Straight answers.

You might, and for a lot of everyday work you should. Copilot is good at email and documents inside Microsoft 365. A private system makes sense for different reasons: you control the model, the filters and the logs. Costs stay flat for high-volume jobs like transcribing every recording or reading every scanned document. It works with file shares, scanned paperwork and older systems that Copilot can't easily reach. And we build and maintain custom workflows for each department. Many organizations will use both.

No. Major cloud AI providers offer business agreements, and many organizations use them lawfully. On-site AI isn't a legal requirement. It's a choice about control, cost shape and fit. If the cloud fits you better, we'll tell you.

Not on everything. The largest cloud models still lead on the hardest reasoning and coding. The open models we run are strong at drafting, summarizing, extracting and answering from your documents, which is most back-office work. We aim the system at that work and test it on your own examples. In the Standard edition, you can choose to route certain non-sensitive tasks to a cloud model under your own contract.

That's what the consultation and your written plan answer. Common starting points: Q&A over your policies with cited sources, paperwork and document intake, meeting and record summaries, dictation to draft text, and sorting email with draft replies. A person reviews every output.

On a server you own, on encrypted drives. Backups go to storage you control. Our monitoring systems receive only health metrics and error codes, filtered so no free text gets through.

Your authorized staff, according to their roles. Our team only during a support session you approve. Remote support is off by default; we connect only when you approve each session, and every session is recorded in your audit log. During a session our team may see your data, which is why every session needs your approval.

Detailed security documentation is shared on request, case by case. If you have a security questionnaire, send it over and we'll answer it plainly.

The AI runs on your local network, so chat, document search and workflows that run on the server keep working for staff on site. Updates and health reporting pause until the connection returns. If you sign in through a cloud directory such as Microsoft Entra or Google, or connect to cloud systems such as SharePoint Online, those parts need the internet.

You do. You own the server and your data. At the end of a contract, we return or destroy any data we hold. In the HIPAA edition that includes cryptographic erasure and a certificate of destruction.

As a rough guide: our M1 server typically fits organizations of about 50–150 employees, and M2 about 100–300. Teams of about 25–50 usually start on M1 as well. Standard-edition offices where no more than about 25 people will use it, and pilots, can start on S1. We confirm sizing in your written plan and with a load test during the pilot. Smaller than 25 people? Talk to us; we'll tell you honestly whether it's a fit.

A ventilated, lockable closet. M1 runs on a standard 120 V / 15 A circuit. M2 needs a dedicated 20 A circuit and cooling. We check your space before install.

Every deployment is scoped and quoted for your organization, because staff size, workload and site all change the answer. You'll get flat, predictable costs and no per-token fees. We don't publish prices.

Yes. The first consultation is free, and there's no obligation. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so.

No. Saddle Tree is a small, focused Lexington team, and we're now taking a small number of pilot partners. We provide ongoing support after go-live. Everything about your system is documented, so it never depends on one person's memory.

No. We work alongside your IT team or managed service provider. They keep your network and Microsoft 365. We handle the AI system.

Not directly in the first version. It reads from your systems through the vendor's API where they allow it, or through report exports. The AI prepares drafts, and your staff review them and enter them.

It depends on your organization. Timelines are scoped case by case, around your team's availability, your systems and hardware lead times, and we agree them with you in writing.

Yes. Start with a free consultation, then a written plan. From there, a pilot with a limited group, on a smaller system if that fits, comes before rolling out further.

We focus on Central Kentucky so we can be on site when it matters. If you're farther away, ask us.