RBC and Cohere Partner on ‘North for Banking’ AI Platform

AI Banking | Jan 9, 2025

Image courtesy of Freepik AI

RBC Teams Up with Cohere to Lead AI Innovation in Financial Services

Today, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) announced a partnership with Toronto-based AI powerhouse, Cohere, to develop an innovative AI platform for the banking sector called 'North for Banking' that prioritizes security, efficiency, and innovation.  The platform will incorporate RBC's proprietary models and internal data systems and use Cohere's enterprise AI expertise to set a new standard specifically designed for the financial industry.

Ivan Zhang, Co-founder of Cohere:

"North for Banking will be an end-to-end AI solution that financial industry firms can seamlessly integrate to increase workforce productivity and operational efficiency. By prioritizing security and data privacy protections, companies can have peace of mind as they deploy it internally at scale."

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Dr. Foteini Agrafioti, Senior VP of RBC Borealis and CSO at RBC:

"RBC is on a path to redefine what a bank is capable of, and AI will play an important role in our future success,"

RBC’s Decade of AI Leadership

RBC isn’t new to AI, and in fact, has been at the forefront of AI to make banking smarter and more efficient for the better part of a decade.  In 2016, RBC launched an AI research institute Borealis AI to advance AI in finance, which has been key to launching a number of AI tools that are making a big impact on clients and internal operations today.

For example, RBC's mobile app launched NOMI, an AI tool that provides personalized financial insights to help customers by tracking spending, automating budgeting, suggesting savings opportunities, and forecasting future cash flow.  Since launching in 2017, NOMI has saved clients over $4.5 billion.

Then in 2020, RBC launched a trading platform called Aiden that adapts in real time and uses AI to optimize trade execution pricing, reducing slippage and improving trading outcomes for clients.

Also in 2020, RBC partnered with tech firms Red Hat and NVIDIA to develop a cloud-based AI computing platform that improves RBCs ability to scale research and deploy machine learning applications and AI services efficiently across the bank.

AI also plays a huge role daily in responding to customer questions in a streamlined and accurate way.

Implications and Why This Matters

RBC's collaboration with Cohere will most certainly catch the attention of its competitors, putting industry on notice and spurring more capital investment and innovation.  Other major Canadian banks, such as TD, Soctia and BMO are likely to accelerate their own AI initiatives to keep pace, either through their own AI industry collaborations or building internally.  Smaller financial institutions and credit unions may look to strike partnerships with larger players or fintech firms to integrate similar capabilities.

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Also, it's conceivable that the North for Banking platform could eventually be licensed to other financial institutions, adding a new revenue stream while advancing adoption and industry standards. For fintech companies, the platform could potentially serve as a hub that they can tap into to develop specialized applications in areas like decentralized finance or green finance.

Outlook

This is one to watch at large, as the platform rolls out over the next several months to boost productivity, improve security, and deliver new customer experiences.  RBC's commitment to AI innovation is already paying off.

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