ChatGPT alternative for companies that cannot share data
A ChatGPT alternative for companies that cannot share client data: what OpenAI's own pages say, how on-device AI differs, Nova's limits, and how to roll it out.
The short answer: if your company handles client contracts, financials, health records or candidates' details, the question is not which chatbot is cleverest. It is where the text goes when an employee presses Enter. With a cloud assistant it goes to the vendor's data centre, under whatever terms your plan carries. With an on-device assistant it goes nowhere. Nova, the assistant in DNX OS, runs on the PC's own processor, so prompts and files stay on that machine. It is a smaller model than the large cloud ones and will not match them on hard research. DNX OS is in beta from December 2026 and launches in January 2027, with no published price.
Who is this page for?
Firms that are bound by client confidentiality or hold a lot of personal data: accountants, law firms, recruiters, clinics, consultancies, lenders. And any owner who suspects that staff already paste such material into a public chatbot. If your use of AI is public marketing copy and general research, a cloud assistant is the better tool and you do not need this page.
What does ChatGPT do well, and what do OpenAI's pages say about data?
ChatGPT is OpenAI's assistant. Our own view, stated as opinion: the large models behind it are among the most capable available, and for long, open-ended tasks a small on-device model does not compete with them.
On data handling we can report only what we were able to read on OpenAI's own site on 12 November 2026, and that was the documentation for its developer platform, the API that other software uses, not the ChatGPT app:
- Training. "As of March 1, 2023, data sent to the OpenAI API is not used to train or improve OpenAI models", unless the customer explicitly opts in.
- Retention. "By default, abuse monitoring logs are generated for all API feature usage and retained for up to 30 days".
- Residency. The page's regional table includes India. It also says: "Regional processing in Australia, India, and Japan requires active Zero Data Retention (ZDR)", and that such controls "are subject to prior approval by OpenAI and acceptance of additional requirements".
We could not open OpenAI's pages on how the ChatGPT app itself, on personal or business plans, treats conversations; they refused automated access on the day. So we make no statement about that here. Before your staff use any ChatGPT plan with company data, read OpenAI's current privacy pages for that plan yourself and keep a copy of what they say.
How does on-device AI compare?
| A cloud assistant | Nova in DNX OS | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the model runs | In the vendor's data centre | On the employee's PC, on its own processor |
| What leaves the PC | The prompt and any attached file | Nothing |
| Terms that govern your data | The vendor's, for your plan | None needed; there is no third party |
| Needs internet | Yes | No |
| Size of model | Very large | Small |
| Best at | Research, difficult reasoning, long documents on unfamiliar subjects | Drafting, summarising, sorting, minutes, explaining, reading scans |
| Where you use it | A website or app; inside other tools where integrated | The desktop ask bar, and inside Files, Mail, Meetings and Guard |
| Actions | Depends on the product | Shows what it wants to do and waits for your yes |
| Cost | Usually per user per month | Part of DNX OS; price not published |
The first three rows are why confidential work fits the right-hand column. Rows five and six are why some work still fits the left.
What does Nova not do yet?
Say this to your team before they try it, not after.
- It is not the largest model. Nova runs small models on an ordinary processor. A very large cloud model will do better on a long research report.
- It is slower than a data centre. An answer takes seconds, longer on an older machine.
- It does not browse on your behalf in the published screens. It works with what is on the PC: files, the mailbox, meetings and the computer itself.
- Larger models are planned, not shipped. DNX AI Cloud, with bigger models on GPUs hosted in India, is on the roadmap for 2027.
- It can be wrong. A named person still reads every draft and checks every figure.
- It comes with DNX OS. Nova is part of the operating system, not an app for an existing Windows or Mac machine.
How do you move a team off public AI tools?
- Ask what people use AI for, with an amnesty. You need the tasks, not the names.
- Sort the tasks into two columns: may use an outside tool; must stay inside the company.
- Test the inside tool on the real tasks from the second column. If it cannot do them, people will go back.
- Put it where the work is. An assistant inside mail and files beats one behind a separate login.
- Keep an outside tool for the first column, on a business plan whose terms you have read.
- State the rule in two lines, and review it each quarter.
The full version, with the table of tasks, is in staff using public AI with company data.
Which articles show it working?
- Nova AI: a private AI assistant for office work
- On-device AI vs cloud AI for business: how to choose
- Shadow AI: staff, ChatGPT and a policy that works
- DNX Mail: a business email app with private AI
- Business intelligence without a data team
- The guide to private and on-device AI for business
See DNX OS, or apply for the beta and test Nova on your own tasks. If you need AI connected to systems you already run, with single sign-on and audit trails, that is the secure AI work we take on as client projects: contact us.
Sources
Read on 12 November 2026. ChatGPT and OpenAI are OpenAI's names, used here only to identify the product being compared.
- OpenAI developer documentation, the guide to data controls for the API platform: API data and training, default retention of abuse monitoring logs, Zero Data Retention and the regional table.
- Not read: OpenAI's privacy pages for the ChatGPT app on personal and business plans, which returned an access error to our automated reader on that day.
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