Thales links up with tech firm to advance AI solutions for naval in-service support

December 8, 2025, by Fatima Bahtić

Thales Canada and Cohere, a Canadian multinational technology company focused on artificial intelligence, have signed a partnership agreement for advanced AI solutions for naval and maritime in-service support.

Canadian Department of National Defence (DND)

As disclosed, the partners aim to accelerate the development and secure deployment of agentic AI tools that can analyze and adapt to complex moving environments in real time.

Agentic AI refers to AI systems that can operate autonomously, reason, and take context-aware actions to achieve specific goals. Unlike “traditional” AI, which is limited to predefined tasks, agentic AI can analyze complex environments, adapt to new information in real time, and support decision-making by proactively recommending or executing courses of action.

The agreement also supports joint research and development to support the digital transformation of naval in-service support and future agentic AI applications in defense.

Thals plans to use its AI incubator, cortAIx, which was created in 2024. The accelerator brings together more than 800 AI experts across four hubs, in France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore, and unifies Thales’ research, engineering and industrialization activities in AI for critical environments.

“Thales is committed to delivering value to our customers, with a focus on flexibility, speed and mission effectiveness,” said Ian Krepps, CEO, Thales Canada.

“Partnering with Cohere enables us to rapidly deploy new, sovereign AI-powered capabilities for our customers, including the Canadian Armed Forces. This partnership reflects our commitment to providing our customers with agile, future-ready Canadian AI solutions that deliver value, capability and unlock new capacity.”

“This partnership with Thales Canada marks a strategic leap in responsibly deploying AI for national defence,” stated Ivan Zhang, Co-founder, Cohere.

“Together, we’re bringing secure, sovereign AI solutions to Canada’s maritime forces that analyze complex naval environments in real time. Our agentic systems will deliver actionable intelligence at operational speed, directly enhancing mission readiness while strengthening Canada’s position as a global leader in AI adoption.”