- il y a 5 semaines
Canada: AI’s Northern Powerhouse—From Research to Commercialization
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00:00Adrien Passarelli de Videns,
00:03Ryan Montserrat, CEO de Farpoint Technologies.
00:05Et bienvenue à Julien Villot, CEO de Scale AI.
00:16Bonjour à nouveau.
00:17Nous sommes ici pour parler, pour présenter
00:20des des meilleures entreprises que nous sommes portés à VivaTech.
00:23C'est, bien sûr, Canada,
00:25un Norden powerhouse de recherche et commercialisation.
00:28Donc, de ma droite,
00:30ce n'est pas exactement de la côte à la côte,
00:32mais nous avons Ryan Fairpoint, de Vancouver.
00:35Nous avons Amanda, de Montréal.
00:37Andréann, de Videns, Québec, City.
00:40Et Ongway, de Mabdin, en Toronto.
00:43Donc, représentant tout le monde du Canada.
00:45Je dirais aussi que vous pouvez voir comment le Canada est diversifié.
00:47C'est quelque chose que nous sommes très prouvé.
00:49Et nous avons l'opportunité de leur demander des questions.
00:53Et au final, je donnerai la parole au ministre Solomon
00:55et de la conclusion.
00:58Donc, merci à tous de vous pour être ici.
01:00La première chose que je veux dire, et je veux dire que ça,
01:03c'est de donner l'opportunité d'introduire,
01:06de présenter votre compagnie et de ce que votre compagnie est en train de faire.
01:08Parce que c'est une opportunité en fronte de clients,
01:12des clients, des clients ou des investissements,
01:13pour montrer ce que vous faites.
01:15Ryan, please.
01:16Hi, I'm Ryan, avec Farpoint Technologies.
01:18Il y a beaucoup de buzz, beaucoup de talk de AI,
01:20et beaucoup de companies sont vraiment excités par ça.
01:23Mais je pense que beaucoup de gens peuvent être en train de faire pour l'AI.
01:26Et donc, ce que Farpoint fait,
01:28c'est que nous sommes un company global consulté d'AI,
01:30de Canada, des clients globalement.
01:32Et nous nous aiderons les compagnies de comprendre
01:33ce que l'impacte pourrait être pour l'AI dans leur business,
01:37en termes de quantité d'analyses de ce que l'AI roadmap pourrait être.
01:42Il y a aussi, à la table,
01:43un depth de deep AI, technologie, knowledge, et expertise.
01:48Donc, les gens de notre équipe ont été en train de construire des modèles
01:50depuis presque une décade.
01:52Et nous avons eu l'expertise pour construire des solutions pour les companies,
01:56et offrir des training et upscalings,
01:57afin qu'ils puissent prendre ces solutions et qu'ils vont avec eux,
02:00et qu'ils sont aussi future compatible et extensible
02:02pour les deux, trois, cinq ans.
02:04Et ils n'ont pas construire quelque chose qui pourrait être,
02:05vous savez, une année ou deux.
02:08Excellent.
02:09Amanda, c'est intéressant aussi de expliquer
02:11où tu viens de venir.
02:12Donc, expliquer pourquoi Irudi a été créé.
02:16So, Irudi, based in Montreal,
02:19essentially, we're a product company
02:21that focuses on developing AI-powered workforce management solutions.
02:26So, our solutions really cover the whole employee lifecycle
02:31with the recruitment platform that enables candidate matching,
02:36upskilling and transferability of skills.
02:39We also have an occupational health and safety solution
02:42and a workforce prediction optimization and allocation platform.
02:47So, essentially, dynamic scheduling with a very interesting prediction component.
02:52We focus also in the banking, transportation, healthcare and manufacturing sector.
02:59At the end of the day, our goal is really to help organizations create value,
03:03have better visibility on their workforce,
03:07and ultimately optimize and cut their operational costs.
03:12Andréanne Videns.
03:14Yes, I'm Andréanne Videns.
03:17We're data and AI specialists.
03:21We're a consulting services firm, and we develop customized solutions in AI.
03:27Our main industries are manufacturing, professional services, insurance, finance, banking,
03:36and we're proudly a woman-owned company.
03:40And for your way, Mappdin.
03:42Yeah, bonjour, good morning.
03:43I'm from Mappdin.
03:45We're one of the largest indoor mapping companies in the world.
