What is an AI workspace? An explanation for SMEs

How does it differ from an AI chatbot?

A chatbot gives an answer in a window. An AI workspace delivers something and then keeps it running. That difference sits in three things: the connection to your own systems, the trigger that makes the work run again, and the place the result lands — your mailbox, your books, your planning.

A chatbot forgets your file as soon as the conversation closes. An AI workspace keeps the outcome, the version before it and the steps that led to it.

How does it differ from an integration platform?

An integration platform connects systems to each other according to rules you set in advance. That works well as long as the work is predictable. As soon as judgement is needed — which invoice belongs to which project, what this mail says — a rule gets stuck.

An AI workspace does both: the fixed steps as a rule, the judgement with AI, and the approval by a person where that is needed.

What do the three look like side by side?

	AI chatbot	Integration platform	AI workspace
Gives an answer	yes	no	yes
Delivers a file or a dashboard	limited	no	yes
Runs again without you	no	yes	yes
Works with your books, mail and planning	no	yes	yes
Judges content that does not fit a rule	yes	no	yes
Asks for approval before anything goes out	not applicable	build it yourself	by default
You can read back how it was made	no	partly	yes

What do you need to get started?

The login details you already have. An AI workspace connects to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, your accounting package, your CRM and your webshop. At Altramano there are more than 700 of them, and 154 templates are ready for work that comes back in every company.

You do not need to be able to program. You describe what you need, you see the outcome, and you say yes or no.

Which companies is it meant for?

For companies of roughly 15 to 250 employees, in any industry. The limit is not in the kind of company but in the kind of work: as soon as data is retyped from one system into another, or the same action comes back every week, there is something to automate.

Below fifteen employees there is usually too little repetition to earn it back. Above 250 there is often an IT department with its own choices already.

Where does your data go?

That should be a hard question and the answer should be short. At Altramano every customer runs in their own environment in Amsterdam. Altramano works with more than ten AI providers. We choose the model that suits each task, or you decide which models may be used. If the data has to stay in the EU, Altramano only uses providers that process in the EU.

Ask this of every supplier, and ask it in writing. A supplier who is vague about it is not a supplier.

What does it cost?

That differs per supplier and per number of users. With us it depends on the number of employees: four tiers, one fixed amount per month, never per user. What each tier costs is on our pricing page.

With every supplier, count not only the subscription price but also the AI usage and the setup.