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Artificial Intelligence Business Plan

Alberta

December 2018

DRAFT

Alberta AI Business Plan

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Sections Section description

0. Foreword from the Committee A case for change, and rationale for the Alberta AI Centre ambition

1. Executive Summary The story in a nutshell

2. The Opportunity Strengths we can build upon

3. The Business Plan A blueprint of how we will realize the vision

4. The Enablers Pillars of activities that we will work on to build on our strengths and close the gaps

5. Supporting Content Impact of AI, Centre Characteristics, Persona Interviews, AI Journeys

1

DRAFTThe AI Business Plan Steering Committee

The Steering Committee has representatives from academia, industry, service providers, local organizations working since then to gather additional inputs from the community and ensure that the business plan created addresses the requirements and leads to the achievement of the vision.

Steering Committee Members

• Ashif Mawji, Rising Tide VC

• Bin Lau, City of Edmonton

• Bruce Alton, A-Partners

• Cam Linke, Amii

• Cheryll Watson, EEDC

• Chris Lumb, TEC Edmonton

• Cory Janssen, AltaML

• Cynthia van Sundert, A100

• Dalibor Petrovic, Deloitte

• Evan Hu, Creative Destructive Lab

• Forrest Zeisler, Jobber

• Jonathan Schaeffer, University of AB

• Ryan Kelly, City of Edmonton

• Terry Rock, Calgary Technologies Inc.

• Chris Godwaldt, COSIA

• Reg Joseph, Health City

• Dave Mowat, Past ATB Financial

• Carman NcNary, Dentons

• Allan Scott, Past EEDC

• John Shillington, Amii

• Curtis Stange, ATB

• Dan Wicklum, COSIA

Steering Committee Advisors

DRAFTForeword from the Committee


Foreword from the Committee

A group of Alberta-based academic, research, industry, investment and commercialization leaders came together in July-Dec 2018, to understand what it would take to seize the opportunity and transform the academic advantage of being top 3 in the world in AI research and develop a community sponsored Business Plan to create a Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) centre, working for the benefit of Alberta, and ultimately Canada. We recognize this is a once-in-a-century opportunity to put Alberta on a global map in an area that will define our future. We have the ingredients, we have the passion, we have the momentum; and now, we have the plan to take this future in our hands!

As part of a 2-day lab, the community recognized the need to work together across academia (e.g. University of Alberta, Amii), industry (Energy’s COSIA, Health City, Alberta based Financial Services corporations), service providers (EEDC, TEC Edmonton, Startup Edmonton, City of Edmonton, Alberta Innovates) and local businesses to develop a common vision and a plan to achieve it.

The business plan, which is centered around the world-class AI research capability at the University of Alberta and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), outlines how the AI ecosystem, supported by government, industry and other stakeholders working together, can develop into a self-sustaining commercial AI centre, with the ambition to become a billion dollar industry for the province within the next five years.

The intent is to create commercial opportunities that lead to new companies, new projects and new jobs for Alberta, in Alberta.

We wish to acknowledge the strong vision the federal government has already outlined for AI through the Pan-Canadian AI strategy and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), which has already awarded Amii $28.3 million. We believe that thanks to this support, and the continued support from the Government of Alberta over the past 15 years investing in Amii, the ambitious vision set out by the community is within reach.

The recommendations outlined in this business plan fall within five enabling areas; talent, research and development, infrastructure, industry solutions and market presence. The business plan is targeting $244.7 million of investment over the next five years of which we will be asking the Economic Development & Trade for $33.5 million in the current budget planning cycle for prioritized initiatives , therefore resulting in a significant leverage for every $1 investment from the government.

The institutions represented within the Steering Committee (AltaML, Amii, A-partners, A100, Platform Calgary, City of Edmonton, EEDC, Jobber, Rising Tide, TEC Edmonton and University of Alberta) that led the development of the Business Plan will now turn their attention to the implementation of the recommendations included within the plan, with the objective to make meaningful progress in the first 60 days.

3

DRAFT


Executive Summary

4

The community is mobilized, education and research are key differentiators, it is time to seize the once in a century opportunity and create the next billion dollar industry in Alberta

DRAFT


Executive Summary

5

The community is mobilized, education and research are key differentiators, it is time to seize the once in a century opportunity and create the next billion dollar industry in Alberta

DRAFTExecutive Summary


Alberta has an opportunity to create a new prosperous future by developing its AI Industry

There is a worldwide race for

leadership in Artificial Intelligence and

Alberta is established to continue to

lead the pack.

Alberta is already an AI leader and is able to

leverage many of the province’s strengths to

commercialize AI.

Considering the AI opportunity and the

province's strengths, the business plan aims to

address ecosystem needs through five key

enablers

According to Gartner, the business value derived from Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to reach $3.9 trillion by 2022.

