Bell Canada and Cohere forge strategic partnership to deliver sovereign AI-powered solutions

MONTRÉAL - Bell Canada and security-first enterprise AI company Cohere today announced a strategic partnership to provide full-stack sovereign AI solutions for government and enterprise customers across Canada, and to deploy proprietary, secure AI solutions within Bell. 

Cohere will make its secure enterprise-grade AI solutions available through Bell AI Fabric, providing government and enterprise customers with access to fully sovereign, advanced models and customized applications. This includes leveraging North, Cohere's agentic AI platform for both customers and Bell employees. In turn, Bell will become Cohere's preferred Canadian AI infrastructure provider, while Cohere will become Bell's preferred Canadian agentic AI solution and LLM provider.

Together, Bell Canada and Cohere will offer a turnkey solution for Canadian organizations that want to deploy world-class AI capabilities, with Cohere now providing cutting edge enterprise AI software to the expanding Bell AI Fabric ecosystem.

Bell AI Fabric is comprised of four layers: hardware infrastructure including Canada's largest sovereign AI data centres on the largest fibre network; software infrastructure including Cohere's Large Language Models (LLMs) customized for Bell to offer unique capabilities for the Canadian market, machine learning and cloud software; advisory, tech and professional services led by Ateko, Bell's tech services brand offering cloud and workforce automation for enterprise; and an application layer of consumer and business AI applications including Cohere's North agentic AI platform. All four layers are underpinned by leading cybersecurity protections combining physical security, network security, and operational resilience.

"At a critical time for Canada, we're proud to partner with Cohere to create a sovereign, full-stack AI solution, custom-built to support Canadian government and business. Working together, we will both transform Canadian businesses through cutting edge AI capabilities, while ensuring that the data remains secure and within Canada."

–    Mirko Bibic, President and CEO, Bell Canada

"Our partnership with Bell Canada will provide the Canadian government and enterprises with world-class options for sovereign, security-first AI. This has the potential to be truly transformative for organizations looking to massively increase their productivity and efficiency without any compromise on data security and privacy."

–    Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO, Cohere

This partnership will also make North available to Bell's government and enterprise customers, enabling them to create AI agents and automation solutions, without having to manage AI infrastructure, and while maintaining security, privacy and data residency in Canada.

"These companies exemplify the spirit of Canadian ingenuity and are solidifying Canada's sovereign AI capabilities. This partnership will help strengthen our position on the global stage and pave the way for a brighter, more advanced future for the Canadian economy."

–     The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation

Bell will also deploy Cohere's North agentic AI platform throughout the company, enabling employees to build and manage AI agents built on proprietary Bell data to meet specific needs and drive efficiencies across the organization. Bell's deployment of North will also enable it to offer better managed and professional services to its government and enterprise customers. Ateko will leverage Bell's own experience with North in its work with clients on their AI deployment.