AI agent tools promise to reduce the drudgery of daily workflows, but many organizations remain hesitant to adopt them due to a pressing concern: data security. Large enterprises with trade secrets, companies in highly regulated industries, and government agencies have been cautious about integrating AI tools, fearing that their data—or worse, their customers’ data—could be compromised or inadvertently used to train foundation models. Canadian AI firm Cohere aims to address these concerns with its new AI agent platform, North. North promises private deployment options that allow enterprises and governments to keep their data safe behind their own firewalls. “LLMs are only as good as the data they have access to,” said Nick Frosst, co-founder of Cohere, during a demo of North. “If we want LLMs to be as useful as possible, they have to access that useful data, and that means they need to be deployed in [the customer’s] environment.” Unlike many AI platforms that rely on enterprise cloud providers like Azure or AWS, Cohere can install North directly on an organization’s private infrastructure, ensuring it never sees or interacts with customer data. North can run on on-premise infrastructure, hybrid clouds, virtual private clouds (VPCs), or even air-gapped environments. “We can deploy literally on a GPU in a closet that they might have somewhere,” Frosst explained, adding that North was designed to run on as few as two GPUs. Cohere also incorporates robust security protocols in North, including granular access control, agent autonomy policies, continuous red-teaming, and third-party security audits. The platform complies with international standards such as GDPR, SOC-2, and ISO 27001.

Beyond Private Deployments

Cohere, which has raised $970 million to date and is valued at $5.5 billion, has already piloted North with customers including RBC, Dell, LG, Ensemble Health Partners, and Palantir. North offers features common to AI agent platforms, such as chat and search capabilities. These allow users to answer customer support inquiries, summarize meeting transcripts, write marketing copy, and access information from internal resources and the web. All responses include citations and “reasoning” chains of thought, enabling employees to audit and verify outputs. The chat and search functions leverage Cohere’s existing technologies: Command, a family of generative AI models, and Compass, a multimodal search tech stack. North is powered by a variant of the Command model specifically trained for enterprise reasoning. “It goes beyond just Q&A and gets into doing work for you,” Frosst added. “North has a bunch of asset creation capabilities. It can make tables, documents, slideshows, and conduct market research.” In May, Cohere acquired Ottogrid, a Vancouver-based platform specializing in automating high-level market research, further enhancing North’s capabilities. Like other AI agent platforms, North integrates with workplace tools such as Gmail, Slack, Salesforce, Outlook, and Linear. It also supports integration with any Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to access industry-specific or in-house applications. “As you build confidence by chatting to the model, there’s a smooth transition from using it as augmentation to using it as automation,” Frosst concluded.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Data Security and Deployment

Q: What are the primary data security concerns with AI agent tools? A: Organizations, particularly large enterprises, highly regulated industries, and government agencies, are concerned that their sensitive data, or their customers' data, could be compromised or inadvertently used to train foundation models. Q: How does Cohere's North platform address these security concerns? A: North offers private deployment options, allowing data to remain behind the organization's firewalls. It can be deployed on-premise, in hybrid clouds, VPCs, or even air-gapped environments, ensuring Cohere never interacts with customer data directly. Q: What infrastructure can North be deployed on? A: North can be deployed on on-premise infrastructure, hybrid clouds, virtual private clouds (VPCs), or air-gapped environments. It's designed to run on as few as two GPUs.

Platform Features and Capabilities

Q: What are the core functionalities of the North platform? A: North provides chat and search capabilities, allowing users to answer customer inquiries, summarize meetings, write marketing copy, and access internal resources and the web. It also offers asset creation features like tables, documents, and slideshows, and can conduct market research. Q: What technologies power North's chat and search functions? A: North leverages Cohere's Command generative AI models and Compass multimodal search tech stack. It is specifically powered by a variant of the Command model trained for enterprise reasoning. Q: Does North integrate with other workplace tools? A: Yes, North integrates with common workplace tools such as Gmail, Slack, Salesforce, Outlook, and Linear. It also supports integration with any Model Context Protocol (Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers) for accessing industry-specific or in-house applications. Q: How does Cohere plan to enhance North's market research capabilities? A: Cohere acquired Ottogrid, a platform specializing in automating high-level market research, which will further enhance North's capabilities in this area.

Security Protocols and Compliance

Q: What security protocols are incorporated into North? A: North includes granular access control, agent autonomy policies, continuous red-teaming, and third-party security audits. Q: What international standards does North comply with? A: North complies with international standards such as GDPR, SOC-2, and ISO 27001.

Crypto Market AI's Take

Cohere's North platform represents a significant step towards addressing the critical data security concerns that have hindered the widespread adoption of AI agent tools in enterprise environments. By offering flexible, private deployment options, Cohere is enabling organizations to leverage the power of advanced AI without compromising sensitive information. This approach is particularly relevant in the financial sector, including cryptocurrency markets, where data privacy and regulatory compliance are paramount. Our platform, AI Crypto Market, focuses on providing similar robust security and advanced AI-driven insights for cryptocurrency trading, ensuring that users can navigate the market with confidence. The ability for AI agents to operate within an organization's own infrastructure, as demonstrated by North, aligns with our commitment to secure and intelligent financial technology.

Cohere’s new AI agent platform, North, promises to keep enterprise data secure