Cohere just launched “North,” its biggest AI bet yet on privacy-focused enterprises

Cohere released north today, a secure AI workspace platform that directly challenges Microsoft Co-pilot and Google Vertex AI in the corporate market. The company claims its new platform outperforms the two tech giants’ offerings in finance, human resources, customer support and IT functions.

North combines large language models, search capabilities, and automation tools into a secure package that enables companies to deploy AI while maintaining control over sensitive data. The platform runs in private cloud environments or on-premises installations targeting regulated industries such as finance and healthcare.

AI security is becoming a major battleground for enterprise adoption

“The AI ​​market is maturing and enterprises are beginning to understand the opportunity,” Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said in internal company letter shared on LinkedIn last month. “While consumers have fallen in love with technology and are using it as part of their daily lives, businesses are struggling to keep up.”

Royal Bank of Canada has already partnered with Cohere to develop North for Banking, a specialized version designed for financial institutions. This marks one of the first major enterprise deployments of the platform.

Search technology promises to reduce workflow time

North’s built-in search engine, Compasshandles multiple types of data, including images, presentations, spreadsheets, and documents in multiple languages. Internal testing shows that the system reduces task completion time by more than 80% compared to manual search.

“It’s becoming clear that it’s not enough for enterprises to simply prompt or set up an off-the-shelf consumer AI chatbot for a work environment,” said Gomez. “They want something customized to their needs. They want a real partner to help them achieve their goals.”

The enterprise AI race is moving from raw power to practical implementation

Gomez challenged the industry’s focus on computational scale, noting that “data quality and new methods such as synthetic data have contributed far more to progress over the past 18 months than scale.” He claims this approach has made Cohere “an order of magnitude more capital efficient than our competition.”

The platform allows employees to build and customize AI tools for their specific needs without requiring technical expertise. Early testers include companies in finance, healthcare, manufacturing and infrastructure – sectors where data security has traditionally limited AI adoption.

North is currently available through an early access programtargeting the finance, healthcare, manufacturing and critical infrastructure sectors. The startup could change the way businesses implement AI technologies as companies increasingly prioritize security and customization over raw computing power.

“In the future, every company will be an AI company,” said Gomez, emphasizing the need for secure, rapidly deployable solutions.

Daily insight into business use cases with VB Daily

If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory changes to practical implementation, so you can share insights for maximum ROI.

Read ours Privacy Policy

Thanks for subscribing. See more VB newsletters here.

An error occurred.