Executive Search and HR
Executive-search firms and corporate HR teams hold the most sensitive records an organisation produces: unredacted references, current and target salaries, board evaluations and performance files. They want to map, rank and shortlist candidates across that raw material at speed, but UK GDPR rules on special-category and automated processing mean those files cannot be handed to a cloud model for sifting. Mickai runs the entire talent-intelligence pipeline on hardware the firm owns, under keys it holds, so candidate mapping happens against the real records on-premise. The data never leaves the building, which removes the cross-border-transfer and third-party-processing exposure vector; the firm keeps its own obligations to candidates and clients.
Executive-search firms and corporate HR functions that handle raw references, salaries and evaluations.
UK GDPR Articles 9 and 22 and the EU AI Act high-risk hiring regime mean unredacted candidate records cannot be processed by a cloud AI model.
Mickai runs private talent sifting and candidate mapping over the raw executive records on hardware the firm owns, under its own keys.
The firm gets full-strength candidate intelligence with no PII leaving the building and no third party ever seeing it.
These architectural choices support control over the workflows in your deployment. Their benefits depend on configuration, integrations and operating practices. Review external connections, physical security, access and compliance responsibilities together.
Scope inference, extraction, retrieval and storage on infrastructure you control. Document and test any external connector, support channel or transfer before describing a workflow as zero-egress.
Workflows with local models, data and supporting services can continue offline. Live external email, calendars and other services need an approved connection or controlled import, with clear unavailable and pending states.
Map prompts, documents, indexes, logs and backups to their processing and storage locations. Local hosting supports control of location; access, retention and any transfers still need review.
Prepare and classify source records, preserve permissions and evaluate answers against the originals. Retrieval and model training are separate choices; agree data use and licences for each.
Compare hardware and licences alongside integration, power, administration, support, updates, evaluation and recovery. Measure cost at the required workload and quality before claiming savings.
Define who holds keys, who can administer the system and which actions need approval. Test denied requests, revoked access and audit records. Physical security, insider risk and incident response remain operational responsibilities.
Agree version selection, signed update procedures, rollback, data export and licence rights. Reassess requirements as software and obligations change; owning hardware does not remove maintenance or compliance work.
Review the requirements relevant to your organisation, jurisdiction and intended use with your responsible teams. Cloud services can be appropriate subject to applicable safeguards; on-premise deployment alone does not establish compliance or remove supplier responsibilities.
The kind of organisation this serves, named illustratively from public information to characterise the market. These are target profiles, not customers: Mickai has no relationship, engagement, trial, or endorsement with any of them.
The enterprise studios that lead in this sector, drawn from the eighteen that sit on the one sovereign substrate. Scope their local processing, operator-held keys and Open Audit Record coverage for the proposed deployment. Confirm availability and any external integrations before relying on a workflow.
HR
Runs the core HR and people-data workflows over raw employee and candidate records on-premise, so reference, salary and evaluation files are processed where they sit rather than shipped to a cloud vendor.
CRM
Holds the candidate and client relationship graph and powers private talent mapping, so the firm can track introductions, pipelines and placements without exposing the network to a third party.
Compliance and Regulator Mode
Keeps an auditable record of how candidate data is used and how shortlisting decisions are reached, supporting the firm's Article 22 and EU AI Act high-risk hiring obligations.
Executive BI
Turns the on-premise talent pool into search-quality intelligence and shortlists for partners and hiring leaders, with the sensitive PII staying inside the server room.
Sovereign Meeting Note-Taker
Captures candidate and client interviews and committee discussions locally, so spoken assessments and references are transcribed and filed without a cloud transcription service ever hearing them.
See all eighteen on the sovereign services catalogue.
Executive search and corporate talent functions sit on a deep well of high-value, special-category data that current cloud AI offerings are effectively barred from touching, which has left the most lucrative part of the workflow, sifting raw candidate records at scale, largely manual. A sovereign system that can process those records in place opens this work to automation for the first time without forcing the firm to expand its regulatory and reputational exposure.
Measure value, cost and risk on hardware you control.
Search and HR teams can map and shortlist across the full body of raw candidate records on-premise instead of restricting AI to redacted scraps, recovering consultant and researcher hours that were lost to manual sifting. Because nothing is sent to a cloud model, the firm removes the third-party processing and cross-border-transfer exposure vector around its most sensitive data, retires per-seat and per-token cloud AI spend, and keeps an auditable trail for its Article 22 and EU AI Act high-risk hiring obligations; physical and insider controls remain its own responsibility.
Map the sovereign stack to your executive search and hr estate.
Briefings are for organisations weighing a sovereign, on-premises deployment. Tell us about your estate and we will walk the pack, the regulatory crosswalk, and the deployment that fits your estate.