Self-Hosted AI for Enterprises: We had the pleasure of interviewing Meryem Arik in the latest Silicon Valley Tech Talks show episode. Meryem is the CEO and co-founder of Doubleword, a promising start-up with a vision to deliver seamless and secure infrastructure for enterprise AI developments.

Following are the key highlights from the discussion with Meryem:

(1) Meryem compares self-hosting AI models to using third-party APIs, using the renting versus buying a home analogy—short-term flexibility versus long-term ownership and control. While APIs are useful for experimentation and proof of concept, enterprises increasingly prioritize self-hosting for mission-critical applications to ensure data security and independence.

(2) However, self-hosting presents challenges like high costs, technical complexity, and maintenance overhead. To address this, Doubleword offers a self-hosted AI inference platform that simplifies deploying and managing AI models. It abstracts away the complexity and delivers scalable, low-latency AI APIs that enterprises can build on without needing deep infrastructure expertise. Common use cases include document intelligence and domain-specific models, such as in pharmaceuticals.

(3) General trend in enterprise AI space: A recent DataIQ study found that 74% of enterprise CEOs fear being fired within two years if they fail to deliver on AI, creating intense pressure to show rapid progress. This has led to a surge in AI proof-of-concepts (POCs) and press releases. However, there’s a growing shift from rushing AI initiatives at any cost to a more strategic focus—balancing speed with thoughtful, long-term planning around control, deployment, and sustainability of AI systems.

(4) Doubleword has recently partnered with Snowflake, allowing users to deploy custom AI models directly within the Snowflake environment. This expands access to a broader range of AI capabilities, especially for niche or regulated domains