If your business uses AI to handle contracts, customer emails, support tickets, CRM records, or internal documents, you're processing sensitive information through systems that weren't designed with traditional data protection in mind. Personal details, commercially confidential material, and regulated content now flow through prompts, AI models, vector databases, and third-party services. A standard IT security review won't catch where the real risks lie.

If you're thinking about using AI tools like DeepSeek in your business, there's something important you need to know: DeepSeek stores all your data on servers in China. For any UK business handling sensitive information, this should raise serious concerns.

We've all experienced that moment of mild amazement when we ask an AI a question and get back a confident, well-structured answer about almost anything. Victorian social customs, quantum physics, how to fix a leaking tap—it all arrives within seconds, formatted nicely, sounding authoritative. It's easy to assume there's some vast digital encyclopedia powering these responses, but the reality is rather different and worth understanding, particularly if you're relying on AI for business decisions.

AI tools have become essential for modern businesses. Whether you're automating customer emails, reviewing contracts, generating marketing content, or answering staff queries, large language models like ChatGPT and Claude have proven their worth. But there's a problem that's becoming harder to ignore: the monthly bills keep climbing, and you're essentially renting intelligence that you'll never own.