Compugen & AXL team up to drive applied AI at scale

Canadian IT services provider Compugen has formed a strategic partnership with Toronto-based venture studio AXL as both companies target applied artificial intelligence projects inside large organisations.

The agreement links Compugen's customer base with AXL's product development approach and engineering resources. The companies said the collaboration focuses on identifying and testing AI use cases in business operations and digital services.

Compugen describes itself as Canada's largest privately owned IT services firm. It works with organisations on technology projects and service delivery. AXL operates as a venture studio. It works on turning applied AI research into new products and businesses.

The partnership marks the latest tie-up under AXL's AI Catalyst programme. AXL describes the programme as a co-development model that pairs its AI teams with industry partners that can supply business problems, domain knowledge and routes to market.

Applied AI focus

The companies framed the collaboration as a response to shifts in enterprise AI adoption. They pointed to increased attention on the application layer, where organisations incorporate AI into workflow design, customer interaction and internal systems.

Compugen said the partnership will give its teams and customers access to AI researchers and engineering talent. It said it will also provide a rapid prototyping environment for testing ideas before larger delivery programmes begin.

"This relationship gives our customers and our teams access to some of the best AI minds in the country," said Harry Zarek, President and CEO, Compugen. "We help organizations improve how they run their businesses using technology. Working with AXL lets us bring real operational challenges into an environment where experts can explore and test what's possible, with a clear focus on what will deliver value."

Compugen said it plans to bring forward opportunities from its own operations and from customer engagements. It also said it will contribute to selecting ideas that AXL develops and takes to market.

The companies said some customers may participate directly in prototypes. That would place customer teams alongside AXL's technical staff during early product work, according to the announcement.

Commercial routes

AXL said the collaboration aims to connect enterprise demand with applied AI research. It positioned the partnership as part of an effort to increase commercial output from Canadian AI development.

"Compugen brings deep industry knowledge and a clear line of sight into how large organizations operate, with deep insight into the frontier of today's technology's ability to address major business challenges," said Daniel Wigdor, Co-Founder and CEO, AXL. "AXL brings the research-to-product design and engineering needed to turn those pain points into scalable, applied AI solutions. Together, we can identify the highest-impact opportunities, build and validate solutions quickly, create outcomes that Compugen can deliver at scale, and zero-in on opportunities for great Canadian AI startups to found together."

Wigdor and Zarek both highlighted the gap between experimentation and production use of AI inside large organisations. Compugen said it sees demand from customers that want measurable outcomes rather than pilot projects. AXL said it plans to work with partners that have visibility into where AI integrations fail in practice.

The companies did not disclose financial terms. They also did not name initial customer projects or sectors targeted for early work.

Modernisation economics

The announcement also referenced changing economics for legacy technology upgrades. It said AI tools can reduce the time and cost of some modernisation work. It gave an example of a transaction processing system modernisation that would previously have cost more than USD $100 million, with AI reducing costs and time by half.

Compugen said the collaboration strengthens its work on moving customers from early AI interest to implementation. It described a process that includes testing, refining and introducing AI-based changes that map to day-to-day operational issues.

AXL said its venture studio model combines product design, engineering and market validation. It said the AI Catalyst approach ties that model to enterprise partners and their customer needs.

The partnership will sit alongside Compugen's existing partner ecosystem, which includes technology vendors and service relationships used in its delivery work. Compugen and AXL said they will use the collaboration to develop and validate projects that Compugen can then deliver at scale.