[Exclusive] Cohere Founder: "Korea Has Strong Demand for Enterprise AI Assistants... Control Systems Are Needed"

"Korean companies are seeking artificial intelligence (AI) systems to assist with work execution."

Ivan Zhang, co-founder of global AI company Cohere (photo), who visited Korea at the end of last month as part of a Canadian business delegation, confirmed in a written interview with The Asia Business Daily on the 15th that there is strong demand among domestic companies for AI assistant (agent) systems. Cohere, founded in 2019 by three former Google Brain researchers, is a global AI company providing enterprise-optimized large language models (LLMs) and agentic AI solutions. Major tech companies such as NVIDIA, Oracle, Salesforce, and Cisco have invested in Cohere. As of August last year, the company was valued at approximately $6.8 billion (about KRW 10.069 trillion). In July last year, Cohere opened a Seoul office and has been targeting the Korean AI market. After forming an AX (AI transformation) partnership with LG CNS in March last year, Cohere signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for AI technology collaboration in shipbuilding and defense with Hanwha Ocean and Hanwha Systems in January this year.

Ivan Chang, Co-founder of global AI company Cohere. Provided by Cohere

원본보기 아이콘

Zhang stated that his visit to Korea last month deepened relationships with Korean partners and described Korea, with its well-developed AI ecosystem, as an attractive market. He said, "The Korean AI market perfectly aligns with Cohere's core business sectors-manufacturing, finance, and defense," and added, "We see Korea as a strategic base for growth in the Asia-Pacific region." He went on, "Cohere's latest model excels not only in Korean but also in multilingual processing. This is a key function for global organizations that collaborate across various markets, departments, and systems."

He specifically noted that there is significant demand among Korean companies for security-related solutions. Zhang explained, "During this visit, I observed strong demand for secure, enterprise-grade sovereign AI in core work environments," and added, "Cohere's strengths in reliability and security are a perfect fit for private deployments and high-performance, enterprise-grade solutions where these factors are essential."

The growing demand for AI agents has also drawn Zhang's attention. He explained that not only LG CNS and Hanwha Ocean, but also other companies have shown interest in adopting Cohere's agentic AI solutions. "We've already confirmed that many Korean companies are seeking AI systems to help execute work," he said. "They want AI systems that go beyond simple chatbots, supporting multi-step workflows, finding relevant information, and assisting with operations, finance, and customer support across the board."

However, he emphasized that for agentic AI solutions to be fully established, companies need the right systems and culture. To prevent AI agents from exceeding their authority or causing security issues, companies must maintain firm control over AI and ensure that sensitive decisions are made by humans. Zhang stated, "Companies must be able to strictly manage AI agents' access rights, the tasks they can perform, and the information they use to generate responses." He added, "When AI agents carry out complex tasks, it does not diminish the role of humans. In fact, the more hazardous the environment, the more vital the human role becomes."

He also predicted that within the next three to five years, AI agents will become integrated into daily life. "Enterprise AI agents will not be mere tools-they will become fully embedded in daily work, interconnected within companies, and established with security and sovereignty in mind," he explained. "Cohere's long-term goal is not only to expand AI adoption, but also to maintain complete control over proprietary data and environments without compromising on AI performance."

© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.