Running Local AI Models in .NET with Ollama (Step-by-Step Guide)

Most developers who start experimenting with AI tend to follow the same path. You integrate a cloud AI API into your application. The prototype works beautifully. Responses are fast, integration is simple, and everything feels almost magical. Then the production questions start appearing. How much will this cost at scale? Do we really want sensitive data leaving our infrastructure? What happens if the API rate limits us? And the big one many developers eventually ask: Can we run AI models locally instead? The answer is yes.