Last updated: 2026-09-21
WRITER is an enterprise AI agent platform founded in 2020 that has raised $369M in venture funding, including a $200M Series C at a $1.9B valuation. Its proprietary Palmyra LLMs pair with a Knowledge Graph and Playbook Hub, giving IT and compliance teams governed, audited oversight of agents deployed across financial services, healthcare, retail, and technology.
About WRITER
WRITER, founded in 2020 by CEO May Habib and CTO Waseem AlShikh, is an enterprise generative AI platform built for Global 2000 companies to build, activate, and supervise AI agents. The company has raised $369M in venture funding across a dozen rounds, most recently a $200M Series C in November 2024 at a $1.9B valuation led by Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, and ICONIQ Growth, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, IBM Ventures, Citi Ventures, and Workday Ventures. Its proprietary Palmyra LLM family, ranging from 128M to 43B parameters with domain-specific variants including Palmyra-Fin, Palmyra-Med, and Palmyra-Vision, works alongside a Knowledge Graph and Playbook Hub, letting business and IT teams turn marketing, sales, support, and research workflows into governed, repeatable agent work.
WRITER holds a SOC 2 Type II attestation and ISO 27001/27701/42001 certification, extends that into HIPAA and PCI coverage plus GDPR and CCPA alignment, and participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, with a stated commitment to EU AI Act requirements as they take effect. The company states that customer inputs and outputs are excluded from model training, and it defaults to deleting data as soon as the platform no longer needs it, with an org-wide auto-deletion schedule customers can configure themselves. It is designed to plug into a company's existing stack rather than replace it, with native connectors for Slack, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, HubSpot, Databricks, and Atlassian. Banking, healthcare, retail, and technology teams turn to WRITER when agent output needs an audit trail, covering campaign assets, personalized communications, and research work that general-purpose assistants like those from OpenAI and Anthropic can't govern the same way.
Signing up splits into two tracks: the self-serve Starter plan, capped at 5 seats and backed by a trial period with no card required upfront, and a sales-led Enterprise track that adds unlimited seats, full Knowledge Graph access, advanced orchestration and approvals, and SSO/SCIM provisioning through a custom quote. WRITER does not publish its Starter seat rate on its own site. The platform runs in the browser with no native desktop or mobile app, positioning it as an infrastructure layer teams reach through the web or through connectors like Slack and Microsoft Teams rather than a standalone client.
An independent Forrester Total Economic Impact evaluation of WRITER customers, published May 2025, modeled a composite organization and found 333% ROI and $12.02M in net present value over three years, with an 85% reduction in stakeholder review time and new-hire onboarding cut from about three weeks to one. WRITER discloses this as a vendor-commissioned study rather than fully independent research. Chief Marketing Officers, Chief Information Officers, and enterprise transformation leaders are the platform's core buyers; independent freelancers, early-stage startups, and teams that just need spelling and tone help are better served by a lighter tool like Grammarly. For how this category is evolving, see HokAI's guides on AI agents given real financial autonomy, AI SDR tools, and what Microsoft Copilot is actually for.
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Pricing
WRITER runs two plans as of September 2026: Starter, a self-serve, per-seat plan billed monthly or annually for up to 5 users with a 14-day free trial and no credit card required, and Enterprise, custom-quoted through a sales demo. WRITER does not publish the exact Starter per-seat price on its own site.