In the global race for AI, Canada is definitely seen as one of the forces that has what it takes to win – talent. In that scenario, Alberta can generate significant benefits via the evolution of a AI centre that leads to economic diversification and job creation.

Global precedents including AI investments in Montreal, Toronto, New York, London, Beijing and Hangzhou, show that many major cities are having a head start in the global AI race

This document presents a business plan for the establishment of an Alberta AI Centre. This new centre is marked by a number of crucial characteristics – the right talent, a motivated community and a track record of successful commercialization.

Edmonton has a good supply of talent: It is home to two

of the greatest AI research centers (University of Alberta –

UofA and Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute - Amii), which

produce some of the best talent in this space. Amii and UofA

alumni have successfully created numerous startups and

raised significant funding dollars

UofA and Amii have growing commercial collaborations:

The province’s growing AI ecosystem, particularly with the

presence of Amii, creates the space for innovative commercial

applications of AI. Since its inception, Amii has established

many commercial collaborations including Google’s

DeepMind (first office outside of the UK is in Edmonton) and

RBC’s Borealis AI (Edmonton was the first city to have this lab)

The province has strong industries: Alberta’s Oil & Gas

leadership and wealth of resources is a differentiator. Health is

also a key industry and the availability of centralized health

care data via NetCare will be a catalyst for AI research.

Financial services, government services, construction and

engineering, transportation and logistics, and agriculture are

also key industries in the province that will benefit from AI

The AI community has some key needs which must be met to

realize the $1B potential. Challenges to be addressed lie

primarily within the commercialization and application of

research to create AI products that meets industry needs,

talent attraction and retention, tighter collaboration,

awareness amongst the wider business community in the

province, capacity for future growth and global

competition.

To respond to these challenges, this business plan outlines

enabling activities across talent, research & development,

infrastructure, industry solutions and market presence

The time to act is now. Public and private sector globally are

investing heavily (not millions but billions) in AI and if we do

not leverage our strong lead in academia and our strong

brand to establish a thriving AI business, the opportunity will

fade away. To be successful, it is necessary to orchestrate the

ecosystem efforts, increase the talent pipeline and

expand the number of projects, companies and jobs

being created. China is doing it, Montreal is doing it,

Toronto is doing it, and so must 'We'. 6



The business plan outlines ways to leverage the existing ecosystem and its strengths to achieve a very ambitious vision

The existing ecosystem strengths, such as world class talent, research, industry presence, supporting economic business institutions and unmatched big city quality of life will be the foundation to achieve the vision.

Alberta’s strengths

7

Industries Ready

for AI (Oil & Gas | Health |

Financial Services |

Government Services |

Construction & Engineering |

Transportation and Logistics)

Skilled Tech &

Entrepreneurial

Talent

Access to

Health Data

Great Quality

Of Life

“A world-class centre for AI-driven products and services creating a billion dollar industry in Alberta by

2025.”

Vision

Ambition"Continually growing a local ecosystem of fundamental and applied research, talent, data, infrastructure and capital

that leads to the creation of commercially-focused intellectual property and ethically responsible and globally

competitive AI-driven products, services and companies."


The business plan will require investment from multiple sources in the next 5 years to execute the initiatives identified

Through a 2-day lab, conducted on July 3-4, 2018 , that gathered 70+ executives from over 30 Alberta organizations spanning academia, research,

industry, all layers of government, private sector, investors and community development organizations, the community came together to identify ways

to mature the AI ecosystem in Alberta and put together a focused plan. Funding for the plan development was crowdsourced from participating

organizations, and a Steering Committee was formed to spearhead the creation of a business plan. The business plan is a result of inputs and

feedback obtained from 11 committee meetings, 3 community meetups, 25+ ecosystem player consultations.

Industry SponsorshipIndustry consortiums, and individual

corporations investing to access research ideas

and develop AI based products / solutions to

their business problems.

Public fundingFrom the government of Alberta, federal

government via the Canadian Institute of Advanced

Research (CIFAR) and municipal sources

Other private fundingOther types of private funding including venture capital,

and individual angel investors

“We believe that Alberta is the right location

to continue to build AI capacity, research and

commercialization. We need a collaborative

ecosystem and funding to do so.”

Servus Credit Union,

“A successful fund that supports very early stage companies does need

collaborative and financial support from the various government, industry

and private sector and we have experience in bringing these diverse groups

together to come up with a model that works for all interested parties.”

Rising Tide

To translate this scientific excellence to economic growth for our region, we need the capital to

move this excellence into practice, attract further investment and talent and build the

infrastructure to maintain a market presence for AI here in Edmonton and Alberta

We are pleased to support this initiative and work together with our ecosystem partners to grow

the economic potential of this sector.