03:47You've probably used our products at Claypior Shopping Centers here in France,
03:51at the Amsterdam airport, Schiphol.
03:53We power about a third of the malls in the world, and our customers range from Fortune 500s
03:58to the U.S. government for public safety indoors.
04:01So, it's great to be here.
04:02Thank you for having me.
04:04Excellent.
04:04So, you know, all these companies, of course, are doing AI products,
04:07but not all of them began with AI.
04:10So, some of them were AI-native, but some of them introduced AI while developing their products.
04:15So, it would be very interesting to hear from you why you decided to invest in AI
04:21and why AI is so critical in what you learn.
04:24We probably can begin by you, because Mappdin, you have a lot of AI components.
04:28What do you, how do you?
04:30Everyone's looking at me.
04:31So, I guess we'll start.
04:32We're probably one of the older companies on the stage.
04:34We've been running Mappdin now for over 13 years,
04:37and our goal was always to map all of the indoors, right?
04:41We take it for granted that Google Maps exists outdoors,
04:44and we want to map all of the indoors.
04:46We started out with 1% of the indoors, which was the Super Bowl.
04:49It was the mall near you.
04:51It was the big airports, big buildings, and our software worked pretty well for that.
04:56We were already saving a lot of time, but we realized that to actually expand our coverage
05:00to all of the indoors, we needed so much more manpower or, hopefully, more productivity, more efficiency,
05:07and that's where AI came into use.
05:08So, I think everyone here today cares about LLMs.
05:11I care about LLMs, but actually, we've been working on computer vision as a different kind of AI model for
05:16over five years now,
05:17and it's weird to say today, but actually, the U.S. government was one of our original sponsors of that
05:23technology for public safety.
05:24So, mapping and government have always been related.
05:29So, Andreanne, on your side?
05:31Well, for us, it was pretty natural because our founders were actually teachers from HSC Montreal in data science,
05:41and then they also worked in the banking industry with the most important financial group,
05:51cooperative group in North America, Desjardins.
05:54And she was a leader in analytics and AI for a couple of years.
06:02So, founding the consulting company was, for us, really natural.
06:07And then, why AI?
06:10It's because our goal is really to support any size of companies.
06:15So, different maturity level, and sometimes you need something more in BI, but also, we need to support long-term
06:27ambitions.
06:28So, that's why it was really important to us for our end-to-end approach also to expand to AI.
06:38Amanda?
06:38So, on our end, well, our name is Derudi.
06:42The two first letters of our name is actually AI.
06:45So, AI has been part of our DNA from the very get-go.
06:50The complexity of the challenges that we tackle, which is, for example, identifying hidden skills in a person's profile,
06:59or really managing prediction when it comes to staffing needs or organizing complex schedules.
07:05For us, the use of AI was kind of essential.
07:10So, really, from the beginning, we integrated that technology, and we've been working on it ever since.
07:17We've been in business for the past seven years now.
07:20So, AI has been part of our journey, and it's interesting to see how fast it's changing and integrating them
07:29as we go.
07:30And Ryan, you're an AI native yourself, so…
07:35We obviously founded Farpoint based on our love for and expertise with AI.
07:41The company, Farpoint, let alone a tidbit, it was a reference to station Farpoint and Star Trek.
07:47And if anyone's watched Star Trek, you've seen the Magell computer on board that people just speak to fluently and
07:52it speaks back to you.
07:53That was 1989.
07:54That's kind of the vision of what general AI would be for a long time.
07:57And I think I've been interested, one of the two co-founders of the company, in AI for decades now,
08:03and started building my first AI robotic systems in 2015.
08:08So, I did a lot of vision models and language models and audio models, you name it.
08:13And right before founding this company, I was building an AI system that could build AI systems.
08:17And so, I think I just saw the applicability of it in lots of different industries and many different verticals,
08:22and basically every single vertical.
08:24And saw a massive opportunity to provide this sort of consulting and upscaling and kind of technology implementation for large
08:32enterprises that may not have an AI department.
08:35Excellent.
08:36Actually, you are very fast to answer, so I will have time for more questions, which is great.
08:40Perhaps some question I want to ask you is, what is the project you are most proud of?
08:45Meaning you all did some very interesting projects.
08:48What's the best project you did and the one you really like?
08:51So, I don't know who want to begin, perhaps, because that's a surprise question.
08:55So, you didn't prepare it.
08:56So, I don't know.
