4 Efficiency Gains for Enterprises That Own Their AI

Trying to decide between owning your own Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform or using a subscription-based model? You’re not alone. As AI becomes a mainstay in the enterprise, more organizations are weighing the benefits of going all in on AI platform  ownership. 

What advantages does AI ownership provide in terms of efficiency, security and cost control? Explore some of the greatest advantages of owning your AI infrastructure below to help you make an informed decision.  

1. Predictable Cost Savings and Budget Control

Budget predictability is a critical concern for executive stakeholders at enterprises. Subscription-based AI models often come with escalating costs due to token costs based on usage, data processing and model updates. This setup makes organizations vulnerable to unpredictable expenses. 

However, AI ownership ensures the following:

• Predictable costs. By investing in hardware, software, and development on the front end, you can stabilize long-term expenses and avoid variable pricing models found with subscriptions.
• Transparency of costs. Avoid costs like overage fees, compliance penalties, and third-party service charges.
• Custom scalability. Scale AI operations to meet your needs without incurring costly   fees. 

This level of cost control protects your budget and provides financial flexibility to invest in other strategic initiatives or fuel further AI innovation.

2. Increased Productivity Through AI Customization

One of the issues with AI off-the-shelf solutions is that they’re generic. This one-size-fits-all approach means you’ll end up with capabilities that likely don’t  align with your organization’s specific goals and needs. When you own your AI platform, you can tailor solutions to purpose fit your objectives and increase productivity across departments. Here’s what that looks like:

• Customized workflows. Develop and run agentic AI workloads to address your unique challenges or opportunities, such as automating financial reports or streamlining communication workflows.
• Scale faster. Add AI use cases as your priorities change and expand.
• Enhanced collaboration. Tap into everything from predictive analytics for sales to real-time data insights for operations to encourage collaboration across departments. 

As an example, you can deploy  AI workflows that can automatically consolidate financial data from multiple, disparate sources. This data could then be turned into executive-ready reports and be mined to identify trends or anomalies in real time. 

3. Full Control for Better Security and Compliance

Data breaches and compliance violations can cause severe damage to your enterprise’s reputation and finances. A subscription-based AI model leaves your security in the hands of a third-party that may or may not make it a priority. By owning your AI platform, on the other hand, you can have full sovereignty over your data, and have support for all of the platform components including lifecycle and updates. 

Your enterprise can manage adherence to best practices and ensure the platforms comply with any relevant industry standards such as GDPR and HIPAA. You also won’t need to simply trust that third-party vendors are keeping your sensitive data safe.

4. Flexibility With Large Language Model (LLM) Choice

One of the most significant advantages of AI ownership is the ability to choose and customize large language models. Vendor-provided solutions may lock your organization into a specific model. 

With your own AI platform, you have your choice of models. That frees you up to experiment with open source, proprietary or hybrid LLMs. These models can also be fine-tuned to suit any relevant industry terminology, workflows and data sets. Plus, you can adapt to new AI advancements on your own timeline. 

FAQs about AI Ownership 

Budget and Cost Concerns

Q: How does AI ownership compare to subscription models in terms of cost?
A: With AI ownership, you’ll invest in hardware, software and deployment upfront. However, you’ll avoid long-term expenses in the form of escalating, unpredictable costs often found with subscription models. 

Q: What are the hidden or unexpected costs associated with AI ownership?
A: You won’t face the common hidden costs found with subscriptions such as overage fees, increasing token costs, compliance penalties and third-party service charges. Plan on the upfront investments and ongoing maintenance with budgeting. 

Q: How predictable are the long-term costs for owning AI solutions?
A: Long-term costs are highly predictable with AI ownership because the expenses are primarily made on the front-end. 

Compliance and Security

Q: How does AI ownership help ensure compliance with industry-specific regulations?
A: Ownership allows you to customize and manage AI applications to meet regulatory standards like GDPR, HIPAA or ISO. Your enterprise retains control over implementation and updates. Plus, with the ability to run AI in air-gapped environments, you can ensure the privacy and security of sensitive data.

Q: What specific security measures are included to protect sensitive data and AI applications?
A: Your organization can implement security measures such as encryption, access control and secure deployment protocols. Running AI workloads on a trusted platform means you maintain complete visibility and control of your private data.

Q: How does owning AI provide better oversight and control compared to third-party solutions?
A: You have complete control over the AI lifecycle, including deployment, updates and retirement. 

Q: Are the models certified for compliance standards like GDPR, HIPAA or ISO?
A: Yes, you can develop and certify models for compliance with relevant industry standards.

Take Control of Your AI Journey

Considering owning your own platform? Download our recent whitepaper, How to Deliver AI Safely & Securely- Without Compromising Your Data, to learn more about how SUSE provides an extensible platform for you to develop your own AI applications, securely.