Artificial intelligence will be “a core part of the economy of the future,” according to Canada’s first Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation. And the country’s three national AI institutes are playing a crucial role in building it.

Minister Evan Solomon made the comments during a fireside chat with Cam Linke, CEO of the  Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), on Monday. 

“This is one of these hinge moments in history, where there is a lot going on. A Gutenbureg moment, I’ve been calling it,” he said. 

Solomon argued that the world has taken notice of the transformative power of AI and that a global race between countries to build up their own AI infrastructure and talent. Canada is an AI powerhouse well-positioned to become a leader in this new economy, he said, because of the strength of the groundbreaking research that is happening at Amii and the other two national institutes, Mila and the  Vector Institute.

“Frontier research — Amii has been at the forefront of it. This is the place … I don’t know why we don’t say it more as a country. We are the best at this.”

However, he warned against resting on Canada’s solid AI foundation — while it might be an AI leader, the race is not yet finished. More investment and innovation are vital to keep the country’s economy from being left behind, he said. 

Three C’s: Capital, Customers, Compute

Both Solomon and Linke agreed that while the country has a reputation for training and attracting top-tier AI talent, more needs to be done to encourage those innovators to stay in Canada, continuing to build its tech ecosystem.

“By leading in research, we create what is probably the best resource, which is talent out of that,” Linke said. “Pick a major company, and it is probably one of our alumni or another Canadian leading AI at that company.”

The keys to attracting and retraining talent are by fostering both more capital to help fledgling AI start-ups grow, and helping build a Canadian customer base for them to sell to. Without both of those pieces, Linke worries that AI professionals will be lured to other parts of the world with more opportunities. 

Local companies can be slow to adopt AI and machine learning into their own operations, which limits the customer base for AI startups. Building trust in Canadian AI — both that it is used responsibly and that it can have an impact — continues to be a key goal. 

Solomon feels that Amii and the other national AI institutes are one of the most effective ways to build that trust, and the way that they can aid the adoption and commercialization of the technology. 

“The institutions help these companies find the seed funding and are building the ecosystem around them. That keeps these companies in Canada.”

As both noted, other countries are making massive investments in artificial intelligence. In 2024, the United States saw $109.1 billion of private investment in AI, while China reached $9.3 billion. Linke noted that Canada would never be able to match these other countries in dollar-to-dollar investment. But by being strategic and forward-thinking with support of the AI ecosystem, Canada could get outsized gains on its investment. 

He likened it to Canada’s “Own The Podium” approach to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics: while lacking the same population and sports infrastructure as larger countries, Canada made a deliberate and strategic effort to fund athletics, leading to higher medal counts. He argues that Canada is now in a position to “own the podium in AI.”

“I think the next ten Googles are going to be created in the next ten years,” Linke said. 

“Maybe they won’t all be in Canada, but I think we have the ability to create half of them.”

Canadian AI means digital sovereignty

The need to build a robust foundation of AI research and commercialization is now more important than ever in the face of rising economic uncertainty. The recent turmoil surrounding global trade and unpredictable tariffs highlights the dangers of relying on services outside of Canada. 

To fully take advantage of the coming new economy, Solomon says Canada needs to focus on building its domestic strength in a few key areas. These include cloud storage and strong methods of protecting personal privacy when it comes to AI systems. 

A third vital element will be computing power. Solomon says that Canada needs to have local processing power to fuel greater AI adoption within the business and industrial sector, while still continuing the groundbreaking fundamental research that has made Canada an AI powerhouse. 

There are already efforts underway to increase Canada’s computing power. Earlier this year, Amii and the University of Alberta launched Vulcan, a high-performance computing site that represents a monumental leap forward in fueling AI innovation in  Alberta and the rest of Canada. The Vulcan project was part of a larger Pan-Canadian AI Compute Environment (PAICE) project, which includes Mila and the Vector Institute, as well as Université Laval and the University of Toronto. 

These efforts to increase Canadian computing power and build its AI industry will make the country’s economy “more resilient and less reliant” on outside forces that we cannot control, Solomon says. It also offers greater opportunity for Canadian companies to find new customers internationally who are looking for stability and predictability in their own partnerships.