PwC and Cohere announced a global alliance on October 5, 2026, that begins in Canada, with a stated goal of helping enterprises run secure AI in production and earn measurable returns on AI spending. The alliance pairs Cohere’s North agentic AI platform, enterprise models, and search and retrieval technology with PwC’s industry, risk, regulatory, and transformation practices.
Announcement and Stated Rationale
The joint release, issued by PwC Management Services LP and datelined Toronto, says many organizations have experimented with AI yet find it difficult to progress from isolated pilot projects to adoption at scale with measurable returns. The release says those organizations must determine where AI would have the greatest impact, connect it to trusted data and systems securely, and work through the regulatory, risk, privacy, cyber, and governance questions that dictate where and how AI can be used responsibly. PwC and Cohere said their joint work is aimed at those challenges and at the security, compliance, and data sovereignty demands of regulated industries.
Domenic Marino, Senior Partner and CEO of PwC Canada, said in the release that AI can change how organizations operate and create value, but that technology alone is not enough to reach that result. He said PwC’s industry, transformation, and risk expertise, combined with Cohere’s secure enterprise AI capabilities, is intended to help clients achieve measurable outcomes beyond experimentation, particularly in regulated industries, where he said trust and data sovereignty are essential.
Division of Roles
Cohere is supplying the technical foundation — the North agentic AI platform alongside its enterprise models and search and retrieval tooling — while PwC takes on the services side: finding high-value applications with clients, assessing risk and regulatory exposure, redesigning workflows, standing up governance and controls, connecting the technology to enterprise data and systems, and supporting implementation at scale. Both companies said the joint engagement model is meant to improve clients’ current operations while preparing them for broader business reinvention.
In its own announcement, Cohere framed the partnership as pairing secure, sovereign AI with transformation expertise so that organizations can move beyond pilot projects into production deployments.
“Enterprises need AI that can deliver real capability without forcing them to give up control of their data, infrastructure or security,” said Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO at Cohere. Gomez said Cohere’s foundation models and end-to-end AI products are designed to operate wherever an organization requires and to work with that organization’s own data, and he said the partnership with PwC is aimed at moving companies from early use cases to secure, production-scale deployments.
Use Cases, Deployment, and Governance
Near-term applications named in the release include enterprise search, knowledge access, deep research, decision support, and task automation. On larger transformation projects, PwC’s role includes helping organizations judge which workflows AI should improve or automate, where human judgment must stay in the loop, and how to define performance, accountability, and controls.
Under the heading of what the alliance will enable, the release lists deployment of secure enterprise search, knowledge access, content generation, decision support, and task automation; connections between AI and an organization’s data, knowledge, and core business systems so that outputs stay grounded in organizational context; workflow redesign that assigns explicit roles to automation, human judgment, governance, and accountability; private-cloud, on-premises, and air-gapped deployment options for tighter control over sensitive data and infrastructure; and gradual scaling of successful uses, with outcomes measured against priorities such as productivity, cost, service delivery, and decision-making.
Cohere’s post also notes that the technology can run in private cloud, on-premises, and air-gapped environments, and says the collaboration is intended to let organizations keep control of sensitive data and infrastructure as they scale AI across business workflows.
“Building trust in AI starts with ensuring it operates securely within an organization’s own technology and data environments, with clear governance, explainability, and human oversight built in from the start,” said Annie Veillet, Chief Technology Officer of PwC Canada. She said Cohere’s sovereign deployment options and PwC’s implementation and AI risk management capabilities together let clients connect AI to their core systems and knowledge without giving up control, transparency, or accountability.
