Bell and Cohere Build Sovereign AI Stack for Canadian Telcos

Canadian telecommunications company Bell Canada partners with enterprise AI firm Cohere to bring full-stack, sovereign AI capability to the Canadian market. 

The partnership integrates Cohere’s large language models (LLMs) and agentic AI tools with Bell’s AI Fabric platform—backed by Bell’s national fibre network and sovereign data centre infrastructure. 

The agreement targets Canadian government and enterprise users, maintaining compliance with stringent security, privacy and data residency requirements.

Under the deal, Bell becomes Cohere’s preferred AI infrastructure provider in Canada. 

Cohere, in return, is appointed as Bell’s preferred provider of LLMs and agentic AI systems. 

Mirko Bibic, President and Chief Executive of BCE and Bell Canada, states: “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.”

AI capability built on telecom-grade infrastructure

The foundation of this offering is Bell AI Fabric, which sits on top of sovereign AI data centres operating on Canada’s largest fibre network. 

This telecom-based infrastructure provides a four-layer stack including hardware, software, services and applications.

At the hardware level, Bell runs AI-specific data centres designed for data sovereignty and resilience. These facilities support the kind of workload isolation, latency management and availability standards expected by telecom and government-grade operations.

The software layer is led by Cohere’s language models, which are customised for Bell to address Canadian enterprise needs. 

These models are built to integrate with telecom-grade cloud environments and existing Bell software platforms. Also included are machine learning tools and ecosystem software designed to comply with enterprise-grade AI deployments.

Ateko, Bell’s tech services arm, leads the services layer. This business unit manages enterprise AI transformation, delivering automation, deployment support and cloud integration across sectors. 

These capabilities align with common telecom enterprise offerings such as managed networks and digital services, but extend into AI-native service delivery.

On the application layer, organisations gain access to end-user AI tools, including Cohere’s North platform. 

North enables the development and deployment of agentic AI, systems that operate with a degree of autonomy to perform tasks, without users needing to manage the underlying model infrastructure.

Aidan Gomez, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Cohere, says: “Bell AI Fabric offers Canadian organisations access to world-class AI capabilities, all delivered with end-to-end security.

“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 organisations looking to massively increase their productivity and efficiency without any compromise on data security and privacy.”

North integration adds agentic AI to telecom services

One of the core components of the partnership is the integration of North, Cohere’s agentic AI platform. 

North enables both government departments and enterprise teams to build custom AI agents for internal operations and client-facing services. 

These agents help automate workflows, reduce manual processing and improve operational consistency while keeping all data residency and security requirements in place.

This agentic approach aligns with the trend in the telecoms sector where network operations, customer service and provisioning tasks are being increasingly offloaded to AI systems. 

With Bell’s own deployment of North internally, the platform is used to build proprietary agents based on Bell-owned data. These agents help staff automate tasks and deliver managed services, further embedding AI into Bell’s telecom and enterprise service portfolio.

These internal use cases also act as references for Ateko, supporting deployment efforts across Bell’s enterprise customer base. 

Telecoms clients, which often face complex regulatory environments and high service uptime requirements, stand to benefit from this tested approach to AI delivery.

The partnership also reinforces Canada’s standing in the global AI landscape. By ensuring that AI infrastructure and models are developed and operated entirely within national borders, the alliance enhances sovereign AI capabilities for critical sectors including telecommunications.

Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, The Honourable Evan Solomon, states: “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.”