I recently found myself exploring a fascinating AI use case at home, sparked by my six-year-old’s vivid imagination. She asked if we could generate a video of Santa Claus walking into our living room to place presents under the tree — an idea brought to life through OpenAI Soraand a touch of creative problem-solving. Within minutes, static images morphed into a dynamic AI-driven video, highlighting just how accessible and powerful Generative AI tools can be — even when used casually at home.

Yet, these same tools are now reshaping expectations on a broader scale. As the general public embraces everything from AI image generators to interactive chatbots, enterprises are under pressure to meet heightened demands for generative experiences. In my role as a Solution Architect and Tech Evangelist at Coveo, I have the opportunity to guide leading global organizations on how to assemble the right puzzle pieces to address these new challenges. By leveraging Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), Passage Retrieval capabilities, and other forward-thinking applications of Agentic AI, organizations can drastically reduce hallucinations in Large Language Models (LLMs) and deliver fact-driven, context-rich user experiences.

In this post, we’ll explore how Coveo’s Passage Retrieval API (PR API) fits into that larger AI strategy—indexing enterprise data, respecting permissions, and retrieving relevant facts to supercharge your AI initiatives with accuracy and trustworthiness.

Large Language Models & Generative AI: The Challenge of Grounding Data

Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing how businesses interact with information—yet one of their biggest hurdles is ensuring these models are grounded in the right data. That’s where the Coveo Platform™ comes in, providing a robust suite of capabilities to unify enterprise content and bring structure to complex datasets. 

Using connectors, Coveo can securely ingest information from diverse sources; through chunking and retrieval, it breaks down large documents into more manageable pieces for precise retrieval; and with hybrid search, it combines lexical and semantic techniques to deliver highly relevant results. With business rules and query pipelines, you can fine-tune results to align with organizational priorities and compliance requirements. These features form a solid foundation for RAG workflows—allowing you to feed LLMs not just any data, but the most pertinent and accurate content.

From there, Coveo’s Passage Retrieval API (PR API) takes precision to the next level. By retrieving contextually relevant passages (with built-in permission management), it addresses a key pain point in LLM-based applications: reducing hallucinations and ensuring production-ready AI experiences that users can trust. Let’s explore how the PR API fits into this ecosystem.

Versatile Integrations: Where PR API Shines

One of the biggest strengths of Coveo’s PR API is its flexibility. Whether you’re using Salesforce Einstein, Microsoft Azure, AWS Bedrock, or IBM Watson Orchestrate, the PR API meets you wherever you need it.

1. AWS Bedrock

AWS Bedrock simplifies large-scale AI adoption, and the PR API keeps your models anchored to verifiable information, transforming raw outputs into actionable insights.

  • Easy Model Integration – AWS Bedrock lets you quickly access and customize foundation models. Combine them with the PR API for precision-driven AI.
  • Customizable Workflows – Use AWS Step Functions to orchestrate AI pipelines, adding a PR API “step” to retrieve and ground data before or after inference.

2. Amazon Q

Amazon Q benefits from PR API by ensuring that its responses are not only generated quickly but are also contextually precise and grounded in enterprise-secured data.

  • Enhanced Relevance – PR API ensures Amazon Q delivers responses that are contextually aware, reducing misinformation and enhancing credibility.
  • Real-Time Fact Retrieval – By integrating PR API, Amazon Q dynamically fetches and injects relevant enterprise data into responses.
  • Improved AI-driven Assistance – With PR API, Amazon Q can generate AI-powered insights that align with organizational data policies and compliance requirements.

3. Salesforce Einstein

Salesforce’s ecosystem is a goldmine of customer and product data. With PR API, you tap the most vital pieces of content—empowering everything from lead nurturing to post-sales support.

  • Interactive Passage Explorer – Quickly pinpoint relevant text for customer service reps, reducing call times and improving satisfaction.
  • Data Integration Within Salesforce CRM – Pull critical data from multiple sources into Salesforce, giving Einstein richer context.

4. Microsoft (Azure) Copilot

Enterprises of all sizes trust Azure for secure cloud operations. Pairing Azure services with PR API unlocks advanced AI capabilities without extensive infrastructure overhead.

  • Azure Cognitive Services – Integrate Coveo PR API outputs with services like Azure Cognitive Search or Language Understanding for enhanced AI capabilities.
  • Azure Bot Service – Build chatbots that cite credible sources by fetching text passages from the PR API.
  • Serverless with Azure Functions – Automate calls to the PR API in Azure Functions for scalable, event-driven data retrieval.

5. IBM Watson Orchestrate Assistants

Watson Orchestrate automates business processes—from onboarding to troubleshooting. Grounding each step in relevant, accurate data makes every workflow more reliable.