Health City

The business plan is targeting over $244.7 million of investment over the next five years of which we will be asking the Economic Development

& Trade for $33.5 million in the current budget planning cycle for prioritized initiatives, therefore resulting in significant leverage for every $1

investment from the government.


8

DRAFT


An ecosystem, which will drive new AI jobs, new companies & projects and economic growth is created through five enablers

Executive Summary

9

Create the environment that is

required to succeed

• Funding / Capital

• Technology

• Space

INFRASTRUCTURE

Strengthen profile, build

community and increase

market share

• Trade Events

• Competitions

• Summits

• Branding and Marketing

• Community Events

• Public Relations

MARKET PRESENCE

Enablers

Ecosystem Players

Develop the workforce that

will be employed in the AI

ecosystem

• Entrepreneurs

• Innovators

• Technical Talent

• Executive Talent

• Business Talent

TALENT

New

Companies

& New

Projects

New

Jobs

Economic

Growth

TALENT

RESEARCH

& DEVELOPMENTINFRASTRUCTURE

INCUBATORS

AI INSTITUTE

LARGE

CORPORATESINDUSTRY

ASSOCIATIONS

UNIVERSITIES

&COLLEGESSTART-UPS

ALBERTA MACHINE

INTELLIGENCE INSTITUTE

(AMII)

AI

ASSOCIATIONS

Build on our world-class

academic research and

translate it into Intellectual

Property creation

• Scientific Research

• Applied Research

RESEARCH

& DEVELOPMENT

ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT

AGENCIESINTERNATIONAL

COMPANIESINVESTORS

GOVERNMENT

MARKET PRESENCE

INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS

INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS

Create the environment to

foster industry engagement

in the ecosystem

• Education

• Ideation

• Prototyping

• Product Development and

Launch

• Industry Data


Each enabler in the business plan contains a series of initiatives.


Required for the stand-

up, sustainment and

growth of the AI

ecosystem

Enablers and

Initiatives

The plan details activities within five enabling areas; talent, research and development, infrastructure, industry solutions and market presence, which together can accelerate the development of a thriving AI ecosystem. In addition to these enablers, the plan also details a few calls to action / recommendations.

10

Recommendations to

act on

Calls to action

RESEARCH &

DEVELOPMENT

Develop the Intellectual

Property to maintain top

international standing

TALENT



ecosystem

INFRASTRUCTURE

Create the environment

that is required to

succeed

INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS



in the ecosystem

R1: Expand academic

research capacity

R2: Expand applied &

industrial research capacity

I1: Develop & implement

funding strategy

I2: Attract & establish AI

accelerator programs

I3:Establish Alberta AI

governance & collaboration

structure

I4: Establish Alberta AI - HQ

IS1: Establish AI Product

Development Program

IS2: Expand Industry AI

Knowledge Transfer Program

IS3: Expand Large Industry

Data Sets

C1: Lobby for benefits, incentives and subsidies for organizations, startups and entrepreneurs in the AI space

C2: Lobby for improving post-secondaries IP policies

C3: Advocacy on adopting privacy, ethics & regulations in AI development

C4: Advocacy on expanding the available open data sets that can be used to drive AI IP creation

T1a: Expand university level

education programs

T1b: Expand AI related

supporting training

programs

T2: Expand AI internships &

co-op programs .

T3: Strengthen AI talent

recruiting programs

T4: Develop AI talent

exchange & mentorship

programs

T5: Promote flexible

industry/academia positions

MARKET PRESENCE


the community and

increase market share

M1: Develop & execute

marketing & branding

strategy

M2: Conduct ongoing

outbound and inbound

visits

M3: Organize AI summits,

conferences & competitions

M4: Foster dev. of AI user

groups & associations

M5: Develop & implement

outreach educational

programs


The initiatives identified help build the ecosystem that creates an

environment ripe for economic growth realization

Alberta AI Business Plan 11

Economic Growth

New Jobs

New Companies New Projects

Accelerator Pgms. + Funding (Capital)

Data

Access

Competitive benefits, incentives, subsidies

Infr

a.

R&

DT

ale

nt

Mentorships & IP Development

Training &

Retraining

Programs

Mark

et

Pre

sen

ce

Expanded Tech

Talent Pool

Access to Global Markets

Research Guidance & Research

Partnerships

Executive

Awareness

Programs

Expanded Tech

Talent Pool

Favorable policies & regulatory environment

Meetups / Events / Association

Membership

Connected Ecosystem

Product Dev.

