Nearly $100 million to be invested in Quebec AI projects

Several tens of millions of dollars will be injected to support some 20 applied artificial intelligence (AI) projects aimed at improving productivity and stimulating the growth of Quebec companies.

Scale AI, a Canadian consortium of private companies, research centres, academics and start-ups in the field of AI, announced the selected initiatives in its latest round of funding on Thursday.

Aviation maintenance scheduling, retail demand forecasting, inventory optimization and the deployment of AI-powered automated sorting lines are just a few examples of the solutions that will be implemented among the 23 projects.

These will total investments of $98.6 million. About one-third of this amount comes from federal government funds, while the rest is injected by the companies themselves.

“This is one of the characteristics of the Scale AI model. When we bring in $1 of public money, the private sector invests $2,” said Julien Billot, CEO of the innovation cluster, at a press conference in Montreal.

He was accompanied by Federal Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, who came to meet with the leaders of the selected projects at the Scale AI offices.

According to the minister, the support announced on Thursday goes beyond “just giving money.”

“We are living in a time of crisis where, if we do not support our innovators and build the economy of the future by investing intelligently in businesses (…), we will not have a Canadian economy for the future,” said Solomon.

“Today, we are announcing nearly $100 million for 23 different projects in numerous companies to transform and stimulate productivity and economic growth, but more than anything else, they serve as proof that the adoption of AI must expand,” added the elected official.

Billot also pointed out that the various initiatives selected show that AI is now spreading to a variety of industries and companies.

“In today’s funding round, you will see new companies, new industrial sectors and also new AI solution providers emerging,” he said.

These include mining, business services, consumer services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, software and transportation.

The size of the companies also varies: large companies such as Rio Tinto, Transcontinental, ArcelorMittal and Pratt & Whitney Canada, as well as smaller companies “that are at the heart of Quebec and are now beginning to adopt artificial intelligence,” such as ADF, Machinex, Avianor, Canac, RPM, Cossette and Avantis, Billot noted.

More than half of the selected projects support the adoption of AI by companies. There are also commercialization initiatives that enable companies to “use artificial intelligence to better develop their own products and gain competitiveness,” Billot explained.

“We want to help Canadian companies adopt artificial intelligence for productivity, but we also want to help Canadian companies develop products that will be exported around the world to gain market share and create wealth,” said the Scale AI executive.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews