CivicReply – Technical & Compliance Overview

Version 2.0 | April 2026

Technical Core Functions

AI-driven search (RAG-engine): Indexes the client's public website including PDFs and delivers semantic AI answers with clear sources.
Multilingual support: Real-time translation via Azure Translator for 100+ languages.
Text-to-Speech (TTS): 100+ Natural Azure voices.
Client & admin portal: Dedicated login with full visibility into queries, responses, costs, and performance.
Graphical dashboard: Filters by period, language, and category, with cost forecasts.
Test Center: Built-in pre-launch verification lab. Ask questions against the knowledge base, see exactly which sources are used, and adjust retrieval settings — before the service goes live.
Knowledge base management: Crawl and index content per category. Choose which pages and documents are included. Restart or update the knowledge base when content changes — no developer involvement required.
Budget control: Client-defined cost limits per month. Real-time cost visibility per query, category and model in the admin dashboard.
Role-based access: Admin, Editor, Analyst roles.
Confidence & fallback: AI measures answer certainty. If low, text is softened ('I'm not entirely sure, but...'). No icons or warnings shown. Logged and visible only in admin analytics.
Statistics & insights: Top searches, zero-results, latency, confidence distribution, cost per query.
AI Site Readiness Report: On-demand AI analysis of the knowledge base. Returns a 0–100 readiness score, per-section scores (AI readability, coverage, structure), prioritised issues with suggested actions, and a strengths list. Powered by Gemini 2.5 Flash. Available under Content & Ingest in the admin panel.
API / iframe / widget: Integrates into any website without CMS changes.

Security & Compliance

GDPR-compliant: All data processed within the EU under client DPA.
Hosting: Microsoft Azure (North Europe – Sweden/Netherlands). No data stored outside EU.
DPA (Data Processing Agreement): Standard DPA available to all clients.
Logging & traceability: All queries logged in Supabase (EU) with timestamp, language, confidence, cost, and sources.
Client data ownership: All data, indices, and logs remain client property.
Encryption & access control: AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, RBAC for all users.
System monitoring: Latency/error tracking with automatic recovery.
Compliance: Built on ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR-certified Azure components.

Transparency & Control

Full cost transparency per query and model.
Real-time overview of usage, confidence levels, and performance.
Data export for audit/review (CSV / JSON).
Optional subdomain or white-label hosting.

Comparison: CivicReply vs Major AI Search Platforms

Feature	Cludo	Yext	Azure AI Search	CivicReply
Generative Q&A with real citations	-	Partial	Developer-level only	Full RAG with verified sources
Multilingual support (100+ languages)	Limited			Real-time translation both ways
Text-to-Speech (TTS) output	-	-	Requires setup	Native voices 100 +
Full cost transparency per query	-	-	-	Budget control & cost dashboard
Confidence gating & fallback	Partial	-	Developer-configurable	Built-in safety logic
Admin analytics & dashboards			-	Advanced (queries, latency, costs)
GDPR-compliant EU hosting	Varies	Global		100% EU (Azure North Europe)
API / iframe / widget integration			Developer setup	Plug-and-play, CMS-agnostic
Setup complexity	Medium	High	Complex	Ready to use, zero code
Voice & accessibility support	-	-	-	TTS + multilingual
Test Center (pre-launch verification)	-	-	-	Built-in, no setup required
AI Site Readiness Report	-	-	-	Built-in, score 0–100 + action items
Custom branding / white-label	-	Limited	Possible	Included

CivicReply delivers a complete, ready-to-use AI search platform combining enterprise-grade RAG, multilingual translation, cost transparency, and governance. Where others offer partial or developer-only solutions, CivicReply provides a fully managed, user-friendly, and compliant alternative.

Summary

CivicReply is a Swedish-developed AI search platform that indexes and understands content from client websites, delivers accurate AI answers with sources and multilingual support, and gives clients full control over cost, security, and performance – without changing their existing CMS or hosting.