Program

▪ In addition to the direct benefits realized by

maturing the ecosystem, there are also

significant indirect economic benefits to the

overall economy

▪ There is a magnifying effect in new jobs

created after 5 years as the new companies

move through the various stages

▪ Executing the initiatives in the Enablers in the

right order with the right intensity, would

help us keep pace with global advancements

in the other leading centres

▪ Lobbying for the changes in the policies,

regulations and offering competitive benefits,

incentives and subsidies would help to

attract, retain and grow talent and

opportunities

▪ In addition to increasing economic growth,

AI also provides the potential to create

increased economic stability, as the service

led industry is less sensitive to resource

prices fluctuations than many of the

province’s industries

Ind

ust

ry

So

luti

on

s

Knowledge

Transfer

Data

Access

Product Dev.

Program

Knowledge

Transfer

Funding (Investments)

DRAFT


The Opportunity

12

Breakthrough thinking happens when you bring together skills and talent, where ideas are combined in unexpected ways

DRAFTThe Opportunity: Economic benefits to Alberta


AI is a key enabler to Alberta’s economic development strategy, which hinges on driving economic growth, diversity & job creation.1

JOB

CREATION

Growing demand for AI and new AI enabled

companies will generate more jobs for the

province. This will increase employment and

help to retain talent.

Initially there will be an increased demand for

specialized AI jobs, encouraging talent trained at

the University of Alberta to remain in the

province.

As AI companies grow, new jobs are expected

ranging from data analysts to more general

business support, benefiting the province’s broad

labor force, creating jobs in a diversified 21st

century economy, providing prosperity for

generations to come.

ECONOMIC

GROWTH

Global value derived from AI is projected

to triple in the next 4 years3 and is predicted

to become the most disruptive class of

technologies in the next 10 years.4

As the demand for AI grows, there is the

potential for it to become a billion dollar

industry for the province and a significant

revenue and economic growth driver.

Opportunities for application of AI within

businesses is endless including medical

diagnosis, self driving vehicles and many more.

DIVERSIFICATION

(NEW COMPANIES &

PROJECTS)

Growth of AI capability will lead to creation of new

companies. In addition, applied AI will also make our

existing industries more productive and globally

competitive! Growth via these new companies and

new projects in existing companies, alongside existing

industrial income will grow the economy, creating

greater economic diversity crucial to sustaining stable

long-term economic growth.

In addition to increasing industry diversity, AI also

provides the potential to create increased economic

stability, as the service led industry is less sensitive to

resource prices fluctuations than many of the

province’s industries including Oil, Gas & Mining (more

than 50% of GDP is derived from resource reliant

industries including Oil, Gas & Mining, Construction,

Transportation).2

If nurtured, AI can provide crucial economic benefits to Alberta.

131. Alberta research and innovation framework 2017 2. Government of Alberta (Economy Highlights) 3. Gartner 2018 4. John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner

DRAFTThe Opportunity: Global Precedents


Similar global precedents show how the province would benefit from investments in new infrastructure and a new industry.

14

Successful AI and/or other technology centres around the world are challenging status quo, creating new jobs and wealth. These communities are

working to create and own their future. Strong buy-in from government and private sectors is a key enabler in these stories.

Montreal

AI

AI has expanded at a lightning speed in greater Montreal, as a result of significant

investment which has included $93.5M awarded to AI research through IVADO in 2016.

The Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) now hosts some of the best AI

researchers. Facebook, Samsung, DeepMind and Thales all opened corporate labs in

2017. Home grown companies Maluuba and Element AI have seen a lot of success.

Element AI recently received $137.5M, becoming the largest Series A funding round for

an AI company in the world. 4

Toronto -

Waterloo

AI

The Toronto-Waterloo innovation corridor, employs 205,000+ tech workers, second

only to Silicon Valley in North America. Central to this is the Vector institute which

serves as the pillar of a thriving AI ecosystem by combining the strengths of

institutions, enterprises, startups, and business incubators to help drive AI research

and its adoption and commercialization across Canada. In 2017, the federal and

Ontario provincial governments committed to investing $100M in the Vector Institute.

Also, more than 30 private-sector companies are set to invest an additional $80M.5

1. (Mayor of London & CognitionX, 2018) 2. (Telecoms, 2018) 3. (Reuters, 2018), (The Diplomat, 2018) 4. (CBC, 2018) 5. (Financial Post, 2017)

Beijing&

Hangzhou

Announced in 2018, a $2.1B AI development park is in the works in Beijing, slated to

house up to 400 enterprises and national AI lab driving R&D, patents and societal

innovation. It will have an estimated $50B yuan annual output. Hangzhou, home to e-

commerce giant Alibaba, has launched its own $1.6B AI Park. This, alongside similar

plans in other cities like Shanghai, Zhejiang and Tianjin is part of a national effort to

propel China to the global leader in AI technology by 2030.3

LondonQuickly gaining reputation as

the AI capital of Europe, London

has strong global positions of AI

in finance, insurance and law.

