Canada’s AI Edge Is Slipping — Here’s How to Regain It

Once a global leader in Artificial Intelligence, Canada is now falling behind in the race to build and scale AI-Native startups. In a new The Globe and Mail article, Startup Genome Founder and CEO, JF Gauthier, and NorthGuide Strategic Advisor, Dan Herman, PhD, unpack why Canada’s talent, funding, and commercialization gaps are allowing U.S. and Chinese ecosystems to surge ahead and what must change to reclaim Canada’s competitive advantage. 

Read an excerpt from the article here, then head over to The Globe and Mail to learn more.

At a recent event in Montreal, Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, the Honourable Evan Solomon, noted, “Countries that master AI will dominate the future; you’re either part of the bulldozer or you’re part of the road. We cannot be left behind.” 

We certainly agree with the sentiment; however, the evidence to date points to our Canadian AI ecosystem being part of someone else’s bulldozer. 

Why? Three reasons. 

First, while Canada is home to 10% of the world’s top-tier AI researchers and was ranked first in terms of the growth of AI talent as recently as 2023, our talent is largely working for foreign corporations and startups. While this counts as creating jobs in Canada, we are exporting the intellectual property, job creation potential, and profits. As noted recently by the Council of Canadian Innovators, a paltry 7% of IP rights generated by the government’s Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy are owned by Canadian private sector firms. We cannot expect to build world-leading AI champions if the bulk of our public investment lands in the hands of others. 

Second, Canada is falling behind in the race to build and scale its own AI-Native startups. The world’s fastest growing AI-Native startup ecosystems are Silicon Valley, Beijing, Seattle, Paris and Tel Aviv. They are being driven ahead by the rapid transition of their startup ecosystems to AI-Native. Over a decade of Startup Genome research has proven what Michael Porter postulated about business clusters –  that the performance of a startup ecosystem grows with its size (number of startups). 

Read the full article here.