Frequently Asked Questions

Everything lives on hardware inside your own environment. Contextral has no access to your system or its contents unless you explicitly grant temporary, purpose-limited access for a task like deployment or support — and you can revoke it at any time. We never store, process, or retain your data outside your own infrastructure, and we keep no copies of your documents, embeddings, or indexes after any service engagement.

Yes. Once your license is activated, the system runs fully offline and can operate on a restricted or air-gapped network with no ongoing connection to Contextral or the public internet — ideal for organizations that can't send sensitive records to cloud AI tools like ChatGPT. It can also run hybrid or in a private cloud if that better fits your environment.

You do. The physical server, all hardware, and every document, embedding, and index stored on it are owned solely by your organization. The Contextral software itself is licensed to you, but your data never becomes ours — it stays yours, on infrastructure you control.

No. There is no persistent remote access by default. Remote maintenance is only possible if you authorize it through a secure VPN configured during deployment; if you don't permit remote access, updates and support are handled through scheduled on-site visits.

Yes. Because everything stays on-premises inside your own access controls, Contextral is built for HIPAA, OSHA-regulated, and privilege-sensitive environments across healthcare, legal, financial, and government organizations. Sensitive records are never exposed to third-party cloud or public AI platforms.

Deployments use industry-standard protections sized to your needs: RAID-based redundant storage, encrypted storage, segmented internal networking, role-based access controls, internal authentication, secure VPN connectivity, and backup and disaster-recovery planning. A dedicated backup server is part of a standard deployment.

Responsibility is divided clearly. Contextral is responsible for breaches or data loss caused by a defect in the software itself. You are responsible for the physical security of the server, your network security (firewalls, Wi-Fi, open ports), and user password and permission management. There are no surprises about who covers what.

Yes. Structured recordkeeping and citation-aware retrieval keep incident reports, regulatory filings, and compliance documentation organized and instantly retrievable, so your records are ready before an auditor asks.

Two clear components: a one-time deployment fee (hardware, installation, configuration, and setup) and a flat annual license covering software, updates, and support. There are no per-user, per-query, or usage-based fees — unlike cloud AI tools that bill by consumption, your cost stays flat and predictable.

Automatic software and security updates, server monitoring, on-site and remote technician troubleshooting, hardware and software repairs with labor included, and quarterly check-ins, ongoing training, and support from our customer success team.

No vendor lock-in. The system runs on hardware you own. If you ever leave, we run a structured offboarding: we decrypt your data so it's usable outside the platform, help you migrate it to another system, and either repurpose the server for you or buy it back. You keep your data regardless.

You keep full ownership of all data and indexed archives — everything stays local on your hardware. Licensed software features and included support pause after a short grace period, and hardware maintenance remains available on a labor-plus-parts basis.

Most organizations are fully operational in about four weeks, depending on size and internal coordination — from hardware build through data organization and team training.

Five phases: (1) an organizational assessment of your workflows, data, and compliance needs; (2) infrastructure design sized to your organization; (3) integration and data preparation with your existing systems; (4) customization of AI workflows to your operations; and (5) ongoing support, maintenance, and scaling.

Access to your site and network, an IT or operations point of contact, and the documents or data sources you want to make searchable. We handle the hardware build, installation, networking, security setup, initial workflows, and training.

No. We design the system with you, deploy it inside your environment, organize your data, configure your initial workflows, and train your team — then provide ongoing technician support. We work alongside whoever manages operations internally.

A custom-built server sized to your organization's document volume, user count, and performance needs — anywhere from a compact office AI workstation for a small team to a multi-GPU server capable of organization-wide retrieval, automation, and computer vision.

Yes. Contextral covers replacement parts at no additional cost for two years from deployment, and repair labor is included while your annual license is active. After the two-year period, replacement parts are billed at cost.

Remote support requests receive a response within 4 business hours, and on-site technician dispatch within 2 business days — plus quarterly check-ins from our customer success team.

All Contextral software includes automatic software and security updates, so improvements and patches roll out seamlessly without manual work on your end.

Contextral is operational AI infrastructure, not a standalone chatbot. It powers natural-language document search and retrieval (on-prem RAG) across your archives, form and workflow automation, on-premises computer vision, and paper document digitization — deployed together as one private ecosystem.

Yes. You can ask questions in natural language across PDFs, scanned records, shared drives, emails, and legacy systems, and get citation-aware answers that trace back to the source document, plus multi-document synthesis and summarization.

Yes. Our document digitization service includes high-volume scanning, OCR (optical character recognition), conversion into searchable PDFs, metadata extraction, and archive indexing — turning filing cabinets and decades of paper records into a searchable, AI-ready knowledge base.

Yes. Contextral builds on-premises computer vision for object detection, event-triggered alerts, intelligent video search, license plate recognition, and safety, compliance, and facility monitoring — processed locally on your own hardware across multiple camera feeds.

Yes. It integrates with cloud storage, internal databases, shared drives and NAS, document management systems, and existing organizational APIs, and we can build custom integrations so AI fits your current tools without disrupting operations.

No. The goal is to remove repetitive manual work — searching, data entry, form processing, and filing — so your team can focus on higher-value work, not to replace people.

Yes. It centralizes supplier contracts, licensing, and compliance paperwork across every site and translates multilingual vendor documents, so records stay consistent and audit-ready regardless of language or location.

Yes. Patient, billing, and compliance records stay on-premises under your own access controls, designed for HIPAA and OSHA-regulated environments, with structured recordkeeping for audits.

Yes. Privileged client and matter files never leave your firm's environment, and staff can retrieve precedent, contracts, and discovery in seconds instead of hours — turning unbillable research time back into billable work.

Yes. Because it runs fully offline and air-gapped, permits, safety logs, specs, and subcontractor agreements stay accessible on-site even with poor or no connectivity.

Yes. Flat pricing and full-service deployment mean no dedicated IT is required, confidential student and participant records stay secure, and built-in translation supports multilingual families and staff.

It captures decades of institutional know-how and legacy documents into a searchable system you fully own, so continuity no longer depends on one long-tenured person — with flat pricing and no third-party cloud.