Investment in AI increased to

£200M in 2017, and a joint AI

Sector Deal has been struck

between government, industry

and academia for £950M of long

term investment. 1

New YorkWith more job postings in AI in New

York than in any other US city

including San Francisco, New York’s

AI sector is fast growing. Facebook

and Samsung both recently opened

AI-research focused offices, in an

ecosystem that boasts 450 AI

startups. 2

DRAFTThe Opportunity: Leveraging Strengths


Edmonton is home to two of the greatest AI and Machine Learning research centers and the associated talent.

Edmonton is home to the University of Alberta and Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii). Between the two world renowned centers there are over 15 top AI researchers, including Richard Sutton who is considered the father of reinforcement learning.

The University of Alberta is a leader in artificial intelligence and was

recently ranked #3 globally for AI and Machine Learning research. It

has been ranking high for the last 20 years1. The inter-disciplinary

research strength has extended AI-based applications into

bioinformatics, database systems and robotics.

Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), is at the forefront of

world-class AI research. Through Amii, Alberta can become one of

the best locations for innovative commercial applications of AI

and machine learning globally. Amii’s researchers, who are all U of

A professors, commercialize and collaborate with industry locally and

globally through Amii’s consulting arm. The researchers also teach

and generate top talent ripe for the AI industry, reinforcing Canada’s

world-leading position.

Along with Vector Institute in Toronto, and MILA in Montreal, Amii is one of only three

Canadian research centers within the Canadian AI Consortium (CAIC), and has been

named in the country’s Pan-Canadian AI strategy. AMII was awarded $28.3M from the

Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) in 2017 for 5 years to support Canada-

wide strategic artificial intelligence advancement. Amii is reorganizing as a not-for-profit

separate but affiliated with the university.

Left to Right: Richard Sutton, Michael Bowling, Patrick Pilarski

Across the two institutions, there are currently over 15 of the top AI

minds here in Edmonton from the department of computer science and

also the faculty of medicine, engineering, maths and public health.

These include Richard Sutton, considered the father of reinforcement

learning, who played an essential role in the development of Google’s

AlphaGo! program. The DeepMind decision in mid 2017, together with

the professors Richard Sutton, Patrick Pilarski and Michael Bowling, to

open a lab in Edmonton was a "global head snap" moment in terms of

recognition for Edmonton's AI community.

World Class Research Centers Top AI Researchers

151. CSRankings.org

DRAFTThe Opportunity: Leveraging Strengths


Amii and the UofA Faculty of Science have already established significant collaborations and plan to attract more companies

The Faculty of Science and Amii have already established many commercial collaborations including Google’s DeepMind and RBC’s lab Borealis AI. Amii also provides advisory services to other local companies and will be a key driving force for the entire province for both foundational research and innovative commercial applications of AI and Machine Learning.

The Royal Bank's research and development lab

Borealis AI also chose to establish a lab in the city to

capitalize on the city's talent pool of graduating

students and the growing AI community here.

DeepMind, a research institution in the forefront of

machine learning, chose Edmonton for its first lab

outside the UK.

Servus Credit Union has invested $1.6m into a

University of Alberta partnership.

Huawei's lab research includes joint research on

reinforcement learning approaches to perception.

ATB Financial has invested in Lab ATB AI with the

ambition to leverage technology solutions to benefit

Albertans, enable and inspire the next generation of

AI game changers, and lead the conversation on

building AI for good.

16

DRAFTThe Opportunity: Quality of Life

Quality of life metrics indicate that the province is favorable for talent to move in and settle down


When you add up quality of life, cost of living, cost of housing, we have a very flat hierarchy here. More people can access services, programs and opportunity. You come to start a family, a business, and do very well.

100 103 105 111 140 147

Edmonton Calgary Vancouver Toronto San Francisco New York

97

Montreal

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

London

Vancouver

Toronto

New York

San Francisco

Boston

Los Angeles

Montreal

Calgary

Edmonton

Property Price To Income Ratio (Normalized) 1

Selection of metropolitan areas, 2018 mid-year

1. (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2018) 2. (Numbeo, 2018) 3. (Statistics Canada Census, 2016)

Both Edmonton and Calgary have cost of living, commute

times and property price to income ratios that make them

stand out in the country and against the US tech centres

Cost of Living Index (Normalized) 2

Selection of metropolitan areas, 2018 mid-year

Edmonton Calgary Vancouver Montreal Toronto

Average one-way commuting duration (minutes) for the Largest

Central Metropolitan Areas3

25.9 26.5 29.7 30 34

Lower Cost of Living Higher Cost of Living

DRAFTThe Opportunity: Open For Business!


Alberta is "Open For Business!"

