AI Assistant does not work

[Elke_He]

Although I have an official license, the AI Assistant does not work for me. The following message appears:
"Oh no...
You do not have the necessary permissions to use the AI Assistant. Contact your system administrator for more information."
What do I need to enable in the system settings (Win 11) for it to work?

[Davor P]

The system might be set up so that you need a cloud license to be able to use the AI features, but someone designed the system that way. Im pretty sure AI assistant is just API calls to the server that runs the LLM, returns structured json response that the local code interprets and runs tools like find and select.

[Davor P]

Has anyone tried talking to their local reseller about a trial of full cloud license? Maybe run a trial and see how much added value would the assistant be? Currently it's scope seems limited to using a few existing tools and answering questions. Former can be done manually and latter chatGPT is pretty competent in.

[Patrick M]

Davor, I have the full license; with a cloud license. I heard something about the feature not being available in some regions... but I know people just down the road that it works for. So my guess is its something in my set up or my license specifically (even though I paid for the upgrade, and am currently showing a cloud license on this computer).

My only remaining guess is that I have my cloud license set to "portable", since I work with about a dozen architects, I need to be able to access multiple servers... if they've locked the feature to not work for portable licenses, I'll need further explanation on why.

[Roman-PS]

I do not want to switch to the subscription trap!

I just want to get all the new features of the 29 upgrade. I have paid for it with my ongoing Forward contracts.

I don't care about license-type deception.

[Cdmeng]

Yeah, the "you have to switch to the subscription" claim sounds like absolute bs to me. As stated previously, this is by design, not necessity. Sounds more like a technical issue with MBA's and investors than with software developers. The thing is, Revit and other softwares will also add AI features which will essentially erase the learning curve. At that point the investment in Archicad training and experience won't be worth nearly as much as it is today and I think we can look to switch to a company that hasn't done us dirty. I was looking for a contract or terms agreement for the SSA subscription but didn't have any luck. I did find this though:

So does the legality of blocking us from the AI features depend on whether they are considered updates? Or maybe they don't fall under the umbrella of "getting better". I guess that screenshot is not a contract but is it false advertising? What I know for sure is that, having started with AC24 and the SSA subscription, I'm estimating that I've given Graphisoft around $9k* or so total since 2022 (or will have in the next month or so) and I'm now wondering what I'm paying for. Of course I'm paying for a very complex feat of development and engineering, but isn't that enough money to give me the "latest updates" without now asking me to pay ~$2400/year starting now?

I don't like engaging, using this accusatory/ranting tone, but it feels warranted. The SSA subscription promised all of the future updates and features. It was sold to me that way by my local sales rep. Not getting to use the new features now makes it feel like I'm throwing money into a rip-off machine. The least they could do would be to give us all of the features for 5 years or so. That way, I could feel like my initial investment and support was worth something. I'm a one-man office and the overhead sure piles up with software, licensing, insurance, and whatnot. I'd love to just enjoy my work without getting squeezed by every company and municipality I come in contact with.

Sorry, rant over.

*The part of the website that will show my my payments is not working so I'll let Graphisoft correct me if I'm wrong. My initial purchase, including SSA and training was around $6k I think, with about $1k-ish per year since.

[Marcell Hillier]

Hi @Karl Ottenstein 
Thank you so much for pointing this out and for your great patience. We completely agree, a clear and proper message is important here. So the team has logged the issue and is working on an update to display the correct message as soon as possible. Thanks again for helping us improve!

[Bricklyne Clarence]

To be fair, (...and I don't necessarily mean, "fair to Graphisoft", specifically,...hold your horses on that...we'll circle back to this....), it could be argued that you (the aggravated perpetual license holder currently not able to use it because you're not on subscription) are not entitled to the AI Assistant tool and feature on the basis of the notion that it was never on the Roadmap* to begin with and as such can't be viewed as a regular tool that Graphisoft had some pledge or commitment to deliver to users the way that other Roadmap tools and features are or were. And that likewise it was never particularly a specific "Wishlist" item.

Which is true.

