Bring Your Own Model: Connect Your Own AI Provider

Overview

Every enterprise sets up AI differently. Some run models through Azure OpenAI or AWS Bedrock. Some call model APIs directly. Some run models entirely behind their own firewall.

With Bring Your Own Model (BYOM), Brightidea's AI features can run on the AI provider your organization already uses. You supply the connection and credentials. Brightidea sends its AI requests (text generation and image generation) to your models instead of Brightidea-hosted ones.

By default, Brightidea's AI features run on Brightidea AI: models that Brightidea hosts and manages for you, with nothing to configure. BYOM is optional.

Supported providers

• Self service: you connect the provider yourself in a few minutes.
• Assisted setup: you send Brightidea a request from the AI Models page, and our team contacts you to finish the configuration.

Which AI features does this affect?

The AI Models setting covers all of Brightidea's AI features, including:

• AI Assistant
• AI-assisted idea submission
• AI in Whiteboards
• Memo AI Writing Tool
• Scout Tech Finder
• Image creation with AI

Before you begin

• You must be a System Administrator.
• The Bring Your Own Model beta has to be enabled for your site.
• For self-service providers, have an API key ready. The key must have the scopes needed to call the provider's models, and you must be authorized to use it for this purpose.

Turn Brightidea AI on or off

At the top of the AI Models page, a switch shows whether AI is on for your site.

• AI is on: AI features are available to your users, powered by the provider you choose below.
• AI is off: all Brightidea AI features are turned off for your community.

Turning AI off turns off every AI feature listed above at the same time.

Choose who provides the models

Under Who provides the models?, choose one:

• Brightidea AI (default): Brightidea hosts, updates, and secures the models. There's nothing to configure.
• Customer managed: connect your own AI provider and use your existing credentials to power Brightidea features.

Choosing between Brightidea AI and Customer managed

Click Save at the bottom of the page to apply your changes. Save is available only when you have unsaved changes. If you leave without saving, your changes aren't applied.

Connect a self-service provider (Anthropic or OpenAI)

Customer-managed setup has three steps. Setup is organized into two tabs, Text Generation and Image Generation. A dot on each tab shows whether that capability is connected.

Step 1: Choose a provider

Select the provider tile you want to use for this capability. Providers that don't support a capability aren't shown on that tab. For example, Anthropic appears only on the Text Generation tab.

Step 2: Connect the provider

1. Enter a Connection name, a friendly name that identifies this connection (for example, "Acme OpenAI – Production").
2. Paste your API key. Use Show / Hide to check it as you type. The form links to where you can find a key (console.anthropic.com or platform.openai.com).
3. If your account belongs to more than one organization, enter the Organization ID (optional).
4. Select the checkbox to confirm that the key has the required scopes and that you're authorized to use it.
5. Click Save connection.

When you save, Brightidea tests the connection live against your provider:

• Connection saved: the key works.
• Saved, but the model failed a connection test: the connection was saved, but the model couldn't be reached with those settings. Check the error message, then choose a different model in Step 3.
• AI turned off — the model connection couldn't be reached or authorized: Brightidea couldn't reach or authenticate with your provider (for example, the key is invalid or was revoked). To protect your users from broken AI features, Brightidea turns AI off for your site until you fix the problem. Delete the connection, reconnect with a working key, then turn AI back on.

Step 3: Set the provider for each capability

Under Set provider per capability, pick the model from your connected provider that powers each capability. The dropdown lists models by provider (for example, gpt-5.6-sol via OpenAI), and the list comes from your provider.

• Text generation: chat, summarization, brainstorming, reasoning.
• Image generation: image synthesis, illustration, and visual content.

Click Save. Brightidea tests the selected model again and confirms with AI settings saved.

If a capability has no customer-managed provider assigned (for example, you connected Anthropic, which has no image models), that capability falls back to Brightidea AI.

Request assisted setup (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, or Custom)

1. Select Customer managed, then select the Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, or Custom tile. The Contact Brightidea form opens.
2. In the form, choose a Topic (for example, I need a provider that isn't listed).
3. Add Notes that describe your setup. For example: "We use an internal vLLM cluster for sensitive workloads and need to route certain capabilities there."

4. Enter your Email and name, then click Send message.

   

Our team typically responds within 1–2 business days with next steps. When the connection is ready, it appears on the AI Models page, and you can assign it to a capability in Step 3.

Manage a connection

Under 2. Connect Provider, a connected provider appears as a card with an ENABLED badge. The card shows the selected model and a masked key that shows only the last few characters (for example, chat-latest · key sk-•••AbCd). On the provider tiles in Step 1, that provider shows a Connected badge. The other tiles are unavailable for that capability until you delete the connection.

• Change the model: pick a different model in Step 3, then click Save.
• Rotate a key: delete the connection, then connect again with the new key.
• Delete (trash icon): removes the connection and its authorized models. Any AI features that used this connection fall back to Brightidea AI.

Security and data handling

• API keys are encrypted at rest with workspace-scoped KMS encryption.
• After you save a key, it can't be viewed again. It shows only as a masked value. To rotate a key, delete the connection and reconnect with the new key.
• Brightidea uses your key only to route your site's AI requests to your provider.
• Every change on the AI Models page is recorded in the admin transaction log.

FAQ

Can I use different providers for text and image generation?
Yes. Each capability is assigned separately. For example, you can use Anthropic for text and OpenAI for images.

What happens if my key expires or is revoked?
The next time Brightidea tests the connection (when you save a connection or assignment), it detects the failure and turns AI off for your site. Delete the connection, reconnect with a new key, then turn AI back on.

Which models can I choose?
The model list comes from your provider and updates as new models become available.

My provider isn't listed. Can I still use it?
Select the Custom tile and send us your details. Our team will work with you on an assisted setup.

Will switching providers interrupt my users?
Changes take effect after you click Save.

Related articles

• Brightidea AI overview
• AI Assistant
• Image creation with AI