Picture a creative or brand lead at a company of a few hundred to a few thousand people. Sooner or later, IT or procurement asks the same question: is Air a full enterprise DAM, and is it enterprise enough?

Air is a DAM with AI that goes beyond a traditional DAM, keeping approvals, versions, usage, and intent attached to every asset, and it's built for enterprise teams, with the security and governance IT expects. What it isn't is a legacy enterprise DAM in the Orange Logic or Aprimo mould, and for most teams of a few hundred to a few thousand people that's the point.

Enterprise buyers often weigh Air against an enterprise-heavy set that includes Bynder, Aprimo, Acquia DAM, AEM Assets, and Orange Logic. But there's a more useful question under the surface: does a tool give creative work a memory while meeting the controls IT requires?

This guide covers what "full enterprise DAM" actually means, where Air fits, the checklist procurement runs, and when a traditional, enterprise DAM is the better choice.

People use "full enterprise DAM" to mean different things. For some it is archival depth; for others it is governance, security, scale, workflow support, or just passing procurement review. It helps to name the capabilities most people expect a serious system to cover: storage, metadata, permissions, search, version control, approvals, security, integrations, sharing, and scale.

The argument for an enterprise DAM runs roughly like this: Enterprise DAMs are built for governance at scale. They handle each of the factors we listed above, and have rigid taxonomies because rigid taxonomies are what large, regulated organizations actually need to manage thousands of assets across dozens of markets and partners.

And while it's tempting to frame the choice as enterprise DAMs for storage and Air for AI, that comparison isn't so contrasted anymore. Bynder, Aprimo, AEM Assets, and Orange Logic all now lean into agentic AI. But the real difference is who they're built for: often Fortune 500 organizations with complex global compliance structures.

Air takes a bit of a different approach. Its boards-not-folders model and visual interface are built for creative teams moving quickly, and a buyer replacing an "enterprise" DAM may reasonably wonder whether that approach covers the structural and governance side.

A team with strict rights and brand-control requirements wants to know the tool will not need to be supplemented with three other systems within a year. If you are weighing up your options, our guide to the best enterprise DAM software lays out the vendor list, buyer criteria, and pricing.

Air solves a different problem than legacy enterprise DAMs, and the buyers who choose Air do so deliberately, with full visibility into what they are picking up and what they are trading:

• Air is a DAM, with AI that goes beyond a traditional DAM. It keeps the approvals, versions, usage, and intent behind every asset attached to the file itself.

• Enterprise security and governance are foundational: SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CASA Tier 2, enforceable SAML SSO, custom roles, access-controlled libraries, and protected share links.

• Adoption holds up where legacy DAMs often struggle, with 120,000 creatives using Air daily across 2,500+ teams.

• Air best fits companies of roughly 200 to a few thousand employees: large enough to need real governance, lean enough to care whether people actually adopt the tool.

For a fuller picture of our perspective, see what Air is in 2026.

Large creative teams often run more than one system at once: a DAM for finished assets, separate working storage for files in progress, and another tool where feedback and approvals happen. Moving work between them means downloading, re-uploading, and renaming the same files by hand.

Air brings finished assets and work in motion into one place, with the governance to manage a brand across regions built in. Here's how that looks in more detail.

Air keeps working files and finals in one governed library

Traditional DAMs are strong at keeping finished assets safe and easy to retrieve. Most of the friction creative teams feel shows up earlier, in the messy middle of the work, where ideas move from raw concept toward an approved asset. In Air, files keep their working history through that middle while governance still covers who can see and do what.

This is where features like the following come into play:

• Boards allow a single file to live in multiple contexts without duplication.

• Pinned image comments and timestamped video annotations make feedback precise.

• Kanban views track approval status.

• Version stacking keeps iterations from cluttering the workspace, and multi-stage approvals with custom fields track owner, due date, and status so the current approved file is always obvious.

• AI features like creative intelligence, conversational search, video transcription, smart chapters, and facial recognition let people find content by what it actually contains rather than what someone remembered to name it.

Air Canvas picks up where the approval workflow leaves off. One approved design becomes dozens of on-brand variants: resized for every channel, backgrounds swapped, text updated without the source file, all applied in bulk.

Canvas outputs land on a board as new assets once someone saves them, under the same governance controls and brand kit context. This is what "one to many" looks like in practice.

Partners also fit in without extra tools: Showcases and Content Collection upload links let agencies, freelancers, and partners share and contribute without an Air account. Plus, Air connects to the design, project management, cloud storage, and publishing tools teams already use, with custom integrations available through the public API on the Enterprise plan.

Air supports the controls enterprise procurement teams expect:

• Security and compliance: SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CASA Tier 2, with details on the SOC 2 Type II security page. SOC 2 reports are available through the Trust Center at trust.air.inc, and Air never uses customer files to train AI models.

• Identity and access: enforceable SAML SSO with Okta, Azure AD, and other providers, mapped IdP groups that can control library access, custom roles, access-controlled libraries, and multi-workspace setup.

• Data protection and recovery: content expiration, custom backups, inactivity logout, and 180-day recovery of deleted content.

• Rollout and cost: onboarding included on the Enterprise plan, with unlimited users and no per-seat pricing.

