OVHcloud previews AI workspace with encrypted tools

OVHcloud Labs has unveiled OVHai Workspace in preview, combining collaboration tools and agentic AI in a single platform.

The launch centres on a workspace that brings together email, cloud storage and videoconferencing, while allowing partner applications to connect in the same environment. Aimed at collaborative work, it also includes an option for native end-to-end encryption.

OVHcloud is introducing the platform through OVHcloud Labs, the innovation arm of OVH Groupe. The company describes OVHai Workspace as an open platform that allows applications to be developed and integrated around a shared user environment, rather than kept in separate services.

At its core is a search engine combined with agentic AI functions. Users can automate complex actions, retrieve information across multiple applications and reduce repetitive tasks without leaving the workspace.

The approach reflects a broader push by technology suppliers to embed AI assistants in office software rather than offer them as separate tools. OVHcloud is also positioning the workspace around interoperability, seeking to connect its own communications and storage services with third-party applications.

Security focus

Security is central to the offer. OVHcloud says OVHai Workspace includes an end-to-end encryption option covering data and communications, including within partner applications integrated into the platform.

When that setting is enabled, the search and agentic AI functions run directly on the user's computer or mobile device. The aim is to keep sensitive data processing local rather than send it off-device for those functions.

This local processing model addresses one of the main tensions in workplace AI: how to use automated assistants across large volumes of business information while limiting exposure of confidential material. By tying AI functions to encrypted workflows and on-device processing, OVHcloud is seeking to distinguish its approach in a crowded productivity software market.

The launch also indicates the scale of OVHcloud's existing communications user base. According to the company, its 1.7 million customers use more than 4 million email accounts each day and make more than 100 million phone calls each month.

Those figures suggest OVHcloud sees an opportunity to expand from infrastructure and communications into a broader layer of daily workplace software. Email, storage and videoconferencing are already established tools for many organisations, and adding AI-based search and task automation could help deepen the company's relationship with existing customers.

European pitch

OVHcloud is also framing the platform around its European identity. It says the goal is to bring together a European ecosystem of productivity and collaboration applications within a unified experience, a positioning that may appeal to organisations focused on regional technology providers and data-handling practices.

The European angle comes as businesses and public-sector bodies examine alternatives to larger US-based software groups in cloud and collaboration software. Sovereignty, control over data and the location of processing have become more prominent factors in procurement decisions, especially for users handling regulated or sensitive information.

OVHcloud has long emphasised those themes in its broader cloud business. The company says it serves 1.7 million customers in more than 140 countries and operates dozens of data centres worldwide, giving it a large installed base from which to test new software services.

A clear commercial context sits behind the product strategy: suppliers across cloud, software and telecoms are racing to define how agentic AI fits into routine work. Rather than limit AI to chat interfaces, many are trying to embed it into the flow of documents, messaging, meetings and search.

For OVHcloud, the challenge will be turning that concept into a product users adopt alongside established workplace suites. The inclusion of partner applications suggests the company recognises that customers may want AI and collaboration features without replacing every existing tool.

Octave Klaba, Chairman and CEO of OVH Groupe, outlined the company's rationale for the launch.

"We have always moved forward by listening to our customers. After supporting millions of users through our web cloud services, we are now exploring how agentic AI, collaborative tools and security can work together within an open platform. This preview provides a first glimpse, ahead of a beta launch planned for the OVHcloud Summit in November," Klaba said.