Amazon Bedrock gives access to foundation models via API — but accessing models is not the same as having a working enterprise automation platform. European enterprises evaluating Bedrock are often discovering they still need to build, orchestrate, govern, and maintain the entire application layer themselves, from inside AWS's cloud.
Amazon Bedrock is a powerful managed API service giving access to leading foundation models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, and others — within AWS's cloud. It is not an enterprise automation platform. Organisations comparing MAIA Brain and Bedrock are typically comparing outcomes: enterprises want invoice processing, document understanding, autonomous exception handling, and process orchestration running in weeks. Bedrock can enable these outcomes — but requires building the full application, orchestration layer, governance framework, and compliance controls from scratch, on AWS cloud infrastructure, with no on-premise option. Learn more about intelligent automation or see how MAIA compares across the market in our 2026 platform comparison.
A direct comparison of what each platform delivers out of the box for enterprise automation teams evaluating their options in 2026.
| Capability | Amazon Bedrock / AWS AI | MAIA Brain |
|---|---|---|
| Automate enterprise operations without a build project | No — requires building the full application on top of the model API | Yes |
| Run fully on-premise | No — AWS cloud only; data leaves your environment | Yes |
| Read and understand unstructured documents natively | Partial — possible via model API calls but application layer must be built and maintained | Yes |
| Handle exceptions without stopping | No — exception handling must be built into every custom workflow | Yes |
| Connect enterprise software (SAP, Salesforce, Oracle) | Partial — AWS integrations available but custom orchestration required | Yes — 500+ pre-built |
| EU AI Act and GDPR compliance from day one | No — data processed on AWS cloud; EU sovereignty requires extensive architecture | Yes |
| Business teams configure automation in plain language | No — requires Python/AWS SDK engineering for all configuration | Yes |
| Transparent, predictable pricing | No — token-based consumption pricing with significant variation at scale | Yes |
| Time to first production automation | 9–18+ months of build, test, and governance before production | 4–6 weeks |
| Onboarding and configuration included | No — all build and configuration is your engineering team's responsibility | Yes |
| Get smarter without engineering intervention | No — model updates and application improvements require engineering cycles | Yes |
| Multi-language support | Yes — models support major languages | Yes — native reasoning |
| Full audit trail and decision explainability | Partial — must be built as part of the application layer | Yes |
The real cost of building on Amazon Bedrock is not the model API fee — it is the engineering team, the application build, the orchestration layer, the governance framework, the AWS infrastructure, and the ongoing maintenance. MAIA delivers the business outcome without the engineering project cost.
Cost comparison based on representative enterprise automation scenarios. Total cost of ownership analysis available on request. Individual results will vary based on organisational complexity, existing AWS infrastructure, and automation scope.
Six structural differences that determine whether you are buying an automation platform or commissioning a build project.
Bedrock is an API. MAIA is a running automation platform. No build required, no model to orchestrate, no application to architect. Your first production automation is live within 4–6 weeks of onboarding.
No build projectBedrock requires AWS cloud. MAIA runs on your infrastructure. For EU AI Act and GDPR, this is a structural difference, not a configuration option. Your data never enters AWS or any third-party cloud environment.
Data sovereignty guaranteedBuilding on Bedrock requires Python, AWS SDK, Lambda, and DevOps expertise. MAIA's team manages onboarding and configuration. Your operations team runs the platform in plain language — no AWS certifications needed.
Operations-team readyCustom Bedrock applications need exception handling coded into every workflow. MAIA reasons through exceptions natively — completing tasks with a full audit trail, no human escalation required, even for complex edge cases.
Self-resolving workflowsBedrock's token-based consumption pricing is difficult to forecast at enterprise scale. MAIA's pricing is transparent and fixed — no surprise cloud bills, no per-token costs, no AWS infrastructure invoices to manage each month.
Fixed, transparent pricingBuilding EU AI Act compliance on Bedrock requires custom explainability, audit trail, and data governance engineering. MAIA includes all of these as standard. Learn more about MAIA's AI security and compliance capabilities.
Compliant from day oneThree steps from first conversation to production automation. No AWS infrastructure provisioning, no engineering sprints, no model orchestration.
MAIA's team works with your operations and finance teams to identify the highest-value automation opportunities — invoice processing, claims handling, exception management, data reconciliation. No AWS architecture knowledge required from your side.
MAIA deploys to your own infrastructure — no AWS account required, no cloud data transfer. The platform connects to your enterprise systems via pre-built connectors for SAP, Salesforce, Oracle and others. Configuration is managed by MAIA's team, not your IT department.
Within 4–6 weeks, your first production automation is processing real documents, handling real exceptions, and generating real audit trails — on your infrastructure, under your control, fully EU AI Act compliant. No 9-month AWS engineering project, no consumption bills, no cloud vendor dependency.
Not every enterprise needs MAIA. For organisations comparing broader options, see also our comparisons of MAIA vs Blue Prism and MAIA vs Google Vertex AI.
We spent three months scoping a build on Amazon Bedrock before concluding that we were commissioning a 14-month engineering project, not buying an automation platform. MAIA Brain was our alternative evaluation — and within six weeks it was live, fully on-premise, processing our insurance claims documentation without any AWS infrastructure, any engineering team, or any cloud data risk. The operational comparison was not even close.
Answers to the questions enterprises most commonly ask when evaluating MAIA Brain against Amazon Bedrock or AWS AI services.
Building on Amazon Bedrock is a 12–18 month engineering project before your first production automation. MAIA Brain is live in 4–6 weeks, on your infrastructure, with no AWS build, no consumption billing surprises.