AI can help Canada leapfrog from the second least productive country in the G7 to that of a global leader and help reverse a decade of stagnant growth, securing a higher standard of living and competitiveness.AMPERSANDGREY
How Amii is helping business leaders move past hesitation to build in-house capacity and proprietary AI solutions to boost productivity
Canada is currently the second least productive country in the G7, according to a December report released by the Government of Canada. The encouraging news is that artificial intelligence can help Canada leapfrog from this position to that of a global leader and help reverse a decade of stagnant growth, securing a higher standard of living and competitiveness.
To do so, Canadian companies must move from dabbling with ChatGPT and basic AI exploration to the deep integration of proprietary AI. Yet, current adoption rates confirm companies are still hesitant to commit, partially due to the seemingly daunting task of identifying the right use case.
For Marlene McNaughton, chief revenue officer at Amii (Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute) indecision carries a high-opportunity cost.
“The real risk is not getting started,” she says. “Working with hundreds of companies, we often see leaders stall, waiting for absolute clarity or the perfect moment, failing to realize that AI is fundamentally iterative. It’s not a one-time thing. You start, and you keep going,” she adds. “And Amii can be with you all along that adoption curve.”
As one of Canada’s three national AI institutes, Amii is uniquely able to bridge world-class research into commercial deployment. Canadian businesses can work with Amii to help build the proprietary AI models that have been identified as most urgent, while building internal capacity at the same time.
“We fundamentally de-risk the process for businesses and also build out the critical use cases that will help other Canadian companies see a path forward and legitimate reasons to invest in AI,” says Ms. McNaughton.
Companies that take a backseat approach to AI development are more often at risk of ‘failure to launch.’ By partnering with Amii, companies are presented with a proven and collaborative path to commercializing new offerings and scaling value.
“We don’t take your data away and build it into model that you don’t know anything about,” says Ms. McNaughton. “You work alongside the world’s best AI and machine learning experts.”
Amii helps companies identify their best AI strategy and roadmap and then also move right into helping them develop their proprietary model with a dedicated team of AI experts – all part of a turnkey seamless approach for clients.
The results of this collaborative, de-risked approach are incredible, says Ms. McNaughton, pointing to the success of Visionstate, a partner that engaged Amii to explore AI enhancements to their core product. By building internal capacity alongside Amii’s researchers, Visionstate did more than bolster their core product; they discovered two entirely new commercial offerings.
By providing the strategic roadmap, world-class talent and a proprietary model as a practical outcome, Amii has effectively lowered the barrier to entry for Canadian firms ready to lead in AI.
For Ms. McNaughton, it seems the only remaining hurdle is the decision to begin.
Advertising feature produced by Randall Anthony Communications. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.