Is your business data safe with an AI tool?
It can be, if you decide where it runs and who sees what before anything is built. Your choices run from a UK or EU service to a machine in your own office that never goes online.
The short answer
It can be, and the safest set-ups are decided before anything is built. The two questions that matter are where your data is read, and who is allowed to see the answers. You choose both. Where a document has to be read, that can happen on a UK or EU service, on your own network, or fully offline on a machine in your office.
Where your data goes
Most routines don’t move your data anywhere new. They pass it between the apps you already use and already trust, so your emails stay in your email and your figures stay in your books.
Where a step has to read a document, such as an invoice, a letter or a policy, you choose where that happens:
- A UK or EU cloud service. The simplest set-up, and the one most small businesses choose.
- Your own network. If your data has to stay in the building, we can set it up to run there.
- Fully offline. A machine in your office that never goes online. It runs a smaller model, which is very good at finding and summarising your own documents but not the thing for heavy reasoning. We’ll tell you which jobs fit before you spend anything.
Who sees what
An assistant that answers from your files should follow the same permissions your files do. Each person only gets answers from the files they’re allowed to open. We set that up with you, folder by folder, before anyone uses it. Share a folder with someone, and their answers can use it.
Can you trust the answers?
Every answer comes with the page it came from, so you can check it in a click. If the answer isn’t in your files, it says so rather than guessing. Routines work the same way: anything they aren’t sure of, like an invoice with no order number, lands with you as a question rather than a guess. Nothing unclear goes into your books unchecked.
Can you switch it off?
Yes. Every step is written down in plain English, and we set routines up so each one can be paused on its own. We show your team how at the handover.
What to ask anyone who builds you one
- Where is my data read, and can I choose?
- Who can see the answers, and how is that set?
- What happens when it isn’t sure?
- How do I turn a step off?
If they can’t answer all four plainly, keep asking. You can read how we handle the details you send us in our privacy notice, and how we set up answers from your own documents. We’re based in Bath and work with businesses in Bath, Bristol and across the UK.