Cohere launched a partnership with U.S.-based Ensemble Health Partners that uses a customized version of the Canadian company’s platform.Dado Ruvic/Reuters
Canadian artificial-intelligence company Cohere Inc. is entering the health care industry through a partnership with U.S.-based Ensemble Health Partners that uses AI agents to help hospitals and other providers manage their revenue.
Cohere, founded in 2019, uses large-language models to build chatbots and generative-AI platforms for enterprise customers to automate some tasks.
The partnership with Ensemble, launched Tuesday, uses a customized version of the North by Cohere platform that will run on health care providers’ internal systems and help with tasks such as hospitals appealing insurance-claim denials and chasing down accounts receivable.
The company said prelaunch tests of the tools accelerated denial appeals by 40 per cent and improved denial overturn rates by 15 per cent.
Running on internal systems is a key part of how the AI system protects the safety of patients’ information and complies with privacy law, Cohere co-founder Ivan Zhang said.
“There’s no data leaving their system, because all the agents are in the house,” he said.
Because of those privacy concerns, Mr. Zhang said the AI has to be trained on synthetic data, which would be similar to real-world data in likeness and structure but without any protected personal information.
The foray into health care follows Cohere’s work in the financial sector, which has to adhere to similar privacy rules. In January, the company announced a partnership with Royal Bank of Canada to co-develop and run a customized platform called North for Banking, which, among other things, helps employees answer questions from customers.
Mr. Zhang said Cohere is focused on the U.S. market for now, but hopes to have more to announce for Canadian health care soon.
“So far, we are focused on the U.S. markets. We want to take these learnings and adapt it to different systems in Canada and globally,” he said.
Cohere did not disclose any financial terms or which U.S. clients are using the AI platform.
The company also received a nod Tuesday from new federal AI Minister Evan Solomon.
In a speech in Ottawa, Mr. Solomon outlined the government’s new approach to AI, saying it would shift from “warnings and regulation” to celebrating industry “champions” such as Cohere.
Mr. Zhang said he was “delighted” by the support and said there was a strong case to be made that investments in AI were part of strengthening Canada’s economy and security.
“We’ve been very happy about the government’s engagement so far,” he said.