| Tier | Monthly price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Custom | Per-seat, monthly or annual; exact rate not published by the vendor |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom usage-based pricing |
Feature Comparison by Tier
| Feature | Starter | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| Users included | Up to 5 | Unlimited + free collaborators |
| Playbooks | Up to 5 | Unlimited |
| Active connectors | Up to 3 | Unrestricted |
| Scheduled routines | Up to 3 | Unlimited |
| Knowledge Graph storage | 50 GB, single graph | Unrestricted, full graph |
| SSO / SCIM / MFA | — | ✓ |
| HIPAA / SOC 2 controls | — | ✓ (available) |
| Advanced orchestration & approvals | — | ✓ |
Key Features
- AI Agents with Shared Tools: Build and deploy AI agents that work with your team and for you, with shared tools configured for IT and business workflows
- Palmyra LLM Family: Proprietary models ranging from 128M to 43B parameters, with domain-tuned variants Palmyra-Fin, Palmyra-Med, and Palmyra-Vision instead of one general-purpose model
- Knowledge Graph: Encode business expertise and create precise, verifiable, reliable outputs with knowledge management at scale
- Playbook Hub: Pre-built AI playbooks and routines for marketers and teams to accelerate workflows with standardized, quality-scaled execution
- AI Studio & Agent Builder: Visual, low-code interface for building custom agents without extensive technical expertise
- Enterprise Supervision: Always-on governance, visibility, and controls for enterprise-scale AI operations with safety features and guardrails
Pros
- Enterprise-grade compliance stack (SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27701/42001, HIPAA, PCI) that few agent platforms match
- Real-time governance and supervision controls built for IT-approved deployment at scale
- Interoperable platform integrating with existing tech stacks including Slack, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams
- A Forrester-modeled case study with a sub-six-month payback period, per WRITER's own commissioned TEI evaluation
- A proprietary Palmyra LLM family with domain-tuned Fin, Med, and Vision variants instead of one general-purpose model
Cons
- Premium enterprise pricing; the Starter plan's exact per-seat rate isn't published, and Enterprise remains fully custom-quoted
- Requires dedicated change management and training (WRITER AI Academy) for organization-wide adoption
- No native desktop or mobile app -- access is browser-based or through third-party connectors only
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- Does not train its models on customer data, inputs, or outputs (writer.com/security)
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II · ISO 27001 · ISO 27701 · ISO 42001 · HIPAA · PCI · GDPR · CCPA · EU-US Data Privacy Framework
Frequently Asked Questions
What does WRITER cost in 2026?
Two tiers are on offer: a self-serve Starter track priced per seat, billed monthly or annually and capped at 5 users, and a fully custom Enterprise track quoted through a sales demo based on seat count and required compliance features. WRITER keeps the Starter seat rate off its public site.
Does WRITER have a free plan?
WRITER offers a 14-day free trial on the Starter plan, with no credit card required, rather than a persistent free tier. Full agent supervision, unrestricted Knowledge Graph training, and enterprise compliance features are gated behind the paid Starter or Enterprise plans.
What's a good alternative to WRITER?
Jasper suits marketing teams that want an agent workspace without WRITER's compliance depth. Glean fits better when enterprise search across connected apps matters more than drafting content. Teams already standardized on Microsoft 365 may prefer Microsoft Copilot for a lower-friction rollout.
WRITER vs Jasper -- which is the better fit in 2026?
Jasper focuses on marketing-agent orchestration without WRITER's compliance certifications or governance layer. WRITER costs more and needs sales-led onboarding, but it fits regulated industries like banking and healthcare where Jasper has no compliance story.
How do I start using WRITER?
Start a 14-day free trial directly at writer.com for the self-serve Starter plan, capped at 5 users, or request an Enterprise demo for larger rollouts that need custom governance, SSO/SCIM, and compliance controls.
Top Alternatives
- Jasper: Choose Jasper when your team only needs a marketing content workspace and can skip enterprise audit trails.
- Glean: Choose Glean when the job is enterprise search across your existing apps rather than drafting and publishing branded content.
- Microsoft Copilot: Choose Microsoft Copilot when your org is already standardized on Microsoft 365 and wants AI assistance without rolling out a separate agent platform.
HokAI guides covering WRITER
- What Asana Is Actually For: Asana's June 2026 Agentic Work Management launch bundles 30 AI agents into pooled credits, not per-seat pricing. Here's who that helps, and who it hurts.