How to choose an enterprise AI platform: an assessment of eight options
Introduction
An enterprise AI platform has to fit the work, the systems and the people who will run it. A demo is one input to that decision. The useful question for a buyer is which platform can put an agent into production inside your company, under your controls, at a price you can plan for. This article assesses eight platforms against that question. They are Nexus, Relevance AI, Glean, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Google Gemini Enterprise, WRITER, Hebbia and Dify.
The assessment is written for people who will carry the decision: heads of operations, digital and AI leads, security and procurement teams. It does not give scores. It sets out, criterion by criterion, what each vendor says publicly, where its own pages stay silent, and what that means for a buyer. Numbered sources identify the evidence checked on 8 November 2026. Most are public vendor pages; specific Nexus delivery, pricing and security details are separately identified company confirmations.
How to use this guide
Start with the work you want an agent to do and the people who will run it. Then use the criteria below to compare delivery support, connections, controls and cost. The platform profiles distinguish documented strengths from gaps to resolve in a sales conversation or a proof of concept. This is desk research, not a test of how the products perform on your data.
Nexus is our first choice for a buyer who wants hands-on delivery support and a defined route to production. That recommendation does not make it the right choice for every organisation. If your priority is self hosting, company-wide search or a particular cloud environment, use the shortlisting table to start elsewhere. The About page explains ownership and how the overall recommendation is selected.
What an enterprise buyer needs from an AI platform
A useful evaluation reaches beyond the model. Before a pilot starts, decide who maps the business process, connects the systems, approves access and maintains the agent after launch. If the vendor does not supply that work, your team or an implementation partner must own it. That division of responsibility is central to the recommendation here.
Seven needs follow from that. A buyer needs help getting the first agents live, a credible timeline, connections to the systems where the work happens, security evidence that a risk team accepts, controls over what agents can do, a pricing model that scales with value and not with surprise, and a hosting and data arrangement that fits the company's obligations. The seven criteria used here map directly to those needs: implementation support, time to production, integrations, security and certifications, governance and access control, pricing model, and deployment and data handling.
Criterion one: implementation support
Implementation support determines how much of the build your own team must carry. Nexus addresses this directly1. Its engineers build with your business teams, and a Nexus engineer builds the first procedure with your team and shows it running in your own tools1. Version 1 is live in weeks, and the team then stays to improve it with you2. Nexus confirms that experienced consultants run its engagements and that a founder previously worked at McKinsey3. For a buyer, the useful question is what those people deliver and maintain within the agreed scope.
Relevance AI also offers delivery help. It describes an embedded deployment team that gets a customer live and then trains the customer's people to build on their own4. The Enterprise plan includes a dedicated account manager5. WRITER Enterprise lists priority support and AI programme management6. Dify Enterprise lists a dedicated customer success manager and round the clock support7, while its open source route starts with Docker Compose, which means your team runs the installation8. Glean9, Hebbia10 and Gemini Enterprise11 are bought through sales or a demo request, and the pages we opened do not describe a delivery team on the Nexus model.
For a buyer, the practical reading is simple. If you have a strong internal engineering team and want to own the build, platforms that train you to build on your own fit well. If you do not, a vendor that builds alongside your people shortens the route to production.
Criterion two: time to production
A stated route to production shows how soon value can start. Nexus confirms a first agent live in 4 weeks, inside a 3 month proof of concept3. This is a company statement rather than a timeline measured in our own test. Every engagement starts with a proof of concept tied to specific outcomes12. Relevance AI's own timeline lists the first team of agents from week 313. Google says there is no platform to stand up and no agent to assemble14, which describes ease of starting on Google's own surfaces and not the time to an agent wired into your systems.
Glean's home page carries a customer quote saying live in three weeks15, and a Microsoft customer story reports an agent built in six weeks with Copilot Studio16. Both are customer reported. Of the other vendors, none publishes a timeline of its own on the pages we opened. That is a gap for the buyer to close in the evaluation: ask each vendor to put a date on the first production agent for one named use case, and write it into the proof of concept plan.
Criterion three: integrations
Agents act on the systems they connect to, so the breadth and kind of integrations limit what can be automated. Nexus has 4,000+ integrations across CRMs, ERPs, communication tools and custom APIs17,18. It is the largest count published by any vendor that gives one, and it is the vendor's own figure. Relevance AI Enterprise lists 2,000+ integrations19. Copilot Studio has 1,500+ pre built connectors20. Glean has 275+ app connectors21, and Gemini Enterprise lists over 100 supported integrations, with prebuilt connectors for Confluence, Jira, Microsoft SharePoint and ServiceNow22,23.
