Compliance is far easier when your AI is private
Adam AI is built privacy first, with GDPR at its core. When models, memory and data stay on infrastructure you control, achieving and maintaining compliance becomes a manageable job instead of a moving target.
We started in data security and compliance
Adam AI came out of Total Group, a managed IT, cyber security and compliance firm that will shortly be just another Adam AI customer. Long before AI, the job was keeping client data safe and helping businesses meet their obligations.
When AI arrived, we saw early that securing it was the biggest obstacle to lawful, sensible business adoption. Adam AI is our answer to that problem.
- Privacy by design and by default, not bolted on later
- Built around GDPR principles from the first line
- Designed by people who assess risk for a living
- Security, backup and audit as standard
Policy alone was never going to work
Customers asked us
Clients wanted to know how they could use and develop AI safely and compliantly, and which tools they should choose.
Our assessments said no
Our security findings and risk assessments of the public AI tools on offer did not support recommending any of them for confidential business data.
The logs said otherwise
Our monitoring of web traffic and Microsoft Defender logs showed staff using public AI anyway, whatever the policy said. Even senior managers who had backed those policies were tempted by the results.
So we built a solution
If people will use AI regardless, the safe answer is to give them AI that keeps the data in house. That became Adam AI.
With public AI, a data breach is one paste away
A well-meaning user pasting a client file into a public chat, or sharing a conversation link, can disclose personal data in seconds. With private AI that risk is no longer in the hands of the user alone: the data stays inside systems IT controls.
No accidental sharing
Staff get the AI they want, but prompts and files never leave your environment by default, so a naive chat cannot become a reportable breach.
IT stays in control
Access, models and connections are set centrally. What each agent and user can see follows your existing permissions.
Everything on record
Every prompt, tool call and approval is logged, so you can show what happened, when and why.
The hard parts of GDPR get simpler
You know where data lives
Personal data is processed and stored on hardware you control, so your records of processing are accurate and short.
Fewer processors
No third-party AI provider handling your prompts by default means fewer contracts, fewer international transfers and fewer DPIAs to maintain.
Retention you control
You set how long AI data is kept and can find and delete it, which makes subject access and erasure requests answerable.
Least privilege by default
Per-agent permissions mean AI only sees what a role should see, not everything an account happens to reach.
Evidence for audits
One audit trail across agents and users gives you evidence for auditors, insurers and your own board.
Cloud only by choice
Where a task benefits from a cloud model, it runs on your own account under rules that keep private data local.
Your business remains the data controller. Adam AI gives you the controls and the evidence; we help you put the policies and processes around them.
The honest comparison
Public AI has real strengths. The question is which work it is right for, and who decides.
| Public AI tools | Private AI with Adam AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started | Pro Sign up in minutes, nothing to install | Con Needs hardware and set-up, which we specify, build and install for you |
| Model power | Pro Direct access to the largest frontier models | Trade-off Local models handle most business tasks well, and frontier cloud models can still be used on your own account for work you choose |
| Where your data goes | Con Prompts and files are processed on the provider’s servers, often in another country | Pro Stays on hardware you control, inside your business |
| Accidental data sharing | Con One paste or one shared chat link can disclose client or personal data | Pro Data stays inside systems IT governs, so a single click cannot send it out |
| GDPR effort | Con Processor contracts, transfer checks and DPIAs for every tool staff adopt | Pro Fewer processors, a clear data map and evidence from one audit trail |
| Visibility for IT | Con Shadow AI use is hard to see and harder to stop | Pro Every prompt, tool call and approval is logged and reviewable |
| Cost | Trade-off Cheap to start, then per user and per token indefinitely | Trade-off Hardware cost up front, then predictable running costs |
| Control and change | Con Terms, models and prices can change without notice | Pro You decide what changes and when |
| Company knowledge | Con Knowledge scattered across separate tools and accounts | Pro One private company memory every agent can use |
| Looking after it | Pro The provider maintains everything | Con Needs maintaining, which our managed service covers |
Public AI has its place. Your data decides where.
For non-sensitive work, a public model can be the right tool. The problem is that people cannot always tell what is sensitive, so policy alone does not hold.
Adam AI routes work by sensitivity: private data stays on local models, and only what you allow goes to the cloud, on your own account.
- Local models for anything personal or confidential
- Cloud models only for work you approve
- Spending caps that fail closed
- Human approval for anything that matters
Make AI compliant from day one
Start with a conversation about where your data is today and what a safe, private first step looks like.