18

The total operating cost is lesser than its counterparts in the U.S. and Europe

90

100

110

120

130

140

Total Operating Costs For A Software

Development Business (Normalized) 1

Select metropolitan cities, 2016

1. (Competitive Alternatives, 2016) 2. (Robert Half, 2018)

Edmonton Calgary Montreal Vancouver Toronto

→ Data

Scientist

$ 110,632 $ 112,580 $ 111,606 $ 114,312 $ 113,554

→ Data

Architect

$ 119,318 $ 121,420 $ 120,369 $ 123,288 $ 122,471

→ Software

Engineer

$ 90,958 $ 92,560 $ 91,759 $ 93,984 $ 93,361

→ Software

Developer

$ 80,482 $ 81,900 $ 81,191 $ 83,160 $ 82,609

→ Business

Intelligence

Analyst

$ 100,922.00 $ 102,700 $ 101,811 $ 104,280 $ 103,589

Median annual salaries for 5 AI-related professions 2

Alberta offers competitive compensation in AI-related fields

DRAFT


The Business Plan

19

The ecosystem players need to work together to stand up the enablers of a mature ecosystem and execute the associated initiatives

DRAFTThe Business Plan: Vision & Ambition


The ambition is to leverage strengths to create a billion industry and an Alberta AI Centre.

Our Vision:

“A world-class centre for AI-driven products and services creating a billion dollar industry in Alberta

by 2025.”

Our Ambition:

“Continually growing a local ecosystem of fundamental and applied research, talent, data,

infrastructure and capital that leads to the creation of commercially-focused intellectual property

and ethically responsible and globally competitive AI-driven products, services and companies.”

This business plan outlines ways to leverage the existing ecosystem and its strengths, such as skilled and entrepreneurial talent, and a great quality of life to achieve a very ambitious vision

DRAFTThe Business Plan: The collaborative process


The business plan was developed in collaboration with the AI community including key stakeholders and industry leaders.

This business plan was developed during July and December 2018, sparked by a 2-day AI strategic planning event. The steering committee worked closely with the business community through multiple input mechanisms to ensure that the detailed plan captured and addressed all requirements.

The business plan’s vision and ambition was mobilized by 70+ executives from the

community during a 2 day strategic planning AI workshop on July 3-4.

0370+ executives from the community attended 3 community meetups with ongoing communication via a website and a slack channel.

AI Community Meetups

20+

Interviews conducted to gather data for initiatives.

Ecosystem Player

Consultations

05

Interviews with 5 community profiles: young local tech talent, business leader, investor, university AI researcher and a startup founder to understand the varying ecosystem needs

Community Profile

Interviews:

10+

Weekly steering committee working sessions with guest participation from industry and government

Steering Committee

Meetings

10+Indicating support rom businesses, investor groups, higher education institutions and other AI bodies.

Letters of Support

DRAFTThe Business Plan: The collaborative process

Interviews were conducted with these different groups to

understand the varying needs of the ecosystem


A thriving ecosystem requires different groups. The individual needs of these groups must be met, and they must also collaborate together in order to benefit from each other’s knowledge, talent and passion.

“I want to

continue research

and have

opportunities to

work at corporate

lab projects part

time“

Leyuan Yu

University Grad Student – AI Developer

Talent like Bashir, with data and

programming experience are

looking for interesting jobs

locally, but are in high demand

from other locations including

Silicon Valley, Montreal and

Toronto.

“We need help

connecting with

business mentors.

I found a job

locally, but was

approached by the

Valley“

Bashir Osman, Data Analyst at Trust

Science, 2016 UofA Graduate

Dave’s AI company is looking to

scale. He has a growing team

which are located at "Startup

Edmonton", and work remotely.

Like other startups, access to

capital is very important.

“Availability of

fast capital is

critical to start

up success”

Dave Damer, Testfire Labs

Startup founder

Ashif, is an investor attracted to

the momentum building in

Edmonton.

He wants to find more companies

ready for investment, which can

be created through accelerator

programs, and better access to

research and development.

“I want to create

more new

companies and

deal flow… I

want more R&D

opportunities for

entrepreneurs”

Cory is an executive at

commercial property firm Avison

Young. Like other business

leaders, he is committed to

helping Edmonton’s economy

and community thrive.

He is looking for easy ways to

implement the AI ideas of the

company

“We have worked on

AI property deals

including DeepMind

… but we need more

information to help

us invest in the AI

ideas we have”

Cory Wosnak

Avison Young Business Leader

Ashif Mawji

Rising Tide Venture Capital

Need funding and mentoring to

help scale

Wants to find more companies

ready for investmentWant to apply their new data &

programming skills to a job with

prospects

Has aspirations to work on

industrial applied problems and

continue some research work

Needs help to understand where

and how quickly AI can provide

returns

LOCAL TECH TALENT AI GRAD STUDENT STARTUPS INVESTOR BUSINESS LEADER

Students like Leyuan who are

currently pursuing their masters

in the university want to stay back

in Edmonton and are looking to

pursue PhD programs or a career

as an entrepreneur.

