Kore.ai & Atos UK&I launch sovereign AI for UK firms

Kore.ai and Atos UK&I have formed a partnership to deliver sovereign agentic AI systems to UK enterprises, targeting regulated sectors including finance, healthcare, defence and critical national infrastructure.

They plan to develop integrated AI systems that combine Kore.ai's Artemis agent platform with Atos UK&I's Sovereign Agentic Studio. The offer is aimed at organisations seeking to move AI projects into broader use while meeting governance, security and compliance requirements.

The partnership comes as the EU AI Act is due to take effect next month, increasing pressure on companies to show that AI systems are governed, explainable and secure. That is particularly relevant for UK industries under strict oversight, even though the law is an EU measure, because many large organisations operate across borders or align with European regulatory standards.

At the centre of the arrangement is a UK-based delivery model. AI agents will be deployed in mixed teams of human staff and software agents through Atos' UK-based Sovereign Agentic Studio.

Regulated Focus

The target sectors include public services, financial services, healthcare, defence and operators of critical national infrastructure. The emphasis on sovereignty reflects growing customer demand for data handling, governance processes and operational controls to remain within defined national or organisational boundaries.

For large organisations, this has become a practical rather than technical issue. Many have already tested chatbots, assistants and workflow tools, but wider rollouts have been slowed by concerns over accountability, auditability and control of autonomous systems.

Mike Hill, Head of Technology at Atos UK&I, said: "Our Sovereign Agentic Studio was built to turn AI ambition into operational reality safely at scale. Kore.ai, as one of the leading providers of enterprise AI platforms and solutions, is the ideal partner to extend that capability. Together, we are creating a unique, sovereign-first AI proposition for UK enterprises that demand both innovation and control."

Kore.ai is positioning Artemis as a platform for building and managing AI agents across enterprise functions. It includes tools such as Agent Blueprint Language, a design feature called Arch and a model described as Dual Brain, which combines agent reasoning with deterministic controls.

Atos UK&I brings production infrastructure, governance frameworks and sector knowledge in the UK market. Together, the companies are presenting the combined offer as a route for businesses that have experimented with AI but have not yet deployed it at scale in sensitive operations.

Market Pressure

The commercial backdrop is a broader shift in how investors and corporate leaders assess AI adoption. Gartner has predicted that by 2029, organisations with business models that show low AI nativeness will be undervalued in investment markets relative to peers that have reached higher levels of AI nativeness.

That puts pressure on management teams to adopt AI in ways that are both measurable and defensible. In sectors such as banking, healthcare and defence, that often means proving not only that an AI system works, but also that it can be supervised, constrained and audited.

Raj Koneru, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Kore.ai, said: "The next phase of enterprise AI will not be defined by individual agents, but by governed systems of intelligence operating reliably at scale. By combining the Kore.ai Agent Platform's AI-native architecture, governance capabilities and multiagent orchestration with Atos' Sovereign Agentic Studio, we enable UK organizations to build, scale and optimize multiagent AI systems within sovereign boundaries while maintaining the trust, security and compliance required for regulated industries and mission-critical operations. This partnership helps enterprises move beyond AI pilots to production-grade AI with confidence."

The agreement also reflects how the AI market is fragmenting along regulatory and geographic lines. As companies seek greater control over where models run, how data is handled and who is accountable for automated actions, suppliers are increasingly packaging AI with hosting, governance and operational oversight rather than selling software alone.

Kore.ai says its technology is used by more than 500 Global 2000 companies and partners, while Atos Group has around 56,000 employees and annual revenue of about EUR €7.2 billion at its go-forward perimeter. In the UK market, the partnership gives Kore.ai an alliance with a supplier that already has established relationships across government and heavily regulated industries.

For Atos UK&I, the deal adds an AI agent platform to a sovereign delivery framework designed to maintain tighter control over deployment conditions.