What is an AI gateway, and do we need one?

What does an AI gateway actually do?#

It's a checkpoint every AI request passes through. A request is a prompt, which is what someone asks an AI model, plus the answer that comes back. The model is the AI itself. Requests come from people typing into a chat window. They also come from your own apps, which call a model through an API, a connection one program uses to talk to another. The gateway covers both.

At the checkpoint, it does six jobs:

• Who's asking. It signs people and apps in with your logins, so every request has a name on it.
• What's in it. It checks the prompt against your data rules and masks sensitive data before it leaves.
• Which model. It sends the request to a model you've approved for that job, and can route easy work to a cheaper one.
• Asked before? It can reuse the answer to a repeated prompt, so you don't pay twice. That's called caching.
• What it cost. It tracks spend by team and project, and can hold a team to its budget.
• What happened. It logs each request, so you can answer an auditor.

A gateway enforces your rules, and you still write them. Which data is sensitive, which models are approved and what each team may spend are your calls.

Liminal sells governed access for people, through chat, a browser extension and developer kits. Trimio sells cost control for apps: routing, caching and spend by team. Cloudflare lists an AI Gateway among its products.

That's a sample of the AI providers we work with, and Clectiv AI runs the process for you: start a project.

Before you call anyone#

Write what your door has to do in Clectiv AI first. After that, Clectiv AI runs the process, bids it out to the providers that fit, has them compete, and lets you choose. Call a gateway vendor first and you'll be buying its feature list.

Start a project

When do we need one, and when is it overkill?#

You need one once more than a couple of teams use AI. Before that, one tool and one set of rules can cover everyone. After that, each team's tools, data and bills drift apart.

Four signs it's time:

• Several teams, several tools. Nobody can say who uses what.
• Apps call models. Your own software sends requests, and the bill follows the use.
• Sensitive data's in play. Customer records or health data could end up in a prompt.
• More than one model vendor. You want to switch or mix without a new rollout.

It's overkill when one team uses one tool. One contract, no sensitive data and a tool with admin controls of its own can run without a gateway. Look at what your tools already do before you add a layer.

Count your teams, tools and data with Clectiv AI, and the plan says whether you need a gateway now or at the next step.

Is a gateway a security tool, or something else?#

It's a control and a route in one. A security tool decides what traffic is allowed. A gateway also decides where a request goes, which model answers it, and what it costs.

Network security blocks the side doors, and the gateway is the front door. Network tools can stop people reaching AI sites nobody approved. The gateway's the route you want them on.

Providers come at this from different places, and each covers some of the six jobs in its own way.

Those are some of our AI providers for this, and Clectiv AI runs the process with them for you: start a project.

You don't start from scratch. Clectiv AI runs the process we ran for companies in your position, so you start where they left off. It carries the plan straight to these providers, after the best pricing, terms and contract we can get.

You can run both: a security tool across the network and a gateway for AI. The plan sets which jobs go where, so you don't pay for the same job twice.

Common questions#

How does Clectiv AI get this done?#

Put it in Clectiv AI. Tell it who uses AI today, what data it touches and what you pay. It scopes the project with you and writes your plan: the jobs the gateway has to do, your data rules, your budgets and the models you want behind it.

Then the Clectiv team takes your plan to the gateway, governance and cost-control providers that fit, all at once, through our partner network of 620+ providers. Each one bids, they compete on the same plan, the team pushes on terms, and you choose.

You inherit what others learned. Clectiv AI runs the process that got them there, so you start where they left off. It takes the plan straight to the providers that fit, for the best pricing, terms and contract we can get.

It's free to you, and it gets moving in days, not months. Everything we cover in AI is on the AI page.

Not sure what rules go on the door? Read how to roll out AI safely to employees.