The verdict in three sentences
An internal AI assistant wired to your documents (procedures, contracts, wiki, tickets) answers teams in natural language and cuts information-search time by 30%. Custom costs EUR 20,000 to 60,000 plus EUR 300 to 2,000/month in tokens, with EU hosting, data sovereignty and fine-grained access control. Against a generic Copilot, custom wins on confidentiality and on domain precision.
Custom vs generic Copilot
A generic tool knows the web, not your company. An internal RAG indexes YOUR documents and respects YOUR access rights, which changes everything for compliance.
| Criterion | Custom internal RAG | Generic Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | EUR 20,000 - 60,000 | Subscription/seat |
| Monthly cost | EUR 300 - 2,000 (tokens) | EUR 20 - 60/user |
| Internal knowledge | Your indexed documents | Generic |
| Access control | Per role/document | Limited |
| Hosting | EU / sovereign | Variable |
| Source traceability | Yes (citations) | Partial |
Cost items and 2026 benefits
The budget depends on the volume of documents to index and the granularity of access rights. The benefit is measured in search hours avoided across the whole company.
| Item | 2026 range | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Scoping and sources | EUR 4,000 - 12,000 | Document mapping, rights |
| RAG build + access control | EUR 12,000 - 35,000 | Indexing, role-based control |
| IS integration (SSO, DMS) | EUR 4,000 - 13,000 | Azure AD, SharePoint, Notion |
| Monthly token cost | EUR 300 - 2,000/mo | Based on number of users |
| Supervision and re-indexing | EUR 400 - 1,200/mo | Content freshness |
Mini case study
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Laurent, CIO of a 320-employee industrial group in Lille, finds that teams spend on average 5 hours a week searching for internal information (procedures, technical sheets, contracts). He deploys a RAG assistant at EUR 45,000 plus EUR 1,200/month. With -30% search time, each affected employee (150 active users) saves ~1.5 hours/week, roughly 225 hours/week group-wide. At an average loaded cost of EUR 40/hour, that is ~EUR 9,000/week of recovered productivity, far above the monthly cost. The investment pays back in under 2 months.
FAQ
Does my data stay sovereign? Yes, the index and processing can be hosted in the EU, with no reuse by a third-party model. We document the flows for compliance and your internal requirements.
How are access rights handled? The assistant applies your permissions by role and by document: an employee only sees in answers what they are entitled to. SSO (Azure AD, Okta) synchronizes these rights automatically.
How do you avoid outdated answers? Regular re-indexing keeps content current and every answer cites its sources. Expired documents are excluded or flagged according to your rules.
How long to deploy? 8 to 14 weeks: source mapping, indexing and rights setup, SSO/DMS integration, testing and a gradual rollout.
Why not just a market Copilot? For general office use, it is fine. As soon as you need to query confidential documents with fine-grained access control and source traceability, an internal RAG is safer and more precise.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your document volume, your IS (SSO, DMS) and your sovereignty constraints: we price an internal AI assistant from EUR 20,000 to 60,000 depending on scope. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