08:57I can go ahead.
08:59Well, we've been selected to be in the Airbus Central Innovation, the Startup Engagement Program.
09:08We're probably the first and the only Canadian company part of the program.
09:14We've been doing an AI project with them for a 12-month project.
09:21And then we've developed the optimization for the A350 planning for bringing the suppliers in terms of, like, on-time
09:34delivery for the A350.
09:37Who wants to jump in?
09:41I find, I guess, I spend a lot of my time thinking about whatever is in front of me right
09:46now.
09:46So, one of the projects we're very proud to be working on right now is we are mapping 25,000
09:52buildings in a major U.S. city so that when someone calls 911 and the first responders have to show
09:58up,
09:59if I tell you I'm standing at the corner of Jane and Finch in Toronto, you know what to look
10:04for and where to go.
10:05If I tell you that I'm standing at the H&M inside the Jane and Finch Mall and you're a
10:09first responder, that's a very different scenario.
10:11So, we're going to map 25,000 buildings in a major city to solve that problem.
10:16And we're very proud to have the mandate to do that.
10:18We can't believe they selected a Canadian company to do it.
10:22And hopefully we'll pull it off.
10:24That's awesome.
10:25Yeah, one of the projects that we worked on very early on was for a Japanese company.
10:30And it was related to what are called integrated reports.
10:34These are these massive 100 page plus reports that Japanese public companies have put out that discuss how all of
10:40the company's inputs and outputs relate to the United Nations SDG goals.
10:45As you can imagine, not many people in the public are spending their free time reading 100 page reports.
10:51And so, what we built was a tool that used AI to ingest these reports and made the public knowledge
10:58more easily disseminated using early knowledge graphs and retrieval augmented generation systems.
11:03And that found massive appeal, I think, in the Japanese region.
11:08It's been a really successful project.
11:10Amanda, which one will you choose?
11:12Yeah, exactly.
11:14We're proud of all our projects, if I can start by saying that.
11:17But the ones that really hit close to home are the projects that are focused on health care.
11:24So, recently we worked on a project for a pre-hospital care company, so paramedical resources.
11:33And the goal was to be able to predict the volume call, emergency volume calls, by shift, by priority.
11:41So, having that visibility, three months, 24 hours, and one week in advance, we were able to recommend the right
11:48quantity of manpower to deploy at the right time, at the right place.
11:53Ultimately, helping them saving lives with a better response time.
11:57So, again, we're proud of all of our projects, but the ones that really help save lives essentially create a
12:04lot of engagement within our company.
12:07And we're getting more and more specialized in the healthcare industry.
12:12One project that we'll be starting very shortly is, again, being able to allocate the right quantity of manpower at
12:19the right place, but in a hospital setting based on patient acuity.
12:24So, that's going to be very interesting as well.
12:27Excellent.
12:28So, last question before I give the photo to Minister Solomon is, you were all born and raised in Canada.
12:36Why Canada was a good country for you to grow your business?
12:40What was the best advantages you found in Canada?
12:44Yeah, I can start.
12:45I think, you know, Canada is famous for being the first country in the world with a national AI strategy,
12:51right, which launched in 2017.
12:53And that has been paying dividends.
12:55Because we see that something like the top 10% of global AI talent is in Canada.
13:01We publish more research papers per capita than any other country in the G7 nation.
13:06So, really, we've just got this burgeoning talent pool in Canada that companies like ours, startups, can leverage.
13:14And so, we've been taking advantage of institutions like Mitacs to bring on fellows to Farpoint.
13:19You know, graduate students, PhD, postdoctoral students to work on state-of-the-art research, which we then put straight
13:25into commercialization with our clients.
13:27And then, thanks to entities like ScaleAI, we've been given a space on the public stage and on a world
13:32stage.
13:33And an ability to really, you know, be that, you know, ScaleAI has been that transmission that connects the engine
13:38of AI R&D into the world of commercialization in the real world.
13:43So, we wouldn't have had that if we weren't in Canada.
13:46Yeah.
13:48On my end, the Canadian ecosystem is very vibrant and dynamic and is a collaborative kind of mindset.
13:55So, Erudy, for instance, we've collaborated from the get-go with the universities, with institutions such as Ivado, Mila, ScaleAI,
14:05NextAI.
14:06So, the ecosystem really fosters innovation, collaboration, which makes it a very good environment for companies that want to adopt
14:17AI or companies that, startups that want to launch in that field specifically.
