Mistral Adds Web Search to Generative AI Work Assistant

Mistral is updating its generative artificial intelligence (AI) work assistant le Chat to include web search with citations and other new features.

“A significant share of le Chat usage comes from students and professionals who use it for learning, research and work,” the company said in a Monday (Nov. 18) blog post. “To help better facilitate these use cases, we’ve augmented le Chat’s training knowledge with internet search.”

This and other new features will be rolled out over the next few weeks, according to the post.

Mistral has also added a new interface within le Chat that helps users modify, edit or transform content. The interface, Canvas, can help users create documents, presentation, code, markups and other content, the post said.

Other new features added to le Chat and announced Monday include the ability to analyze and summarize large, complex PDF documents and images; the ability to generate high quality images, powered by Black Forest Labs; and the ability to create agents that can automate repetitive workflows like receipt scanning for expense reporting and processing invoices, per the post.

These features will be launched as free beta offerings. Mistral is also working toward premium tiers that will have higher service guarantees, according to the post.

“If your current AI-productivity toolchain is siloed or expensive, le Chat will give you an alternative to do your best work,” the post said.

It was reported in June that Mistral raised €600 million (about $640 million) in a Series B funding round that valued it at $6 billion about one year after its seed round.

In July, the firm formed a partnership with French banking group BNP Paribas that provides access to the AI firm’s current and future commercial AI models across the bank’s business lines.

The bank is using Mistral’s large language models (LLMs) in customer support, sales, IT and other areas.

Also in July, Mistral and Nvidia introduced an AI model called Mistral NeMo that is designed to bring advanced AI capabilities to standard desktop computers.

NeMo could change how businesses use AI, moving from cloud-based to desktop-native AI, PYMNTS reported at the time.