DocIQ Sphere vs ChatGPT & Claude
ChatGPT and Claude are powerful general-purpose AI assistants. They can draft documents, answer legal questions, and even generate DOCX files. Many legal professionals already use them daily. But general-purpose assistants lack the persistent document infrastructure, verified legal databases, and enterprise controls that professional legal work requires. Sphere is purpose-built for document-centric legal workflows.
What ChatGPT & Claude does well
- Broad general knowledge across all domains, not just law
- Document creation from prompts (both can generate DOCX)
- Accessible and affordable: no enterprise sales process
- Rapid iteration: new capabilities every few weeks
- Large context windows for analyzing lengthy documents
- ChatGPT Enterprise offers EU data residency
Where DocIQ Sphere differs
Persistent document state and version history
ChatGPT and Claude process documents in single sessions. Upload a contract, get feedback, close the tab, and the context is gone. Sphere maintains persistent document state: version history, tracked changes across sessions, audit trails linking every edit to the prompt that created it. Your documents have continuity.
- Full version history with rollback
- Audit trail: prompt, reasoning, tool calls, changes
- Persistent document state across sessions
Verified legal databases, not web search
ChatGPT and Claude can search the web for legal information, but results are unverified and citations can be hallucinated. Sphere queries 6 legal databases directly: Fedlex for Swiss statutes, BGE for case law, EUR-Lex for EU regulations, CJEU for EU judgments, ECHR for human rights, and Commentary for academic analysis. Every citation is traceable to its source.
- 6 verified legal databases (no hallucinated citations)
- Direct statute and case law retrieval by number
- Deep Research with multi-step synthesis and full citation chains
Enterprise document infrastructure
General-purpose assistants have no concept of clause banks, playbooks, data rooms, or document libraries. Sphere provides the infrastructure layer: searchable knowledge bases across 15+ formats, jurisdiction-tagged clause banks, auto-playbooks that trigger on upload, and virtual data rooms with audit trails.
- Knowledge base with hybrid search (semantic + keyword)
- Clause bank with jurisdiction tags and usage tracking
- Virtual data rooms with role-based access
- Auto-Playbooks triggered on folder upload
Data sovereignty and deployment control
ChatGPT Enterprise offers EU data residency. Claude currently operates from US infrastructure. Neither offers Swiss hosting or on-premise deployment. Sphere offers managed cloud in CH/EU, on-premise, and air-gapped deployment with local AI model inference.
- CH/EU managed cloud with professional secrecy compliance
- On-premise and air-gapped deployment options
- No data leaves your chosen jurisdiction
Feature comparison
| Capability | DocIQ Sphere | ChatGPT & Claude |
|---|---|---|
| Word-native tracked changes | Yes | - |
| OOXML-level editing | Yes | Partial |
| Persistent document state | Yes | - |
| Version history with audit trail | Yes | - |
| Legal research with verified sources | Yes | Partial |
| Clause bank with jurisdiction tags | Yes | - |
| Auto-Playbooks on upload | Yes | - |
| Bulk extraction across libraries | Yes | - |
| Data rooms with AI extraction | Yes | - |
| Document creation from prompt | Yes | Yes |
| General-purpose knowledge | Partial | Yes |
| On-premise deployment | Yes | - |
| CH/EU data sovereignty | Yes | Partial |
Frequently Asked Questions
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