It is crucial to provide access to

opportunities to retain talent .

DRAFTThe Business Plan: Challenges

Despite the strengths, there are gaps which need to be addressed:

Product MindsetThere is a lack of product development and company creation mindset in AI. There’s too little push to create real products that deliver results for real customers and win in global markets

→ Immediate need to turn AI research into products that customers want to buy

Industry Solutions

There are gaps between the innovation supports and outputs (supply side) and industry receptors (demand side)

→ There is a need to expand the technology transfer programs and also have a tighter collaboration between industry and research.

AI Businesses Understanding

There is low understanding amongst business leaders of AI’s potential to create new business opportunities and improve their core businesses

→ There is a need to educate business leaders before we can increase the application of AI in local businesses.

Talent Attraction& Retention

Historically, we have been net exporters of AI talent to other cities, including Silicon Valley and Toronto. In the past, it was not uncommon to have at least 90% departure of UofA AI

graduates. This trend not only has to stop but also be reversed! Top business talent is needed to help companies to scale, boosting opportunities to create more success stories. While

we focus on retaining talent, we also need to ensure we increase the supply of talent

→ To generate meaningful opportunities for the next generation, the province needs to develop / attract and retain talent.

New Startups

There is insufficient venture capital to grow early-stage AI related companies which are risky by nature, and an absence of a world class accelerators (E.g. Y-Combinator, TechStars,

NextAI, etc.). There is not enough startup companies in AI that are being created at this time

→ Need to ensure the ecosystem has all the supporting infrastructure, funding and mentoring to create more startup companies

Ecosystem Collaboration

Great work is being done by organizations individually, which could be enhanced by combining effort towards a focused cause

→ Greater ecosystem collaboration can be created through initiatives outlined in the business plan.

Commercial Incentives

Rigid Intellectual Property (IP) policies at the UofA and other post-secondaries discourages commercialization. Absence of incentives (tax incentives for AI R&D, subsidized marketing

expenses, subsidized / free office spaces) for AI start ups and companies might discourage growth in this space

→ An even more competitive than what is available in other provinces needs to be put in place

Investments

Many countries including China, France, UK, South Korea, Germany and the EU commission have joined AI race by announcing large AI investment plans. Centres around the world are

offering better incentives and benefits to attract talent and to establish companies

→ The province must act now, in order to maintain its advantage in the race to establish thriving AI business. Collaborating with other Canadian AI centres in Toronto and Montreal is crucial to success

This plan addresses capability gaps which arise as the province’s AI industry matures.

23Alberta AI Business Plan

DRAFTThe Business Plan: Business Plan Blueprint

The target ecosystem, which will drive new AI jobs, new companies & projects and economic growth is created through five enablers

Alberta AI Business Plan24

Create the environment that is

required to succeed

• Funding / Capital

• Technology

• Space

INFRASTRUCTURE


community and increase

market share

• Trade Events

• Competitions

• Summits

• Branding and Marketing

• Community Events

• Public Relations

MARKET PRESENCE

Enablers

Ecosystem Players



ecosystem

• Entrepreneurs

• Innovators

• Technical Talent

• Executive Talent

• Business Talent

TALENT

New

Companies

& New

Projects

New

Jobs

Economic

Growth

TALENT

RESEARCH

& DEVELOPMENTINFRASTRUCTURE

INCUBATORS

AI INSTITUTE

LARGE

CORPORATESINDUSTRY

ASSOCIATIONS

UNIVERSITIES

&COLLEGESSTART-UPS

ALBERTA MACHINE

INTELLIGENCE INSTITUTE

(AMII)

AI

ASSOCIATIONS

Build on our world-class

academic research and

translate it into Intellectual

Property creation

• Scientific Research

• Applied Research

RESEARCH

& DEVELOPMENT

ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT

AGENCIESINTERNATIONAL

COMPANIESINVESTORS

GOVERNMENT

MARKET PRESENCE

INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS

INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS



in the ecosystem

• Education

• Ideation

• Prototyping

• Product Development and

Launch

• Industry Data

DRAFT


The Enablers

25

The five enablers – Talent, Research & Development, Infrastructure, Industry Solutions and Market Presence help strengthen and sustain the ecosystem

DRAFTThe Enablers - Talent


Technical and business talent is critical to power the AI industry as it grows. Talent at all experience levels (junior programmers to experienced executives) is essential to help in expanding research, creating commercially successful businesses and in growing existing businesses. It is important to plan ahead and create the supply of talent required for Alberta in AI and related fields. To generate meaningful opportunities for the next generation, the first step is to retain existing talent and to attract global talent.

