Modern Work Is Broken — And Cloud AI Makes It Worse
Dr. Gloria Mark's research at UC Irvine revealed a startling truth: attention spans collapsed from 2.5 minutes to 47 seconds in two decades. Microsoft's Work Trend Index confirms 48% of employees describe work as 'chaotic.' This isn't anecdotal — it's systemic.
Existing solutions fall short. They lock you into their ecosystem. It's by design — that's their core business model. Every major AI assistant sends your employees' data and documents to cloud infrastructure outside your control. We don't believe in vendor lock-in.
The regulated economy — healthcare ($4.3T), financial services ($4.6T), defense ($886B), legal ($350B) — cannot adopt cloud-only AI. Not because they don't want to. Because their compliance frameworks, regulations, and fiduciary duties to customers won't allow it. That's the market existing AI vendors are ignoring. It's the market we're building for.
Bolt vs. Copilot 365 & Gemini Workspace
Microsoft Copilot 365 is a $30/seat add-on charged on top of existing M365 licenses ($12–22/seat), totaling $42–52/seat — and requires your data to route through Microsoft's Azure OpenAI cloud. Gemini Workspace similarly processes your documents externally.
| Bolt | Copilot 365 · Gemini | |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted / air-gapped deployment | ||
| Bring Your Own LLM — switch anytime | Vendor-locked model | |
| Works with any IdP — 365, Workspace, Zoho, Okta… | Own ecosystem only | |
| IP & PII protected from AI model | ||
| Data stays completely on-prem | ||
| HIPAA / ITAR / SOX deployable | ||
| Price per seat / month | $30Bolt Absolute · self-hosted, BYO LLM | $44–52$30 Copilot + $14–22 M365 base |
Aeira vs. Glean
Glean is the leading enterprise search tool. It's cloud-hosted, SaaS-only, and routes all document indexing through Glean's infrastructure. Aeira offers equivalent search capability — with full data sovereignty.
| Aeira | Glean | |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted / on-prem deployment | SaaS only | |
| 4-level ACL filtering — region / department / group / user | Partial | |
| Documents indexed inside your perimeter | ||
| Bring Your Own LLM for AI answers | ||
| Price per seat / month | BundledIncluded with Bolt Bundled | ~$50–65$50 base + $15 AI add-on · 100-seat min |