(*Sidebar : Let's put aside for the moment.....again....the current circumstance of them prioritizing non-Roadmap and non-voted for Wishlist items to both develop and intergate, over tools that users have been asking for, and some of which they've indicated they're looking at integrating (the Roadmap items),. All just so they can spring on us tools like these that no one asked for - which ostensibly help them market and promote the program more than they help us work better. We only have so much time to tackle all the brushfires they're starting)

BUT.......(and here comes the 'hold your horses' part).....

Graphisoft ARE using it to promote Archicad 29 - a program version that Perpetual license holders have paid to use......IN FULL....
And to the degree that they might also argue it's just an experimental tool, which is technically still in 'Beta', what makes it so special that other experimental features like Physical Based 3D display render view are not likewise exempt only Subscription users?
We've already been through the counterargument against the notion that it's "Cloud-based" technology therefore tied to the Cloud services or server that way (HELLO!!?!? BIM Server?!??!?).

There's also the additional argument in a more general sense that just because you've paid the license fee (Perpetual or Subscription) for a particular program release, it doesn't mean you'll be entitled to use all the tools it has to offer.

See : Archicad PC users locked out of having Dark Mode or Dual/Multi-Monitor capability.

Again.....we've belaboured the ludicrousness of such a strategy by Graphisoft when it comes to releasing new versions and new tools.
If it's not fully enabled and capable for ALL your users then it's not ready for purpose nor promotion as a full new tool or feature, and as such it shouldn't be released at all until it's ready and available for everyone......PAYING for the program.

At least that's my opinion.

Doing otherwise is a bad look for a company, but I think at this stage and with all that's come to pass in the past year and a half, Graphisoft are past caring what their public perception is, and have created an alternative reality where these bad PR and customer relation moves and decisions don't really matter to them any more

.

And currently with the current version (29) and possibly the next one, we're in this weird gray area of both Subscription and Perpetual license holder capability, before they switch to Subscription only - where they could offer tools they claim are Subscription-only, even while Perpetual license holders are still paying for (supposedly) a full version with presumably the full toolset - but not having access to those tools or features.

Which bring us back to the AI Assistant, and how on a basic decency and treating your customers right level - it would seem (....to me,....at least), to be a bad look to have this tool that you anticipate a lot of users will want to use, not be available to a large number of the very same users you're currently trying to coax and convince to make the jump to Subscription licensing and to stick with you instead of looking elsewhere for alternatives - as a lot of Archicad users currently are looking at other options.

It's a rather odd and weird marketing strategy, if you ask me. But here we are.

Incidentally, I'm not saying you're wrong to feel as aggrieved as you are now and certainly have a right to.
Any more than I was to any degree defending them.

I am just pointing out the ludicrousness of the arguments that could potentially be used to defend these kinds of decisions and which I imagine Graphisoft are using to create a permission structure for themselves to do all this and justify these decisions.

[jl_lt]

Personally i cannot see a universe in which i could care less about the AI assistant (at least in its current form)... or the AI visualizer, or design options, or dark mode, etc.  an exception of course, being the 90 degrees rotation tool, which i have waited all my life for.

but i agree with @Roman-PS, if you have been up to date with the payments of the Forward contracts, you should be able to get these services up to this last version, because you have been paying full for it until today.   Because Graphisoft, you know there is this little thing called loyalty and it works both ways. And being loyal is very important.

[Mauricio_br]

@Cdmeng , Your comment clearly reflects my feelings regarding the juggling act Graphisoft has been performing in recent years to aggressively increase its profits at the expense of its customers who purchased perpetual licenses + Forward, based on their discourse that this would be best for us. 

[Mauricio_br]

Again, I would like to remind those involved in this conversation that the evolution of BIM 2.0, and very soon the leap to BIM 3.0, will give us good new software and app options for building modeling and documentation in the coming years. And above all, that it was arrogance, hubris, and greed that extinguished corporate empires like Kodak and Blockbuster. That marketing spiel about "our company being customer-focused" no longer works. While Graphisoft strives to squeeze our wallets, in some garage, bedroom, or university dorm, young visionaries are developing the software we will be using in the near future. Graphisoft has probably aged and behaves like a reactionary company. Let's not lose our peace and creativity because of this; let's seek other options and paths.