Data Residency and Trust: Securing Your Enterprise AI Adoption
ChatGPT
Dec 3, 2025
Why this matters now
Enterprise AI adoption stalls when leaders can’t answer two questions: Where does our data live, and under what controls? In 2025, OpenAI expanded data residency for ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu and the API Platform, allowing eligible customers to keep customer content stored at rest in-region (e.g., Europe, UK, US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Australia, UAE). With clear residency controls, organisations can align AI rollout with sovereignty, privacy, and sector regulations.
Data residency for enterprise AI lets organisations store customer content at rest in a chosen geography and apply enterprise controls (SSO, retention, admin policies). For ChatGPT Enterprise/Edu and the OpenAI API Platform, eligible customers can select supported regions so AI answers are grounded in company data while meeting local sovereignty requirements.
The trust framework: residency, security, governance
Data residency (at rest): Keep chats, files and generated outputs stored in a selected region for eligible workspaces/projects.
Inference residency (where supported): Ensure model execution on your customer content runs in‑region for additional control.
Enterprise security: SSO, RBAC, auditability and configurable retention/export.
Compliance posture: Align deployments to GDPR, UK GDPR, DPA 2018, ISO/SOC attestations and industry frameworks using documented controls.
Bottom line: Residency addresses where data lives; governance and security determine who can access it and how it’s handled.
Implementation playbook (UK/EU‑first)
1) Define policy & scope
Map legal bases and data classes (personal, special category, confidential, code, regulated data).
Decide what’s in scope day one; defer highly sensitive repositories until controls and DPIAs are complete.
2) Choose your residency region
For ChatGPT Enterprise/Edu: create a new workspace in your target region.
For API: create a new Project and select the region during setup.
3) Configure security & lifecycle
Enable SSO and admin guardrails; configure retention/export and incident response contacts.
Establish access reviews and permission recertification for connected sources.
4) Pilot with low‑risk use cases
Start with policy Q&A, programme docs, non‑PII service content.
Require source‑linked answers and track exceptions (missing sources, incorrect citations) to refine coverage.
5) Extend and scale
Expand to additional departments and repositories.
Where needed, request inference residency and log residency evidence for audits.
Benefits you can measure
Compliance certainty: Residency evidence and admin logs support GDPR/UK GDPR accountability.
Mitigated risk: Reduced cross‑border data movement and clearer incident boundaries.
Faster rollout: Fewer legal blockers → quicker production pilots → earlier value realisation.
FAQs
Which products support data residency?
ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu and the OpenAI API Platform for eligible customers.
What data is covered?
Customer content at rest (e.g., chats, files, outputs). Admin telemetry and service metadata may follow platform policies.
Is model execution also in‑region?
Inference residency is available for eligible customers in supported locations.
Do we need a new workspace/project?
Typically yes: Enterprise/Edu workspaces and API Projects are created with a chosen region.
Does OpenAI train on our data?
Not by default for Business/Enterprise/Edu; retention is admin‑configurable.
How does this compare to cloud alternatives?
Residency reduces transfer risk; still apply normal controls (DPIA, DSRs, encryption, IAM).
How Generation Digital helps
Residency & compliance mapping: Match data classes to regions; produce DPIA templates and records for audits.
Workspace/Project setup: Create regional Enterprise/Edu workspaces or API Projects; configure SSO, retention, and admin policies.
Pilot to production: Prove value with low‑risk use cases, then scale to regulated workloads with documented controls.
Evidence & enablement: Residency evidence pack, admin runbooks, and enablement for IT and compliance.
Ready to move forward with secure, scaled enterprise AI? Book a consultation to review data residency options and design a compliant rollout.
