BNP Paribas announced on Wednesday that it has signed a partnership agreement with Mistral AI, under which the bank will gain access to the French artificial intelligence (AI) start-up's current and future business models.

The new agreement strengthens a collaboration begun in September 2023 between BNP Paribas Global Markets and Mistral AI, says France's third-largest bank by market capitalization.

"Generative AI represents significant potential for enriching customer offerings, particularly in sales, trading and research," says Olivier Osty, Head of BNP Paribas Global Markets, in a statement.

BNP also says it is using Mistral AI's large language models for use cases, notably around improving customer service, sales and IT (information technology).

(Written by Augustin Turpin, edited by Kate Entringer)