Once regarded as a potential challenger to OpenAI and Anthropic in the race for cutting-edge AI models, Canadian startup Cohere has received over $1 billion in funding led by supporters who identified CEO Aidan Gomez as a promising visionary. The 20-year-old co-authored a breakthrough research paper on large language models during his Google internship days.
However, Cohere's AI models have since fallen behind state-of-the-art technologies, with business expansion lagging behind competitors.
The company is now turning to an experienced research leader for revitalization: Cohere has hired Joelle Pineau, former vice president of AI research at Meta who oversaw the tech giant's Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) laboratory. In her newly established role as Chief AI Officer, Pineau will oversee AI strategy across research, product development, and policy teams.
As a Canadian AI scientist and McGill University professor, Pineau played a pivotal role in developing Meta's open-source Llama AI model alongside neural network pioneer Yann LeCun. She left Meta in May after nearly eight years with the company.
This strategic hire marks a crucial turning point for Cohere, which recently secured $500 million in funding at a $6.8 billion valuation - a significant achievement though dwarfed by competition from well-capitalized industry giants like OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Anthropic.
Unlike competitors focused on creating AI systems that match or exceed human capabilities across diverse tasks, Cohere maintains a more targeted approach. The startup specializes in developing enterprise-grade AI applications for business and government sectors with a strong emphasis on privacy and security.
In interviews, Pineau expressed enthusiasm for Cohere's focus on practical business applications. "Many companies are fixated on AGI and superintelligence," she noted, referencing former employer Meta's recent $1+ billion investment in its new Meta Super Intelligence (MSL) division. "The actual applications of these AI systems remain largely undefined."
Pineau pointed to OpenAI's recent underwhelming GPT-5 launch as evidence suggesting AGI timelines might be "longer than anticipated." Simultaneously, she emphasized substantial opportunities to enhance productivity across industries through more pragmatic AI models.
The native Canadian has followed Cohere since its 2019 founding and expressed excitement about contributing to a startup based in her home country.
Beyond patriotic motivations, Pineau sees this role as an opportunity to transcend traditional research boundaries. At FAIR, her team's projects often required 18 months to a decade before delivering results. Now, she'll operate within tighter timeframes while directly engaging with clients and products. Despite fewer resources than Meta, Pineau anticipates greater flexibility in her new position.
Cohere's latest product offering is North, an AI agent platform allowing enterprises and government agencies to privately deploy AI solutions on their own infrastructure. This positioning targets sensitive data handlers like banks and federal organizations, directly challenging open-source providers such as DeepSeek and Meta whose locally-run models offer lower costs but require additional support.
Pineau specifically aims to expand Cohere's research around North, focusing on developing secure AI agents and establishing benchmarks for evaluating these systems. She also expresses interest in exploring how AI agent networks interact in real-world environments.
Pineau now faces the immediate challenge of replacing outgoing AI research vice president Sara Hooker, who stepped down after helping establish the company's research program. Recruiters struggle to attract top-tier AI researchers in today's competitive market where demand for expertise has surged.
However, Pineau views this as an opportunity to "attract exceptional talent," noting several former FAIR colleagues have expressed willingness to join her at new AI labs. She emphasizes Cohere's solid foundation of AI researchers and stresses that successful hiring goes beyond simply acquiring star scientists.
"Assembling a team of stars doesn't automatically create a stellar organization," Pineau asserted. "It's about how people work together."
Notably, Meta's AI division has transformed significantly since Pineau's departure. This summer, CEO Mark Zuckerberg initiated an aggressive hiring spree, reportedly offering multi-million dollar compensation packages to attract MSL's top research talent. This competitive pressure has pushed OpenAI to increase salaries for key personnel, making it increasingly difficult for smaller companies to recruit elite AI researchers.
As Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic invest billions in AI development, Cohere seeks to accomplish more with fewer resources. For Pineau, this means making strategically calculated research investments that can rapidly translate into compelling products and maintain competitive differentiation.
