What happened
Ukraine-based app developer MacPaw has partnered with Liquid AI to build Elix, an on-device inference system, and a local memory system to power its AI assistant Eney. MacPaw plans to eventually make this technology available to developers building for its SetApp app store, which has over 150,000 paying users.
Why it matters
On-device AI processing lets users run assistants and agentic workflows offline while keeping data private and secure. MacPaw is now positioning SetApp as a platform where developers can access both on-device inference and cloud models from companies like Google, creating a centralized option for AI app builders.
What to watch
MacPaw is already experimenting with credit-based pricing for the app store, where users earn a certain number of AI operations based on the credits they have and the complexity of the task.
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MacPaw's partnership with Liquid AI reflects a broader industry shift toward on-device AI inference as an alternative to cloud-only processing. The company is positioning its SetApp store—which already serves over 150,000 paying users—as a platform that bridges local and cloud AI capabilities. By offering developers both on-device inference through Elix and access to cloud models, MacPaw aims to reduce friction for developers who want to support offline AI functionality without building multiple integrations. Liquid AI's emphasis on hardware-tailored model architectures and customization stacks signals a move away from one-size-fits-all LLM (language model) approaches toward models that can adapt and improve based on user data over time. This matters because it allows developers to offer privacy-preserving AI features while maintaining flexibility for performance-intensive tasks that may benefit from cloud processing.
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