External share links can be password-protected, email-gated, time-limited, and set to auto-expire. Original-file CDN links (in beta) can also point to the current version.

With unlimited users and no per-seat pricing, teams typically get more from Air Enterprise at a better price than legacy DAMs, and the Air for Enterprise page covers the product side in more detail.

A clear example is Vivian Health, a healthcare jobs marketplace whose creative team looked into Brandfolder and Bynder before landing on Air.

Their Art Director, Rishad Amarkhel, pointed to Air becoming "our single source of truth for brand assets, from logos to product imagery and brand guidelines," and to how the marketing team gained the ability to "create boards and share assets with external agencies independently. It eliminated the hassle of permissions and made our marketing operations more efficient."

Scale fits that model too. Room to Read, a global education nonprofit with 1,600 staff across 19 countries, is a distributed team where adoption is the real test. Air supports the organization pro bono.

Here's the thing, governance only works if the people creating, reviewing, and using assets actually adopt the system. A library that sits unused while teams drift back to shared drives produces exactly the inconsistency governance is meant to prevent.

Air isn't the right call for every team. A traditional, enterprise DAM may be the better fit in a few cases:

• Mounted storage for very large video files.

• Deep out-of-the-box integrations across many systems (though Air Enterprise offers custom integrations through its public API instead).

• The deepest possible rights and licensing-by-territory schemas.

• Multi-tenant governance across dozens of business units in a heavily regulated, often Fortune 500 organization. You can see where Air and Bynder differ to help place that line of thinking.

You don't always have to choose. Some teams keep an enterprise DAM as a deep archive and run Air as their working library where day-to-day creative actually happens.

If what you need most is a system creative teams will actually use to move work from raw concept to approved asset, with the governance, security, and access controls a serious organization requires, that is what Air is built for.

Here is the short version, from the perspective of the people who have to sign off.

Air is a strong fit if you:

• Have roughly 200 to a few thousand employees

• Want working files and finished assets in one place

• Produce creative at high volume

• Run approvals across both internal and external reviewers

• Need to pass a standard enterprise security review

Consider an enterprise DAM if you need:

• Mounted storage for very large video files

• Deep, out-of-the-box integrations across many systems

• Complex rights and licensing-by-territory management

• Fortune 500-scale multi-brand compliance

Either way, the useful question is whether a tool gives creative work a memory while meeting the controls IT requires. Air helps teams understand, organize, and scale creative work with enterprise-grade control.

See how Air can help your team organize, approve, and scale creative with a personalized product walkthrough.

Is Air a full enterprise DAM?

Yes. Air is a DAM, with AI that goes beyond a traditional DAM: it keeps approvals, versions, and usage attached to every asset, and it ships the enterprise controls procurement looks for, including SOC 2 Type II, enforceable SAML SSO, and custom roles. It is built for companies of roughly 200 to a few thousand employees, while Fortune 500 teams with complex global compliance often look at Orange Logic, Acquia, or Aprimo.

Is Air SOC 2 certified?

Yes. Air holds SOC 2 Type II certification, and is GDPR compliant and CASA Tier 2 verified. SOC 2 reports are available through the Trust Center at trust.air.inc. Data is protected with incremental snapshots every five minutes and nightly full database backups, encrypted and replicated across multiple AWS regions.

Does Air support SAML SSO and custom permissions?

Yes, on Enterprise plans. Air supports SAML-based Single Sign-On with central provisioning through identity providers including Okta and Azure AD. Admins can enforce SAML SSO so that all users on verified domains must authenticate through the organization's IdP, blocking sign-in through Google SSO, Apple SSO, or email and password. Air does not store passwords for accounts managed through SSO. Mapped IdP groups can control library access, and custom roles, access-controlled libraries, and multi-workspace setup are available on Enterprise.

Does Air use customer files to train AI models?

No. Air never uses customer files to train AI models, as the data FAQ on the pricing page sets out. The security page and the Trust Center at trust.air.inc cover the rest of Air's security posture.

How does Air compare to Bynder or Brandfolder specifically?

Bynder and Brandfolder are capable enterprise DAMs, and both now ship AI features, so the real distinction is who each tool is built for. Air is built around creative work in motion: approvals, version control, AI-powered findability, and Canvas for turning one approved design into on-brand variants. Teams where creative velocity matters as much as compliance tend to choose Air, while teams that want a more traditional enterprise DAM setup tend to stay with Bynder or Brandfolder. Vivian Health evaluated both before choosing Air and made it their single source of truth for brand assets. You can compare Air and Bynder in detail.

Can we run Air alongside an existing enterprise DAM?

Yes. Some teams keep their enterprise DAM as a deep archive and run Air as the working library where day-to-day creative happens. Our MediaValet comparison lays out how that split works.

Do enterprise teams at Air get dedicated onboarding support?

Yes. Air's Enterprise plan includes custom migration assistance from your current DAM or cloud storage. Enterprise customers also get a dedicated onboarding manager, a customer success manager, and a private support Slack channel.

How is Air Enterprise priced?

Air Enterprise includes unlimited users with no per-seat pricing, so adding reviewers, approvers, and external partners never increases seat costs. For pricing context, see our rundown of the enterprise DAM landscape; for a quote tailored to your team, visit the Enterprise plan details or book a walkthrough.