AI tools to use

types of ai

There are two types of AI that you can access: Consumer AI and Enterprise AI. They are essentially the same "brain" but with different "privacy walls." Consumer AI is like a public conversation: it’s free or low-cost, but the provider may use your questions and data to "learn" and train the AI for everyone else. Enterprise AI, however, is a private, professional workspace where your data is legally locked in a vault; it is never shared or used for training, ensuring that your company's secret designs and technical files stay strictly within your own business. 

Data Security and Confidentiality

Unlike consumer AI, enterprise AI protects customer data through a "Zero-Training" architecture, which legally guarantees that any data or prompts uploaded by your company are never used to train the underlying public models. Unlike consumer versions, enterprise platforms operate within a private, encrypted "tenant" or "vault" that mirrors your company's existing security permissions, ensuring that sensitive design files or risk assessments remain isolated from both the AI provider and other users. Furthermore, these systems employ advanced data masking and real-time governance tools that automatically redact personally identifiable information (PII) and maintain rigorous audit logs, allowing your business to meet the strict transparency and security requirements of the EU AI Act and GDPR. 

enterprise AI

Some example Enterprise AIs (not in any particular order) that we have tested to be suitable for CE documentation are below. Feel free to explore other AIs as well.

Note, you don't need multiple AI. You can use just one (e.g., ChatGPT Enterprise) as your primary, and only, tool.

Google Gemini Business & Enterprise

• Web: workspace.google.com/solutions/ai/

• Price: ~$20 – $36/user/month.

• Data Location: EU or US. Note: Administrators can use the "Data Regions" feature to force data to be stored "at rest" specifically in the EU. This is a major advantage for compliance-heavy clients. 

• Best for CE Steps:

  • Step 1 (Rules/Directives): Uses its vast search capability to scan your product description against the latest EU "New Approach" directives.

  • Step 4 (Notified Body): Excellent at searching live databases (like NANDO) to find specific, accredited bodies for your product category.

  • Step 10 (Consistency): Its massive "context window" allows it to read your entire technical file at once to find contradictions.

• Rationale: Gemini’s ability to process huge amounts of data (up to 2 million tokens) makes it the "Librarian" of the CE process.

Claude for Teams (Anthropic)

• Web: anthropic.com/claude

• Price: ~$25 – $30/user/month.

• Data Location: US. 

• Best for CE Steps:

  • Step 2 (Standards): Superior at identifying specific EN ISO/IEC standards without "hallucinating" (making them up).

  • Step 3 (Assessment Procedure): Uses precise logic to determine if you can self-declare or if you must use a Notified Body based on Annexes.

  • Step 5 (Risk Assessment): The reliable for "Failure Mode" verification and assisting safety analysis.

• Rationale: Claude is "cautious", making it suitable for high-stakes engineering logic verification required in the context of risk assessment.

Microsoft Copilot for Business

• Web: microsoft.com/copilot

• Price: ~$20 – $30/user/month (plus M365 license).

• Data Location: EU. Note: Microsoft has established the EU Data Boundary, which ensures that all customer data for EU-based tenants is processed and stored within Europe. (Be aware that "Flex Routing" for peak performance can occasionally route data globally unless disabled by an admin). 

• Best for CE Steps:

  • Step 6 (Technical File): Automatically compiles your Word-based test reports, Excel-based BOMs, and PDFs into a single formatted file.

  • Step 9 (Post-Market Surveillance): Can scan emails, customer feedback forms, and internal databases to flag potential safety incidents.

• Rationale: Since most CE documentation is created in Microsoft Office, Copilot saves hundreds of hours by automating the "busy work" of document assembly.

ChatGPT Business & Enterprise

• Web: openai.com/chatgpt/enterprise

• Price: ~$25 – $60/user/month.

• Data Location: Primarily US (with some regional hosting). 

• Best for CE Steps:

  • Step 7 (Declaration of Conformity): Quickly generates legally formatted DoC templates in multiple EU languages.

  • Step 8 (Affixing the CE Mark): Using its "Vision" capability, it can look at a photo of your product or label and verify if the CE Mark is shaped correctly (5mm minimum height, correct proportions).

• Rationale: ChatGPT is the best "all-rounder" for drafting clear, multi-language legal statements and analysing visual layouts of labels and packaging.