At SimplyDo, our innovation management platform is fundamentally centered on the value of human content and interaction. Our approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) is therefore highly selective and strategic. We use AI both in delivering our software and as a feature within it, with the primary goal of automating key and tedious workflows, allowing our users to spend their time on more interesting innovation.
We recognise the transformative power of AI, but we know it is not a "sledgehammer to crack all nuts," and simply cramming it into every corner of our platform would be detrimental to our users. Our priority is to use AI effectively and safely, ensuring that we don’t compromise the privacy, security, or experience of our customers.
Utility: Focused on Real Customer Value
SimplyDo commits to building what is meaningful, useful, and what truly adds extra value to customers and users. Our development and deployment of AI-dependent capabilities are based purely on usefulness and the opportunity to deliver real customer value.
We ensure that new technologies are not simply integrated for the sake of it or as a marketing tactic. Whether the technology is for internal tooling to help our staff work more scalably with customers or for direct user-facing features, our intention is to enable time-saving, efficiency, workload scaling, and other useful outcomes. This commitment means we are focused on using the right models for the job.
Optionality: Progressively-AI, Not AI-First
We understand that some customers may be resistant to adopting AI due to concerns over safety, accuracy, or security. Therefore, the SimplyDo platform is, and will remain, fully usable without enabling or using AI-based features.
Nearly all our AI features are developed to enhance existing workflows through offering time-saving enhancements or scalability opportunities, rather than introducing entirely new features. We consider this approach to be progressively-AI, and we maintain alternative workflows that use “traditional” methods to achieve the same or similar results. This structure provides flexibility, allowing customers to choose to use these capabilities at an organisational level or sporadically on a needs-basis (e.g., for a specific challenge). Our customer account managers are available to assist in guiding these choices depending on customer requirements.
Data Sovereignty and Security
Secure AI requires that customer needs, particularly security and data sovereignty, come first. Our foundational pillar is the belief that our customers should remain in control of their data at all times, extending to all features, including those based on AI. This stance enables us to remain compliant with existing data processing agreements, easing adoption across our customer base where they want to use it.
We maintain robust controls covering data ownership boundaries (foreground and background IP), data segregation, data access (via APIs, exports, and reporting), and data deletion.
Crucially, all SimplyDo platform customer data has been processed and stored fully within the UK since 2018, and this includes all backups and redundant systems. We strictly audit and restrict any new data processor suppliers (data “subprocessors”) to ensure that data processed on our behalf remains within the UK. We currently use the UK data centers of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform for processing or storing customer data, including for AI workloads.
Model Integrity and Zero Data Retention
A key part of our security stance is our guarantee that customer data is never used for training AI models. All SimplyDo AI features are built leveraging existing models, and we do not build or train our own.
Furthermore, we only ever use AI services where there is a guarantee of zero data retention: this means customer input data (prompts) is not permanently stored (beyond caching) or used to train subsequent models. For instance, SimplyDo AI features are currently built leveraging Google’s Vertex AI service, which supports this zero data retention policy. We apply industry standard data protections and encryption to customer data in-transit, at-rest, and where possible, during processing.
Governance and Oversight
SimplyDo maintains and regularly audits an Artificial Intelligence Register, which details the AI capabilities and underlying services in use by our platform, including features, controls, models, services, and any related subprocessors. The Register is subject to our established change management mechanism, meaning that any changes must be approved at board level and by our Data Protection Officer before they are introduced.
Conclusion: Innovation Driven by Trust and Choice
Our dedication to human-centric innovation means that our approach to AI is measured, secure, and focused on empowering our users. SimplyDo’s strategy rests on core principles: ensuring that every AI feature provides genuine value and utility to our customers; offering full optionality through our ‘Progressively-AI’ approach; and, most critically, upholding absolute data sovereignty, security, and integrity with a zero data retention guarantee. We believe the future of innovation management is one where powerful tools augment human creativity, but never at the expense of privacy or control. Our governance and oversight processes ensure we remain a trusted partner as we strategically integrate AI to make innovation more efficient and impactful. We invite you to explore how SimplyDo’s secure, choice-driven AI features can accelerate your team’s innovation journey.
.jpg)