WRITER sells connectors in basic, advanced and industry specific tiers24. Hebbia lists finance data and file sources such as Snowflake, FactSet, PitchBook, S&P Global and Salesforce25. Dify has a marketplace for tools, models and integrations26. Counting methods differ between vendors, so treat the numbers as a prompt for questions and not as a league table. The better test is whether the specific legacy system you care about is connected today. On the pages we opened Nexus publishes no full connector catalogue, and its blog names SAP, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and ServiceNow as the next integration focus27, so ask for your systems by name.
Criterion four: security and certifications
Procurement and risk teams ask for recognised certifications before any agent touches company data. Nexus lists GDPR, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 on its comparison page28, and separately confirms that a SOC 2 Type 2 report exists3. Glean lists ISO 42001, HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and GDPR29. Hebbia lists ISO/IEC 42001:2023, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001:2022 and GDPR30,31. WRITER holds annual SOC 2 Type II evaluations and ISO/IEC 27001, 27701 and 42001 certifications32. Relevance AI lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and data residency33, and Dify Enterprise lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 270017. By count of listed security and compliance statements, WRITER lists seven34,35,36,37,38,39, Glean five29, Hebbia four30 and Nexus four28,3.
One vendor, Copilot Studio, names no specific certification on the pages we opened. Its product page says it supports data residency alignment and major compliance standards without naming one40. Google's Gemini Enterprise certifications page lists HIPAA, FedRAMP, ISO 27001, SOC 1, 2 and 3, and PCI DSS41. A missing certificate name on a page does not mean the product lacks it. It means a buyer must ask for the evidence, and the ask belongs in the evaluation plan. Several vendors also publish what they do with your data: WRITER does not train its models on customer data42, Hebbia never uses customer data to train models43, and Relevance AI lists no training on your data44.
Criterion five: governance and access control
Permissions, approvals and audit trails decide whether agent actions can be controlled and reviewed. Nexus has audit trails on every agent interaction, traceable decision logic and role based access45. Its blog adds a release gate: if a CIO cannot sign off on the data flow, the access model or the audit trail, the agent does not ship46. Glean enforces source system permissions on every read and write47, and Gemini Enterprise runs under each person's existing permissions and leaves a complete audit trail48. Copilot Studio sends audit logs into Microsoft Purview and supports Microsoft Entra ID40.
WRITER describes guardrails, identity validation, granular permissions and approval flows49. Relevance AI lists role based access control and human in the loop approvals44, and Dify Enterprise lists SSO and SAML, RBAC and audit logs7. Hebbia stores customer data in siloed environments50. Approval workflows, administrator role setup and single sign on group mapping are not publicly stated for Nexus on the pages we opened, so a buyer in a regulated industry should have them tested in the proof of concept.
Criterion six: pricing model
How a vendor charges shapes total cost, and a model built on seats, workspaces or outcomes scales differently. Nexus confirms pricing per role automated, without per diem or consultant-time billing3. The pricing is not tied to headcount, a 3 month proof of concept comes first and an annual commitment follows51. If the proof of concept does not deliver, the customer walks away52. The Nexus pages we opened show no price amount.
Others publish more. Dify Cloud lists $590 and $1,590 per workspace a year, Community is free and Enterprise is custom53, with Professional capped at 3 team members and 50 apps54 and Team at 50 team members and 200 apps55. Copilot Studio sells 25,000 credit packs at $200 a month, or pay as you go, and the pre purchase plan saves up to 20 percent56,57,58,59. Publishing agents to outside channels needs a standalone plan60. WRITER Starter has a 14 day free trial for up to 5 users, and Enterprise runs through sales61. Gemini Enterprise offers its Plus edition at no cost for 30 days11. Glean9, Hebbia10 and Relevance AI Enterprise62 are bought through a demo request or sales.
A usable comparison needs one more step from the buyer: price the same use case with each vendor. Seat based pricing looks cheap for a small pilot and grows with headcount. For pricing based on roles automated, agree what counts as a role and how changes in scope affect the bill.
Criterion seven: deployment and data handling
Where agents run and how customer data is used affect compliance, data residency and the options to leave. Dify deploys on cloud, VPC or self hosted63, and its licence is a modified version of Apache 2.064. Hebbia runs across the US and EU, with regional processing for storage and inference, and can deploy on a dedicated tenant65. Copilot Studio can use models through Azure AI Foundry66, and Gemini Enterprise works with frontier models, open models or a model you trained yourself67. Gemini indexes selected sources and keeps data where it lives68.
Nexus agents deploy across Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, email, phone and web69. On hosting, on premises, private cloud or VPC, self hosting and a choice of region are not publicly stated for Nexus on the pages we opened, and its 2023 terms for the gpt.nexus website state that the services are hosted in the United States70. A buyer with data residency obligations should treat this as a question to settle before the proof of concept starts.
