Brand names change. Family, data path, and jurisdiction usually decide the governance problem.
Six families public bodies encounter
Features that change risk, independent of brand
Where processing and storage occur
Some tools process prompts only on provider infrastructure in specified regions; others can run on-device or in a customer virtual private cloud. Location determines which governments can compel access under local law. On Jan 31, 2025, the Office of the Texas Governor announced a ban on several foreign-developed apps, including an AI assistant, on state-issued devices and networks.[3]
Whether sources are shown
Citation and RAG features make verification possible. Their presence does not guarantee accuracy; their absence means staff cannot trace a claim to a document without separate research.
Whether inputs are used for training
Consumer terms often allow broader use of prompts for model improvement than enterprise or government terms. Contract language for the specific SKU, not marketing pages alone, is what procurement reviews.
Open-weight versus closed service
Open weights enable self-hosting and offline evaluation. Closed services centralize updates and liability allocation in the vendor relationship. Neither pattern is inherently compliant; controls and contracts decide.
Data location and compelling authority
A recurring written question from public buyers: in which country are prompts, files, and embeddings stored and processed, and which legal processes can compel the provider to disclose them? Quality and price do not answer that question.
| Feature | Questions commonly recorded in public procurements |
|---|---|
| Processing location | Region options? Customer-managed keys? On-device mode? |
| Citations / RAG | Can staff see retrieved passages? Can the corpus be limited to approved sources? |
| Training on customer data | Default off for this SKU? Subprocessors? Written residual rights? |
| Retention & deletion | Prompt/log retention period? Deletion on request and at contract end? |
| Agent permissions | Which tools can it call? Who approves expansions? |