AI21 Labs

AI21 Labs, a Tel Aviv-based company established in November 2017, operates at the forefront of generative artificial intelligence, focusing on developing sophisticated large language models (LLMs) and natural language processing (NLP) systems. The company was co-founded by a trio of distinguished figures in the AI and business worlds: Amnon Shashua, Yoav Shoham, and Ori Goshen. Shashua, who serves as chairman, is also the co-founder of autonomous driving technology company Mobileye and a professor of computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Shoham, a professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford University, is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful AI company sales to entities like Google and Ariba. Goshen is a serial entrepreneur who previously founded the crowdfunding platform CrowdX.

The company's business model is multifaceted, offering both direct-to-consumer applications and enterprise-grade solutions. Revenue is generated through its consumer products and via API access to its foundational models for developers and businesses. Its primary consumer product is Wordtune, an AI-powered writing and reading assistant launched in October 2020. Wordtune goes beyond simple grammar correction by helping users rephrase sentences, adjust tone, and summarize long documents, effectively acting as a thought partner. The tool has grown to millions of users and was recognized by Google as a favorite browser extension in 2021. For enterprise clients and developers, AI21 Labs provides AI21 Studio, a platform that grants API access to its powerful Jurassic family of LLMs. This allows businesses to build custom text-based applications, such as chatbots and virtual assistants, integrating AI21's models into their own services. The company supports various deployment options, including on-premises and virtual private clouds, to meet the security and compliance needs of its enterprise customers.

AI21 Labs targets a broad market, from individual consumers and students to large enterprises across various industries, including clients like Carrefour, eBay, Wix, and Ubisoft. A key differentiator for the company is its focus on building reliable, trustworthy, and accurate AI systems that are easy to integrate. To combat the issue of AI 'hallucinations,' the company has developed systems that can cite sources for the information they generate. In March 2025, it launched Maestro, an AI planning and orchestration system designed to improve the accuracy and reduce hallucination rates of leading LLMs. The company has secured significant financial backing, raising a total of $636 million from prominent investors including Google, NVIDIA, Intel Capital, and Samsung NEXT, achieving a valuation of $1.4 billion as of August 2023.

Keywords: large language models, natural language processing, enterprise AI, generative AI, AI21 Studio, Wordtune, Jurassic LLM, Amnon Shashua, Yoav Shoham, Ori Goshen, AI writing assistant, text summarization, API platform, trustworthy AI, AI orchestration, foundation models, AI for business, neuro-symbolic AI, AI systems, task-specific models