U of T partnership with Cohere sets the stage for responsible AI adoption at scale

Published: July 16, 2026

By Jovana Jankovic

The University of Toronto is advancing its commitment to responsible artificial intelligence adoption at scale through an ambitious multi-year partnership with Cohere, a Canadian-founded, Toronto-based global leader in sovereign AI. This collaboration will help U of T meet a defining moment by taking ownership of its AI future.

Founded in 2019 by former U of T students Aidan Gomez, Nick Frosst and Ivan Zhang, Cohere has grown into the world's leading sovereign AI company and the only Canadian company developing frontier models. It builds enterprise-grade models and purpose-built AI solutions that enable businesses and governments to deploy AI with greater control, trust and ownership.

Cohere's secure, privately deployable agentic AI platform, North, will support co-ordination of complex tasks across different systems (often referred to as an "orchestration layer") within U of T's forthcoming enterprise-wide AI platform.

"This partnership marks both a homecoming and the beginning of a new stage of evolution," says Donna Kidwell, U of T's chief information officer. "It's designed to bring strategists, builders and our community together to demonstrate how secure, sovereign, human-centred AI can be deployed across the university."

"Cohere and the University of Toronto share deep Canadian roots and a commitment to strengthening Canada's leadership in AI," says Joelle Pineau, chief AI officer at Cohere. "This partnership combines U of T's research and education expertise with Cohere's secure, enterprise-grade AI technology to support responsible adoption at scale.

"North, Cohere's flagship agentic AI platform, will connect trusted information across university systems, coordinate complex workflows and help faculty, librarians, staff and students work faster, access services more easily and make better-informed decisions, while keeping sensitive data secure and under U of T's control."

It's the latest step on U of T's path toward becoming a responsible, AI-ready institution through a vision that spans the university's core activities - teaching and learning, research, student services, administration and operations - and the broader technology and data landscape. This path is built on the recommendations of a task force, struck in the spring of 2024, that are grounded in U of T's leadership in AI development and its commitment to ethical innovation.

One of the core recommendations of the taskforce is U of T's AI Kitchen. It provides secure environments for AI projects, including those with Cohere, with appropriate data access, vetted AI applications and technical frameworks for procurement and data handling - all with the goal of enabling human-centered, responsible AI adoption.

Now in its pre-launch phase, the AI Kitchen is engaging with members of the U of T community to understand what tools, products, and services they want to see. The AI Kitchen will be an epicentre of activity where teams explore new AI tools to improve the student experience, administrative services and other applications that arise from community consultation.

"U of T's people, their potential and their ideas, are its most valuable assets," says Professor Susan McCahan, U of T's associate vice-president and vice-provost, digital strategies, who co-sponsors the AI Kitchen with Kidwell. "We recognize AI's transformative capabilities and associated risks and are taking a thoughtful approach to this class of technologies. The partnership with Cohere is the next step in exploring what the U of T community can do with AI, with safety, privacy and security at the forefront of any new initiatives.

"It reaffirms an AI future at U of T that is Canadian-built and internationally competitive, responsible and sustainable."