete them
Works without internet	No	Yes, once set up
What you need	Any device and a connection	A capable computer and disk space for the models

Ten questions to ask any AI note tool

Where does the audio go? Is it processed on my computer or uploaded? If uploaded, to which company, and in which country?
Which model writes the note, and who runs it? Is a third-party AI provider involved?
Is anything kept after the note is written? Audio, transcripts, notes: for how long, and can I delete them?
Is my clients’ information used to train or improve a model? Ask for the answer in writing.
Who at the company can read it? Support staff, reviewers, subcontractors?
What is sent besides the session? Analytics, crash reports and usage data can carry more than you expect.
How are records protected on my computer? Encryption at rest, sign-in, and what happens if the laptop is lost.
Are AI drafts labelled, and can I see where each sentence came from? A draft you cannot check against the session is a risk.
What happens to my records if I stop paying? Can I still read and export everything?
What does the client agree to? Is there a plain-language consent form that says what is recorded and where it goes?

The rules on health information differ from place to place. Check what applies where you practise, and what your professional body expects about recording and AI.

The trade-offs of local AI

It needs the right computer. Models take memory and disk space; a graphics card makes them faster but is not always required.
Notes can take longer on a modest machine than on a large server.
Security is partly yours. Records live on your disk, so disk encryption, sign-in and backups matter.
In return, there is no AI provider holding your sessions, it keeps working without internet, and you can say to a client exactly where their recording is.

How Olive Grove answers them

Olive Grove is a local AI assistant for therapists on Windows. Its answers to the questions above:

Speech recognition and the AI that writes notes run on your computer; recordings, transcripts and notes are kept on its disk. There is no online AI provider.
No telemetry: no analytics and no crash reports are sent. The app checks its licence and asks whether there is an update; the product page lists exactly what each check carries.
Cloud backup is optional and off until you turn it on. The backup is encrypted on your computer with a recovery code only you hold, and we cannot open it.
The app does not yet encrypt its own files. It checks whether Windows disk encryption is on, warns before recording when it is not, and sets up sign-in with Windows Hello.
Every draft is marked as an AI draft, a second pass flags risk the note missed and statements the transcript does not support, and each sentence links to the transcript lines it came from.
Without a subscription, Olive Grove becomes a read-only archive: you can still open, read, search, print and export every record, and restore backups. Recording, writing notes and the online services wait for a subscription.
It includes a plain-language client consent form, and records consent with the date in the client’s file.

Read how it drafts each format in DAP, SOAP, BIRP and GIRP notes, and exactly what the app keeps and sends on Privacy.

Common questions

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