TORONTO — Defence contractor Thales plans to use Cohere’s AI as part of its work to service and support Canadian naval ships. 

The two companies announced the deal Monday, on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 industry and digital ministers in Montreal. The tie-up comes as Toronto-based Cohere pushes into defence and security applications, and tries to secure more business with the federal government.

Thales has contracts to maintain and provide engineering and technical help for the Canadian Armed Forces’ Arctic patrol ships, coastal defence vessels and auxiliary ships like tugboats—more than 100 craft in all. It’s already using digital technologies like AI to “optimize fleet support,” said Jennifer Tumminio, director of media relations for Thales North America. She added that the firm plans to use Cohere’s AI agents to “further enhance operational efficiency and readiness.”

In a statement, Cohere co-founder Ivan Zhang said its AI system with Thales will “analyze complex naval environments in real time” and “deliver actionable intelligence at operational speed.” The two firms also plan to conduct joint research and development on other defence applications of AI agents.

Zhang is building a new team in Toronto to develop “agentic capabilities for cybersecurity,” he said in a LinkedIn post last month. Technical staff on the public sector team will build technology for “mission-critical use cases,” according to a job posting for members of the team. They must also be Canadian citizens and ideally have top-secret clearance. 

Thales’s federal sales come with duties to provide “industrial and technological benefits” to Canada. According to the federal government’s most recent estimates, the Paris-headquartered firm had fulfilled most of those obligations but still needed to make up about $21.3 million worth of services. Thales plans to use its contract with Cohere to help fulfill its obligations, Tumminio said. The deal will ensure “advanced AI technology for defence is developed in Canada, by Canadians, and remains Canadian-owned,” she added.

The navy’s own plans show it’s looking for technology to help with tasks like scheduling preventive maintenance, getting the right parts from storage to where they’re needed and training workers to fix critical systems in different types of craft.

Cohere has already explored deploying its technology in maritime settings. A customer had looked at installing one of the firm’s AI servers on a ship to process data from sensors that detail which parts might need replacing, Zhang said at an event for federal public servants this summer. That’s more secure than sending the information back and forth to shore, or waiting until the vessel docks to analyze it. “With no data leaving the ship, the crew can now talk to the ship,” he said. 

Ottawa has promised to buy more dual-use technologies like AI and quantum computing from Canadian firms, as part of its new defence industrial strategy. As The Logic first reported, Cohere has already landed a contract with the Communications Security Establishment. It also has an agreement with the federal government for departments to test its AI products for their operations.

Cohere is also trying to sell its technology to countries that want to develop sovereign AI capabilities. At an event on Thursday, CEO Aidan Gomez predicted that other liberal democracies will choose to buy technology from Canada and the U.S. rather than China.