Bell and Coveo announce strategic sovereign AI partnership to advance Canada's digital leadership

Partnership integrates the Coveo AI-Relevance platform into Bell AI Fabric to deliver secure, sovereign AI solutions for federal and provincial governments and regulated industries

This news release contains forward-looking statements. For a description of the related risk factors and assumptions, please see the section entitled "Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements" later in this news release.

MONTREAL, March 10, 2026 /CNW/ - Bell (TSX: BCE), Canada's largest telecommunications company¹, and Coveo (TSX: CVO), the Canadian-based global leader in AI-Relevance technology, today announced a strategic sovereign AI partnership to accelerate the modernization of digital services for Canadian federal and provincial governments and regulated industries.

The partnership combines the Coveo AI-Relevance Platform with Bell AI Fabric, a full-stack AI offering anchored by the company's nationwide fibre network, data centre infrastructure, software, cloud capabilities and advanced professional integration and adoption services. Together, the companies aim to deliver secure, compliant and scalable AI solutions to help organizations modernize citizen services, enhance workforce productivity and unlock the full value of their data – while keeping sensitive information, data and AI operations within Canada, under Canadian law.

The collaboration builds on Bell and Coveo's growing role in advancing AI innovation in the Canadian public and private sectors, including Coveo's previously announced Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Canada to modernize public services with AI-powered search and relevance technology. It also underscores Bell's objective to building a Canadian AI ecosystem by partnering with domestic technology companies to bring their capabilities to market at scale.

Bell's technology services division, Ateko, will play a central role in solution design, integration and governance advisory services to support responsible adoption of the Coveo AI-Relevance platform within complex public sector and regulated environments.

Coveo's platform leverages advanced semantic search, machine learning, generative AI and contextual relevance to unify enterprise data and deliver secure, real-time insights across digital and agentic channels. These capabilities are designed to support improved citizen engagement, faster self-service case resolution, reduced operational complexity and greater employee empowerment – key priorities in the digital evolution of Canada's government and regulated industries.

Quotes

"Canada has a responsibility and opportunity to lead in sovereign AI. Through our strategic partnership with Coveo, we are strengthening a made-in-Canada AI ecosystem that combines our secure national infrastructure and Bell AI Fabric with Coveo's world-class, internationally recognized AI-Relevance platform. As partners, we will help governments and enterprises modernize mission-critical services while ensuring Canadian data and AI computing remains secure, governed and under Canadian control."

-       John Watson, Group President, Business Markets, AI and Ateko, Bell

"Bell AI Fabric provides the sovereign foundation required for trusted AI adoption at scale. By aligning strategically with Bell, Coveo is reinforcing its commitment to Canadian innovation leadership and to delivering industrialized AI solutions that strengthen national digital resilience, productivity and economic growth."

-       Louis Têtu, Executive Chairman, Coveo

"This partnership turns leading Canadian AI innovation into real world impact. Ateko is proud to help organizations embed Coveo's AI Relevance and agentic capabilities directly into services and workflows. Working with Bell and Coveo, we are enabling governments and regulated enterprises to adopt AI confidently, while keeping sensitive data and operations securely in Canada."

          -        Lukas Lhotsky, President, Ateko

"This partnership represents a defining step in building a fully integrated sovereign AI stack in Canada. By embedding the Coveo AI-Relevance Platform within Bell AI Fabric, we are helping governments and enterprises to deploy advanced AI search and generative capabilities at scale with confidence to drive transformative outcomes while maintaining high standards of security, transparency and sovereignty."

-       Laurent Simoneau, CEO, Coveo

About Bell

Bell is Canada's largest communications company1,leading the way in advanced fibre and wireless networks, enterprise services and digital media. By delivering next-generation technology that leverages cloud-based and AI-driven solutions, we're keeping customers connected, informed and entertained while enabling businesses to compete on the world stage. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca or BCE.ca.

About Coveo

Coveo brings superior AI-Relevance to every point-of-experience, transforming how enterprises connect their data to their customers and employees to maximize business outcomes.

Relevance is about moving from persona to person, the degree to which the enterprise-wide content, products, recommendations, and advice presented to a person online aligns easily with their context, needs, preferences, behavior and intent, setting the competitive experience gold standard. Every person's journey is unique, and only AI can solve the complexity of tailoring experiences across massive, diverse audiences and large volumes and variety of content and products.

Stay up to date on the latest Coveo news and content by subscribing to the Coveo blog, and following Coveo on LinkedIn and YouTube.

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Investor inquiries:
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Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this news release are forward-looking statements, including statements relating to: the strategic partnership between Bell Canada and Coveo to accelerate the modernization of digital services for Canadian federal and provincial governments and regulated industries, as well as the benefits expected to result therefrom; Bell Canada's objective to building a Canadian artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem by partnering with domestic technology companies; Bell Canada's and Coveo's strategic priority to lead in enterprise with AI-powered solutions; and other statements that are not historical facts. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbour" provisions of applicable Canadian securities laws and of the United States Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties and are based on several assumptions which give rise to the possibility that actual results or events could differ materially from our expectations. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events, and we caution you against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release describe, as applicable, Bell Canada's and/or Coveo's expectations at the date of this news release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Bell Canada and Coveo do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this news release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Forward-looking statements made in this news release, including the benefits expected to result from the strategic partnership between Bell Canada and Coveo, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and are based on certain assumptions including, without limitation, the availability of sufficient equipment, labour and capital and the demand by Canadian federal and provincial governments and regulated industries for Canadian-based AI infrastructure and solutions. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the benefits expected to result from the strategic partnership between Bell Canada and Coveo will be realized. For additional information on assumptions and risks underlying certain of our forward-looking statements made in this news release, please consult, for Bell Canada: BCE Inc.'s (BCE) 2025 Annual MD&A dated March 5, 2026, and BCE's news release dated February 5, 2026 announcing its financial results for the three-month period and year ended December 31, 2025 filed with the Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities (available at sedarplus.ca) and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (available at SEC.gov); these documents are also available at BCE.ca, and for Coveo: Coveo's third quarter fiscal year 2026 MD&A dated January 29, 2026, and Coveo's news release dated January 29, 2026 announcing its financial results for the three- and nine-month periods ended December 31, 2025 filed with the Canadian provincial and territorial securities regulatory authorities (available at sedarplus.ca) and also available at ir.coveo.com.

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¹ Based on total revenue and total combined customer connections.

SOURCE Bell Canada (MTL)