How Cohere Is Using AI to Make Enterprises More Productive

The co-founder of AI startup Cohere is bringing generative AI to businesses to boost productivity and profits.

Cohere’s generative AI is designed for enterprise use, not consumers: Unlike OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Cohere builds AI models that companies can leverage to enhance their operations and bottom line:

• Studies from MIT and Harvard show Cohere’s models can lift knowledge worker productivity by around 40% once employees are trained on using the technology effectively.
• Specific use cases include helping insurers submit faster quotes to win more contracts when bidding on projects like mining or pipelines.

Gomez helped invent the influential transformer architecture while interning at Google in 2017: As a University of Toronto student, he co-authored the seminal “Attention Is All You Need” paper that sparked the generative AI revolution:

• The field has advanced far faster than Gomez anticipated, with today’s AI models exhibiting capabilities he thought may not emerge for another 40 years.
• He left Google in 2021 to co-found Cohere, which has rapidly grown to 400 employees and is expanding its sales team.

Cohere has raised significant funding at multi-billion dollar valuations: Backed by investors like Nvidia, Salesforce and Oracle, the startup is well-capitalized to bring its technology to market:

• In June 2023, Cohere raised $270 million at a $2.2 billion valuation.
• It has reportedly raised money at a $5 billion valuation previously.

Analyzing deeper: While Cohere’s technology shows promise in boosting business productivity, key questions remain around how widely it can be applied across different industries and job functions. Enterprises will also need to carefully manage the implementation of generative AI to upskill workers and ensure the technology acts as a complement rather than replacement for human employees. As an early mover in this space, Cohere’s progress will be closely watched.