FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What Data Subsystems does, how we work, and the technologies behind it.
What does Data Subsystems do?
We're an agentic automation engineering studio. We build AI agents, the orchestration that coordinates them with your systems and your people, and the controls that make the result auditable. Underneath that we build the RAG and knowledge systems, document processing, integrations, payments software, and cloud infrastructure those automations depend on — and we operate what we build.
What is agentic automation, and how is it different from traditional automation or RPA?
Traditional automation follows fixed rules through APIs or a user interface, and breaks when the input does not fit the rule. Agentic automation adds AI agents that can read unstructured documents, handle exceptions, and decide what to do next. We combine both: rules stay rules, agents handle the judgment, and people approve anything irreversible — all coordinated by a durable orchestration layer.
What is agentic orchestration?
Orchestration is the layer that runs a process end to end: it sequences agents, deterministic automations, and human approvals, pauses for a person and resumes without losing state, retries failures safely, and records every step. It is what turns a clever agent into a process a business can depend on.
How do you make AI agents safe enough for SOX-relevant processes?
We engineer against IT general controls (ITGCs) — access, change management, program development, and operations — and build IT application controls (ITACs) into the workflow: validation, completeness and accuracy checks, reconciliations, approvals, and segregation of duties between the agent that proposes and the person who approves. Prompts, models, and tools are versioned and promoted through a tested change process, and every run leaves an evidence trail. We are engineers, not auditors: we do not issue attestations, we build automation your control owners and auditors can rely on and test.
What are ITGCs and ITACs?
ITGCs (IT general controls) are the controls over the environment an application runs in: who has access, how changes are made, how systems are developed, and how they are operated. ITACs (IT application controls) are controls inside the application or process itself — input validation, completeness and accuracy checks, automated calculations, reconciliations, and approvals. An automated process that affects financial reporting depends on both.
What is a solution accelerator?
A reusable building block extracted from a system we already run in production — for example document intake and validation, a grounded support agent, or a guarded operations agent. Each comes with working code, a reference architecture, a control matrix, an evaluation and test suite, and a runbook, so a first automated process can go live in weeks rather than quarters.
Do you work with our existing automation platform?
We are platform-neutral. The agents, connectors, APIs, and services we build are API-first, so they sit alongside the enterprise automation and orchestration platform you already license and cover what it does not reach. You own the result either way.
What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and how is it different from SEO?
SEO gets you ranked in search results; AEO gets you cited in AI answers. We make your business visible and quotable inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews — measured by our own 53-criteria AEO Rank engine — by combining structured data, llms.txt, and evidence-grounded content that AI engines actually cite.
Do you build production AI, or just demos?
Production. We run live, multi-tenant RAG platforms (for example, Cortex for LiveHelpNow at r.livehelpnow.net), embedded AI support widgets, document-intelligence systems, and automation pipelines that run unattended every day. Our AI answers from your real data and cites its sources — it does not just guess.
What does RAG mean, and why does it matter?
RAG stands for Retrieval-Augmented Generation. Instead of letting an AI model guess, we retrieve the right facts from your own knowledge base and have the model answer from them — with hybrid search, reranking, and verification — so answers are accurate, current, and cite their sources.
Can you build payments or fintech software?
Yes. We build ACH and eCheck platforms, developer payment APIs, and the secure AWS infrastructure underneath — with bank-grade encryption of sensitive data, multi-factor authentication, fraud and KYC controls, and multi-region disaster recovery. We follow PCI-DSS and SOC 2-aligned engineering practices.
What technologies do you work with?
Astro, Next.js, React, TypeScript, and Python; Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, and Amazon Nova models; vector databases (Turbopuffer, pgvector, FAISS) with Voyage AI embeddings; PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Redis, and Kafka; and multi-cloud infrastructure on AWS, Cloudflare, Hetzner, Modal, and Vercel.
Do you migrate existing websites?
Yes. We do pixel-perfect migrations off Webflow and WordPress to fast, modern Astro sites on Cloudflare, with SEO and AEO built in — so your site loads faster, ranks better, and gets cited by AI answer engines.
How do engagements work, and where do we start?
We start with a free consultation to understand your goal, then ship a working, high-quality MVP as early as possible and harden from there, with CI/CD throughout. We operate what we build — providing monitoring, support, and iteration after launch.
Where are you based?
Data Subsystems, Inc. is a Florida profit corporation (document number P08000018983) incorporated on February 21, 2008, and in active status with the Florida Division of Corporations, with annual reports filed every year since. We are headquartered in Clearwater, FL, with US-based management and a senior team that has worked together for 15+ years.
How do I get started?
Book a free consultation and tell us what you're building. We'll tell you how we'd build it — and what it will take.
Go deeper
Agents, the orchestration that runs them, and the controls that make them auditable.
Flagship capability
Agentic Automation & Orchestration
AI agents that do real work, coordinated with your systems, automations and people — durable, observable, human-in-the-loop.
How we build agents →Flagship capability
Controls-Ready Automation · SOX, ITGC & ITAC
Engineered against IT general controls, with application controls and an evidence trail built into every workflow.
How we make it auditable →New
Agentic Solution Accelerators
Reusable building blocks extracted from systems we built and operate — a first automated process live in weeks.
See the accelerators →Still have a question?
Tell us what you're building. We'll tell you how we'd build it — and what it'll take.