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Private AI vs Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise
Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise are cloud services, provided by Microsoft and OpenAI, that work with your company’s data in their cloud. Private AI, such as Seesa, is installed on your own premises: the models, the company memory and the agent work run on hardware in your building, and the supplier installs and manages it for you. The useful comparison is not a list of features. It is where the AI runs and who runs it, because those two answers shape most of what follows.
Two different arrangements
A cloud AI service is run by its provider on the provider’s infrastructure. Your team reaches it over the internet, and the work it does with your information happens in the provider’s cloud. Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise are examples of this kind of service. You rent access, and the provider operates everything behind it.
Private AI on your premises is a different arrangement. In Seesa’s case, the models, the company memory and the agent execution all run on the installation in your building. Pentatonic supplies the hardware, installs it and manages it. You can buy the hardware, lease it over 24, 36 or 48 months, or ask Pentatonic to assess suitable hardware you already have.
Where it runs
With a cloud service, the processing happens in someone else’s data centres, so your information is handled on the provider’s infrastructure and under the provider’s arrangements. That is a reasonable choice for many companies, particularly when speed of starting matters most.
With Seesa, the processing that builds and uses your company memory runs on your installation, and company memory is stored there. Seesa’s security page describes the models, memory and agent execution as running on your premises.
It is worth being precise about what this does not mean. On-premise does not mean disconnected. Seesa’s security page says source systems, user access and maintenance may use external services, and the company explains these connections as part of the deployment design. Seesa also has to connect to the systems where your records already live, such as Gmail, Microsoft 365, Slack and Google Drive.
Who runs it
With a cloud service, the provider runs the service. You use it, and the provider is responsible for the platform underneath.
With Seesa, Pentatonic manages the installation for systems it supplies. Standard setup includes installation, historical import, supported connections and permission configuration, and Pentatonic maintains the software and configuration. Your team provides a suitable location, power and network access, people who can authorise the connections you want, and someone to help agree permissions and check the first workflows.
What Seesa is built around
Seesa is designed as a company-wide system rather than a single assistant, and a few things follow from that.
- One memory built from your records. Seesa connects to the systems that hold your company’s data and builds one memory from them. Answers show their sources.
- Access that follows the person. Each person’s access governs what their Seesa can use, so a shared answer does not have to expose the records behind it.
- Work prepared before you ask. Seesa watches the business, does the groundwork and brings you what needs a decision. You set the permitted actions and approval rules.
- Routines in plain English. Regular work can become a routine, and the company’s specialists can help build ones particular to your business.
When each approach fits
A cloud service tends to fit when you want to start quickly, when you are comfortable with a provider’s arrangements for your information, and when you prefer to have no hardware in your building at all.
Private AI on your premises tends to fit when you want the processing and the company memory to sit with you, when you want to set access and approval rules around a system installed in your own building, and when you would rather have a supplier install and manage it than run it yourselves. Seesa serves companies of all sizes, in the UK and the US.
Neither approach is right for everyone, and the two are not strictly alternatives for every task. The better question is which arrangement matches how your company wants its information handled.
Questions to put to any supplier
These apply whichever route you take, and they are worth asking in writing.
- Where are our questions processed and our records stored?
- Which external services does the system rely on, and what passes through each?
- Who sets and changes each person’s access, and who approves actions?
- How is the system maintained, and who can connect to it for that purpose?
Seeing it for your company
The features page shows what Seesa does with your company’s records, and the security page explains how access, actions and external connections are handled. If you are weighing options, bring the questions above to the conversation, and the Seesa team can answer them against your own setup.
Questions, answered.
Is Seesa a replacement for Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT Enterprise?
They are different arrangements. Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise are cloud services from Microsoft and OpenAI. Seesa is installed on your premises, with the models, company memory and agent work running there. Which fits depends on how your company wants its information handled.
Does on-premise AI work without the internet?
Not entirely. Seesa’s security page says on-premise deployment does not mean disconnected operation: source systems, user access and maintenance may use external services.
Do we have to run the hardware ourselves?
No. Pentatonic supplies, installs and manages the hardware and the Seesa installation. Your team provides a suitable location, power and network access.