14:22So, it's a very open ecosystem and we have some of the top researchers in the world.
14:28Today, the big founders model, a lot of Canadian researchers are behind those companies.
14:34So, it's a great place to be.
14:38Yes.
14:40Well, the ecosystem is really well balanced between research and also business focused.
14:46So, I think this is a way of like creating success with any AI projects.
14:53And also, I think we are, as Canadians, really result-oriented.
15:00So, it's something more like with our reputation of North Americans.
15:06And also, we have a bit of European culture and a way of creating this long-term relationship.
15:14So, I think that brings us to have like success conditions to our project.
15:23And obviously, having the support of the cluster scale AI, just to promote and to ease this introduction to AI,
15:35to our small and large companies in Canada, but also international companies who have, like they have subsidiaries here in
15:46Canada.
15:47I think it's a really great way to support the ecosystem.
15:53So, I think some of it is just a function of where you grow up, right?
15:57I grew up in Canada.
15:58I went to school there.
15:59I started a business there.
16:00And if you're French, you might do that in France, as you should.
16:04But maybe the answer that's most interesting to folks who aren't Canadian in the audience is why might you consider
16:10Canada as a place to expand?
16:12I think it's an interesting observation today that Canada is the crossroads of the Western world.
16:18We're not big enough to really stand on our own, but the Europeans think we're European.
16:24Mon français est très mal, but my colleagues here speak very fluently.
16:27And the Americans think we're Americans, sometimes too much these days.
16:31But the good news is you can go there.
16:33We can come here and we can do business here.
16:35We can go to America, we can do business there.
16:37And we're treated as locals for the most part.
16:39And we expect that we have to operate in the global context.
16:44And I think that's a very good way to think about the world if you're in tech.
16:49Because there really aren't any local economies anymore.
16:52There's only really a global economy.
16:53So, I've been very grateful.
16:55Mapton's been very grateful to have the support of the Canadian brand.
16:58And the trade commissioners that, in our case, have opened doors for us in the Philippines, in Australia.
17:05It's kind of funny how much people will ignore Mapton, but take a call from the Canadian consulate.
17:10And it turns out if you're a Canadian business or you have an office there, that resource is available.
17:15So, that's been very helpful for us.
17:18Minister, do you want to say some words as conclusion on this panel?
17:23Sure.
17:25Maybe I'll just take this.
17:26This is how we work in Canada.
17:28We share everything.
17:30First of all, I want to thank, these are four remarkable companies.
17:35Give them a hand.
17:37Ryan, Amanda, I'm the other way.
17:40These are four examples of some of the innovative companies.
17:45They're about 4% of what we've got here.
17:48We've got another sort of more than 96 other companies plus, plus, plus here.
17:53I think what it showcases is that the talent pool, the cooperation with ScaleAI,
18:01and the fact that all of them are looking to me to say,
18:05you're the Minister of AI, we need your support, and you have it.
18:10We will continue to support not just our companies, but our ecosystems like ScaleAI,
18:17our institutes that help us go from research to commercialization,
18:22and then bringing partnerships that matter throughout the world,
18:26so we can come to places like Vivitech,
18:30and we can create these alliances and investments that will transform the world together.
18:36So, I just want to thank the four of you.
18:39What you're doing is remarkable.
18:41I started a business for the first 10 years of my life.
18:44People that start business are brave.
18:47They, it takes courage.
18:48There's a lot of difficult, to get to this stage, there's a lot of ups and downs.
18:52They've got to get investors and customers, and every day is a battle.
18:56It looks easy on stage.
18:58It's not.
18:58So, I appreciate what you've done, and the effort you put in.
19:02And I appreciate what ScaleAI has done to showcase these people, and their companies, and to bring it to all
19:10of you.
19:11So, merci.
19:12Let's make sure that this is the beginning of the conversation, not the end.
19:17Julien.
19:17Thank you, Minister.
19:18Well, thank you all for your attention.
19:25That was Canada's presentation.
19:27So, our booth, you saw it.
19:29I think it's really easy to find it.
19:31Please come to see us.
19:33We have more than 100 companies present there.
19:35They will rotate.
19:37So, come often to see us, because we will never see the same companies, and we'll be very happy to
19:41be with you for all this Vivitech.
19:43Have a great Vivitech, and thank you all for your presence.
19:46Thank you.