- Mistral has launched a revamped version of its “le Chat” AI assistant.
- The tool can be used for consumer and enterprise use cases, CEO Arthur Mensch told BI.
- The French startup has been billed Europe’s response to OpenAI.
Paris-based AI startup Mistral has launched a new version of its AI work and life assistant, “le Chat.”
Mistral, one of Europe’s most-funded AI startups, said le Chat is available on app stores for the first time from Thursday.
The tool lets users access news, upload documents, and track their projects. Most features are free, while the Pro tier costs $14.99 a month. Mistral said it plans to make le Chat available for enterprises with custom models and available through private business channels like Slack.
“There’s also some elevated privacy as well where you can fully opt out of any data recording, which is very useful for professionals,” cofounder and CEO Arthur Mensch told Business Insider in an interview.
Mensch uses le Chat to generate documents — and said it’s a “useful sparring partner when it comes to thinking about strategy.”
“Since Mistral is connected to all of our tools, it’s great for me to understand what’s going on because I can ask it to give me a summary of what’s going on in the company every morning,” he told BI.
Mistral said this iteration of le Chat, powered by its low-latency models, is its fastest version yet — providing an output of up to 1,000 words a second.
Users can generate photos, get personalized recommendations, and even build their own micro-apps on mobile, Mistral said.
Mistral
Mensch said the company has seen the most user traction from financial services companies and the administrative sector in France.
“More recently, we’ve started to move forward with manufacturing companies, and we’ve announced a partnership with universities as well, where our technology will be made available to students and teachers in a way that will make their teaching or learning much easier,” he added.
Mistral claims that this version of le Chat is much faster than its competitors’ platforms. Unlike some of its rivals, Mistral’s AI is open source, which the startup has touted since its launch. Its tool can also operate in multiple languages.
Investor appetite for AI assistants has soared amid a sustained interest in agentic AI — systems that can autonomously solve problems for humans.
Since its 2023 launch, Mistral has raised over $1 billion from investment heavyweights such as Lightspeed, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst.
However, its total investment is a drop in the ocean compared to its competitors in the US, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, which have collectively raked in tens of billions.