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Document Management with Artificial Intelligence in cloud

Written by Ana Canteli on September 19, 2025

Before talking about artificial intelligence, ask yourself two simple questions

• Where are my company’s documents?
• What laws apply to our documentation?

If in both cases the answer is M365, iCloud, Drive or similar, you cannot know exactly where your information is located—or the applicable legal framework. Nor can you reliably know who accessed what and when, because you don’t have data sovereignty.

You have convenience, yes, but not control over your information. In this post—complementary to our article on on-premises AI for document management—we want to help you make the leap: use AI to work better, without giving up control of your data and while ensuring GDPR compliance.

Why OpenKM Cloud?

Because it offers document management with Artificial Intelligence hosted in our own data centres. What does that mean?

• Location under your control: you choose where your data resides—within the EU to comply with the GDPR, or in other OpenKM-owned data centres outside the EU.
• Unified governance: define your security policy from a single place (permissions, audits, retention schedule, etc.).
• AI inside the perimeter: run all the AI tasks you want without sending your documents and data to opaque services.
• Security by design: OpenKM Cloud’s document management software provides, by design, encryption in transit and at rest, two-factor authentication, version control, incremental backups, technical support, and maintenance of our own servers—included.
• Integration: OpenKM with AI in SaaS mode also includes complete documentation with APIs, SDKs, and a wide range of satellite applications to cover every use case users may have with their documents, data, and information.

Generalist services (M365, iCloud, Drive) are suitable for basic collaboration. But they are not designed to guarantee sovereignty if your priority is knowing where your documents reside, under which law, with what retention, and which AI processes them.

The key question: How do I use AI and comply with the GDPR at the same time?

Here are a few premises:

• Location choice and processing chain definition: To meet GDPR legal requirements, you only need to contract OpenKM Cloud services in our EU data center and document who the processors and sub-processors are within your company. OpenKM provides a complete activity log to support any investigation or audit if needed.
• Legal basis and Impact Assessment: Identify the legal basis for AI data processing (contract, legitimate interest, etc.) and conduct a DPIA where appropriate.
• Data minimization and purpose limitation: AI will process only what is strictly necessary and will not train public models with your data.
• Security policy definition: In OpenKM it’s granular—defined by roles, profiles, and privileges—and always produces an audit trail understandable to an auditor.
• Retention schedule and archiving plan: OpenKM provides an archiving plan, so the organization can set final disposition schedules by document type, apply legal holds for investigations when necessary, and carry out certified destruction.

What does your organization gain with document management + AI in the cloud?

• Trust for third parties: You can look a client or auditor in the eye and explain in detail the residency, access, and retention.
• Internal trust: Teams work faster because documents are findable, understandable, and governed (the known security policy is applied to them).
• Lower operational risk: Fewer stray copies, fewer accidental leaks, less dependence on “who knows where everything is.”

And what about generalist solutions (M365, iCloud, Drive)?

They’re great for quick sharing and collaboration. But they weren’t born with a mandate for sovereignty; in fact, all applications have moved from the desktop to the cloud—why?

In organizations where GDPR, jurisdiction, retention, and traceability are non-negotiable, you need a document management system that treats governance as a fundamental pillar of document control, and on-site AI that doesn’t force you to relinquish that control.

First step: check where your documents are today

You don’t need a never-ending project to get started. Does a residency check: Can you prove in which region your files are and who accessed them? If the answer isn’t a documented “yes,” you’ve found your first target. With OpenKM Cloud you can host your documents in an AI-enabled environment and also comply with current law: EU residency, minimization, traceability, retention, and tested restoration. It’s not a promise; it’s a set of evidence your organization can show when required.

Real case: a law firm moving from chaos to control

Starting point

A firm with four areas—Administrative, Tax, Corporate, and Criminal—worked with a mix of Drive/OneDrive folders, email attachments, and local disks. You can picture it: duplicate documents, conflicting versions, doubts about where the file really was, and many hours lost searching for “the latest version.”

Implementation

With OpenKM Cloud, a taxonomy was defined by client and matter; OpenKM AI was enabled to automatically classify pleadings, contracts, and powers of attorney; key data (case number, court/authority, dates, parties) was extracted and stored as mandatory metadata. Matter-creation automations, review/sign/dispatch workflows, and expiry and “confidential access” alerts were activated. Activity, data-residency, and retention reports were enabled. Finally, email archiving was integrated, so relevant items no longer hid in personal inboxes.

Results

The firm could answer “Where are our files and under which law?” with verifiable documentation. Searches and request preparation dropped from hours to minutes. The Data Protection Officer gained peace of mind (and time), and teams saw that AI isn’t “magic” but productivity—with control.

Shall we look at your case?

We can turn the suggested taxonomy and metadata into a pilot in your environment and prepare a white paper—with the same content—so you can share it with management and your DPO. That way, the conversation stops being theoretical and becomes operational: where your documents are, how you govern them, and what your AI actually does.