The eight platforms in turn
Nexus
Nexus is an enterprise AI agent platform with a delivery team1. It leads our shortlist for supported delivery: its public pages describe engineers building with business teams1, while the company confirms a first agent live in 4 weeks within a 3 month proof of concept and pricing without consultant-time billing3. Those statements define a proposal to evaluate, not a measured lead over the other platforms. Its limits are real. It shows no price amount, says little about hosting, single sign on or encryption, names only two customers71, and describes itself as early72. The named customer result is Orange, with $6M extra lifetime value73.
Relevance AI
Relevance AI also offers an embedded team, then training4, first agents from week 313, 2,000+ integrations19. Its published security and compliance statements are SOC 2 Type II and GDPR33, and Enterprise pricing is through sales62.
Glean
Glean began as enterprise search74 and has added an agent builder, orchestration and governance75. It lists six security and compliance statements76, compared with the four in Hebbia's list30, enforces source system permissions47, and sells through a demo request9. It fits companies whose first problem is finding answers across company systems.
Microsoft Copilot Studio
Copilot Studio is a graphical, low code studio for building and managing agents and workflows77. It suits teams already on Microsoft identity and audit tools40, and it publishes pricing78. Its limits for this assessment are the absence of a named certification on the page we opened and the standalone plan needed to publish to outside channels60.
Google Gemini Enterprise
Gemini Enterprise combines intranet search, an assistant and an agentic platform79. It runs under each user's permissions with an audit trail48 and offers a 30 day no cost trial of the Plus edition11. Its certifications page lists HIPAA, FedRAMP, ISO 27001, SOC 1, 2 and 3, and PCI DSS41.
WRITER
WRITER is designed for marketing and revenue teams80, with its own model81, Enterprise Brain grounding82, and a strong certification list32. Starter has a free trial, and Enterprise runs through sales61.
Hebbia
Hebbia sells to investors, bankers, lawyers and consultants83, with products named Max and Matrix84. It lists four certifications30, never trains on customer data43, and offers a dedicated tenant65. It is built for investors, bankers, lawyers and consultants83.
Dify
Dify is an open source LLM app platform85 with more than 160,000 GitHub stars86. It is the choice for teams that want to host and control the stack, and it publishes plan limits clearly54,55. The trade is that your team operates the deployment8.
A buyer's guide: how to run the evaluation
Start with one use case and leave the platform choice for later. Pick a workflow with a clear owner, measurable volume and a known set of systems, and write down what success means in numbers the business already tracks. Every vendor you speak to should be asked to scope that one use case.
Second, ask each shortlisted vendor the same five questions in writing. Who builds the first agent and who runs it afterwards? On what date will the first production agent be live? Which of our systems are connected today, by name? Which certifications can you evidence this quarter, and where does our data live? What is the total cost for this use case over twelve months, with every assumption stated?
Third, run a proof of concept with an exit. Nexus structures its proof of concept around specific outcomes and says the customer can exit anytime after the proof of concept87. Ask every vendor for the same terms. A proof of concept without success criteria and an exit tests nothing.
Fourth, involve security early. Send the certification and data handling questions in the first week, because answers from large vendors can take longer than the proof of concept itself. Finally, check references with a customer in your own industry, and read the vendor's limits as carefully as its strengths.
Shortlisting checklist by company type
The table below gives a starting shortlist for five common buyer profiles. It applies the criteria above to different priorities; it is a starting point for your own evaluation.
| Company type | Lead with | Also consider | Test first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large enterprise with a small AI team | Nexus3 | Relevance AI4 | Delivery model, security evidence and data residency |
| Microsoft or Google centred company | Copilot Studio40 | Gemini Enterprise48 | Certifications and publishing to outside channels |
| Knowledge heavy services firm | Glean29 | Nexus17 | Source system permissions and connectors for your tools |
| Marketing or revenue led organisation | WRITER80 | Nexus69 | Governance, brand controls and model data use |
| Engineering led team that wants control | Dify63 | Relevance AI19 | Operating cost of self hosting and plan limits |
If you are a financial services or legal buyer, Hebbia83 belongs on the list as a specialist. In every case, run the same use case through two vendors before deciding.
Conclusion
For an enterprise seeking a supported rollout, Nexus is our first choice because it combines engineers working with business teams1,2 with a company-confirmed delivery plan and pricing per role automated3. Its 4,000+ integrations are the largest vendor-stated count in this comparison, although counting methods differ17,19,20,21. On security and governance the picture is more even: Glean29, Hebbia30 and WRITER32 publish certification lists, Dify offers cloud, VPC and self hosted deployment63, and Copilot Studio and Gemini Enterprise fit companies already invested in their cloud. Nexus has real limits, from undisclosed price amounts to open questions on hosting, and a buyer should test them in the proof of concept.
A shortlist becomes useful when each vendor answers the same brief. Choose one workflow, ask for the delivery plan and full cost, and test access controls and failure handling with realistic data. Use the source notes to prepare those questions and the proof of concept to answer them.