Canada is a leader in the discovery and creation of artificial intelligence, but the adoption of this technology is lagging behind other countries. Could AI be the shot in the arm to catapult Canadian productivity and build the future economy? This opening panel features experts from the public and private sectors alongside leaders in machine-learning, exploring how to overcome adoption hurdles, the differences between Canada and global counterparts, as well as key levers that could help unlock the potential of homegrown AI solutions. Discover the most impactful AI tools, the barriers holding corporate Canada back, and the evolving regulatory landscape.

For 35 years, Kids Help Phone has provided youth with crucial mental health resources. Today, this Canadian institution is harnessing AI to make these life saving services even stronger. Join Kids Help Phone CEO, Katherine Hay, to explore how AI is enhancing support and prevention strategies, streamlining issue identification, improving service quality, and ensuring faster, personalized assistance, while adapting to diverse needs.

How are leading businesses integrating AI with operations? Hear from the startups that have deployed their applied AI technologies in sectors such as healthcare, insurance, banking and construction. Learn how they’re overcoming adoption challenges and managing risks. Gain insights into the impact of AI on business outcomes and performance.

Generative models have made it easier than ever to build an MVP, driving excitement across virtually every sector. But getting from MVP to a working enterprise solution has proved so hard that many teams are already scaling back their AI dreams.

Hudson Labs, an AI-driven equity research software company, will share their approach to building specialized AI that meets the demands of users who have a low tolerance for error.

Just as venture capital played a critical role in spurring the AI boom, the investment decisions made by VCs today will influence the AI technologies of tomorrow. The venture capital industry must adopt a thoughtful approach to investments in AI with a sense of shared responsibility. What steps should investors take to assess early-stage AI companies and their technologies? Hear from several seasoned AI investors as they discuss their decision-making strategies and how AI is changing the concept of risk in the venture capital space.

Generative AI will bring changes to the workplace that go well beyond a few new memo-writing tools. Whether it’s deeply analyzing industry trends, aiding organizational decision-making, or creating new possibilities for automation, computers that think for us are poised to transform the North American workplace at every level. In a lively discussion with experts constructing and studying these shifts, we’ll seek to understand what changes are coming, forecast the likely effects and examine what this means for everything from the breakroom to the boardroom and beyond.

This workshop is your introduction to Radical Ventures’ Responsible AI Startups (RAIS) framework. Explore how to integrate responsible AI principles into investment decisions. Find the delicate balance between the opportunities and risks of investing in early-stage AI companies. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or fresh to finances, this interdisciplinary workshop is open to everyone interested in sharing their perspectives and contributing to building better AI investment tools.

Between naive optimism and paralyzing pessimism, conversations about AI are becoming increasingly polarized. In this session, join a breakout group to work through a case scenario that puts you in the shoes of an entrepreneur, and identify practical pathways forward to realize the potential of AI while avoiding pitfalls.

A conversation with Shelby Austin, CEO of Arteria AI and Grace Lee, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Scotiabank, on where the bank is focusing its AI efforts and the importance of a data-first approach.

In 2018, Emily Charry Tissier co-founded Whale Seeker. To date, they’ve detected more than 108,000 marine mammals – data that helps inform protected areas and future policy around shipping. Learn how this Novarium-supported venture is using AI to identify 112 percent more whales than conventional methods, and why this is crucial to the biodiversity of our oceans.

Whether it’s improving energy efficiency or detecting wildfires, AI shows great potential for combatting the climate crisis. And yet, a massive amount of electricity is needed to power these solutions. The computing demands of AI already account for 1 percent of global emissions, and is on the rise. How are startups working to optimize data centres and network infrastructure for a lower carbon footprint?

Quantum and AI are a powerhouse duo set to revolutionize the digital world. While each technology is cutting-edge in its own right, together they can turbocharge applications and usefulness. Quantum AI is already impacting many fields, but its full potential remains to be discovered. Learn more in this workshop session.

When it comes to scaling success in AI, community is critical. By their very nature, AI solutions cannot proliferate or realize their true potential in isolation; instead they require an ecosystem mindset to flourish. But developing a community around AI has its own unique challenges — establishing the right balance between key ecosystem players that are theoretical, technical, and business oriented, creating a sense of community across verticals, and keeping up with the pace of tech itself. This session will explore where and how AI innovators can gain support, the most active networks across the country, and why an ecosystem approach is often the difference maker for AI startups.

Hosted by the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) this discussion focuses on managing and coaching high-performance technical talent. Seasoned tech industry experts share valuable insights and perspectives on navigating the ever-evolving landscape of technical talent management. Whether you’re a business leader, startup enthusiast or a technical professional, this session promises to equip you with actionable strategies for fostering your technical teams.

When tax professionals need to consult cases, statutes or regulations, they search for the necessary documents and then tediously sift through them for the answer they need. Enter Ask Blue J, a large language model built on an extensive U.S. tax content database. This solution is speeding up access to insights and composes an answer for users to review. Learn how AI is helping tax and legal professionals to perform analysis and deliver insights faster.

AI applications are helping businesses unlock new productivity — conducting research, delivering insights, producing creative content and much more. But are there legal risks attached to these new applications? This session delves into what users and businesses need to know about generative AI from a legal point of view. Hear from several legal experts on the common risks, pitfalls and misconceptions, and the current legal cases around this technology. Don’t miss this discussion if you want to better understand how startups and corporations can protect themselves in this new frontier.

Public input is integral to the future of AI, and companies are taking active steps to adapt to that reality. OpenAI has launched a team focused on democratic input to AI; Meta has released its open model Llama and announced further investments into open source; and the data science platform and community Hugging Face has released cutting-edge AI models and tooling, forming active alliances to help shape policy and the future of AI adoption. There has never been a more important time to consider what kind of participation — if any — the public can have when it comes to both open and closed AI models. This panel will look at the benefits and drawbacks of both approaches and share ideas on the path forward.

AI healthcare solutions have been in the works for years, but direct patient impacts are slow. Muhammad Mamdani, Vice President of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Unity Health, has launched dozens of AI-powered innovations into clinical practice, including an early warning system that predicts a patient’s risk of death or need for ICU treatment. In the doctor’s office, Tali, a voice-enabled virtual assistant, is helping physicians save time and visit more patients. In this panel, we hear how two experts are navigating the challenges of implementing AI in healthcare with insights that can be applied in any field.

A fireside conversation with Geordie Rose, co-founder and CEO of Sanctuary AI, about their goal to build robots with a human-like presence in the world. Learn why Sanctuary views robots as the way to get computers actually thinking like humans and how they are working to get there.