  • Custom Skill Creation – Build new Skills in Watson Orchestrate that incorporate Coveo’s advanced passage retrieval.
  • API Import & YAML Config – Generate YAML configuration files with ChatGPT or ActionsGPT for faster PR API integration.

6. Python Code Integrations

Python remains a leading language for AI and backend tasks. Integrating PR API directly into your Python codebase accelerates data-driven solutions. 

  • Easy Setup – Use standard libraries for authentication and requests.
  • Fine-Tuned Search – Craft specialized queries (filters, pipelines, etc.) to tailor retrieval.
  • Robust Error Handling – Handle exceptions gracefully, ensuring production stability.

7. Content Generation

Marketing and editorial teams rely on timely, accurate info to craft compelling narratives. PR API frees them from tedious research, enhancing efficiency and quality.

  • Automated Drafting – Pull the most relevant text passages to form the backbone of articles, blogs, or reports.
  • Contextual Accuracy – Ensure every piece of content reflects the most recent, factual information.
  • Time & Resource Savings – Reduce manual document sifting, allowing teams to focus on creativity and strategic decisions.

8. Passage Retrieval API Studio

Easily build on top of all the LLMs available as we can see with this home made tooling that sits on top of Coveo Platform (indexing enterprise secured content) and Amazon Bedrock (hosting the LLMs).

  • Seamless LLM Demonstration: Whether you’re leveraging open-source models or the latest proprietary AI, the studio is designed to work with all available LLMs. This flexibility means you can integrate and experiment with multiple models without reengineering your core workflows.
  • Rapid Prototyping & Development: Experiment quickly with different configurations and LLMs. The studio’s intuitive design allows developers to prototype new ideas rapidly, reducing time-to-market for innovative AI solutions.
  • Complex Use Case Enablement: From intelligent chatbots and automated content generation to data-driven decision-making, the studio provides the essential building blocks for creating Agentic AI applications. It streamlines the process of feeding context-rich data into your AI workflows, drastically reducing the risk of hallucinations and misinformation.

How PR API Works: A Quick Technical Overview

  1. Enter Your Query
    Provide the search terms, topics, or questions to the Passage Retrieval API (PR API). These queries can come from end users, automated agents, or even background workflows.
  2. API Analysis
    Coveo’s lexical and semantic capabilities evaluate the corpus of indexed documents, prioritizing passages that match both intent and context. This approach goes beyond keyword matching, capturing the deeper meaning behind user queries.
  3. Retrieve High-Quality Passages
    The PR API returns structured text snippets—each with its own relevance score. These snippets are context-aware, helping ensure that follow-up steps, such as generating answers or content, remain accurate and pertinent.
  4. Incorporate into Your Workflow
    Feed these passages into LLM-powered applications, chatbots, or knowledge bases for enhanced precision. This can include RAG flows, customer service scenarios, or content generation tasks—anywhere context and factual grounding are critical.

Tip: By blending semantic analysis with Coveo’s built-inpermission models, you’re guaranteed to retrieve only the passages that each user or system is authorized to access.

Beyond Efficiency: Why PR API Matters

1. Improve Customer Satisfaction

Agents and self-service platforms become more effective at addressing user needs, delivering faster responses that are grounded in verified information. This heightened reliability not only reduces resolution times but also builds trust with customers and employees alike.

2. Empower Teams

By surfacing the most relevant insights on demand, you free employees from time-consuming research and manual data hunting. Teams can instead focus on strategic decisions, creative problem-solving, and value-adding tasks that propel the business forward.

3. Inform Decision-Making

Access to context-rich and up-to-date content allows leaders to spot trends, validate ideas, and devise data-driven strategies. Whether it’s product innovation, marketing optimization, or operational planning, trusted information is the foundation of smarter, more agile decisions.

Take the Next Step

By integrating the Coveo Passage Retrieval API into your RAG  workflows, you can rapidly build production-ready AI systems that ground LLMs in credible, enterprise-grade data. When coupled with Coveo’s broader capabilities—like indexing, permission management, query suggestions, and question answering—this approach ensures that every AI-driven interaction is rooted in reliable information rather than guesswork.

Whether you’re bridging advanced models with real-world insights or refining customer experiences with contextual accuracy, the PR API stands as a vital tool in modern AI infrastructures—one that not only reduces hallucinations but also amplifies the potential of your data.

Ready to Supercharge Your AI?

Experience how Agentic AI—bolstered by comprehensive indexing, precise passage retrieval, and permission-aware architecture—can empower your organization to deliver next-level user experiences, innovate faster, and stay ahead in an ever-evolving data-driven world.