Initiatives will focus on expanding capacity at universities & colleges, increasing the talent supply coming out of every post-secondary, introducing training and retraining programs, attracting talent and establishing connections between industries and academia. With 69% of the Alberta’s labour force aged 25 years and older having a post-secondary degree, there is a high amount of technical talent ready to be re-trained in AI and ML.

Enabling talent initiatives will be provided primarily by the higher education institutions along with Amii. The business plan includes the below Talent initiatives:

• T1a: Expand university education programs to increase AI talent

• T1b: Expand AI related supporting training programs to develop supporting talent

• T2: Expand AI internships & co-op programs to create early connections between industry & academia

• T3: Strengthen AI talent recruiting programs to attract & retain talent locally and globally

• T4: Develop AI talent exchange & mentorship programs to build relationships in ecosystem and to grow talent experience

• T5: Promote flexible academia / industry positions to increase commercial focus

Talent



ecosystem.

DRAFT

Research &

Development


Research and development is essential for ensuring ground breaking innovations in Artificial Intelligence. Investment will ensure Alberta grows its academic, applied and industrial research through its crown jewels UofA and Amii.

The research and development initiatives will be delivered through University of Alberta and Amii, along with support from the other ecosystem players making the province a world class leader in research & development

The business plan includes 2 Research & Development initiatives:

• R1: Expand academic research capacity for fundamental research

• R2: Expand applied & industrial research capacity to create more commercial opportunities for corporates/industries

Develop the Intellectual

Property to maintain top

international standing.

27

The Enablers – Research & Development

DRAFT

Infrastructure


Strong infrastructure support is required to create the thriving, vibrant ecosystem required to succeed. Currently the key gaps in the AI ecosystem is the absence of an accelerator program and the presence of risk capital to create new companies. Other AI centres have had a head start in attracting and establishing accelerator programs making it important for Edmonton and the province to keep up

The types of Infrastructure required will change as the ecosystem matures and grows, and therefore there is a role for an AI centre coordinating entity to steward and monitor progress of this business plan. Collaboration is growing, but additional investment to create more collisions is required.

Enabling infrastructure initiatives will be provided by various existing ecosystem players

The business plan includes 4 Infrastructure initiatives:

• I1: Develop & implement funding strategy to help obtain & manage funding and increase deal flows

• I2: Attract & establish AI accelerator programs to help startups accelerate & scale

• I3: Establish Alberta AI governance & collaboration structure to monitor and realize our vision

• I4: Establish Alberta AI HQ in new or exiting spaces to house startups, host seminars, educational sessions and networking events


that is required to

succeed.

28

The Enablers – Infrastructure

DRAFT

Alberta AI Business Plan29

The Enablers – Industry Solutions

Industry

Solutions

Industry solutions will be a crucial enabler of success for the business plan, creating an environment where industry is excited about new developments in AI research and there are clear points of connection for industry and researchers, allowing easy transfer and commercialization of technology.

Industry solutions will create a synergy between the excellent research environment present in Edmonton and the various large industries in Alberta, including health, energy, financial services, construction and engineering, government services, and transportation and logistics, to help commercialize and develop AI solutions and products to their unique business problems.

In addition to the Government open data, it is critical to establish additional controlled industrial data sets to enable R&D. Industry associations like COSIA have already initiated work in this regard and this needs to be extended to other industries in the province.

The initiatives identified would result in increased AI adoption, increased industry AI investments, increased availability of industrial data and would result in development of highly relevant breakthrough AI products

The industry solutions initiatives will be provided by leveraging and expanding on the efforts already happening at Amii to establish this connection

The business plan includes 3 Industry Solutions initiatives:

• IS1: Establish AI Products Development Program to develop auxiliary skill sets

• IS2: Expand Industry AI Knowledge Transfer Program to educate and enable industries

• IS3: Expand Large Industry Data Sets developing a playbook to make it easier for industry to share data


to foster industry

engagement in the

ecosystem

DRAFT

Market

Presence

There is an opportunity to increase awareness of all of Alberta's strengths and use the momentum that is already occurring to build the profile, engage the community and increase market share in AI business.

This year (2018) many countries including France, UK, South Korea, Germany and the EU commission have joined the AI race by announcing large AI investment plans. The province must act now, in order to maintain its advantage in the race to establish thriving AI business. The market presence enabler focuses on establishing the brand and also in placing Alberta in the AI map as a top global leader. There is also a need to educate small to large enterprises about AI’s potential to create new business opportunities as well as improve their core businesses. The marketing initiatives will leverage Government Relations to advocate the plan and to lobby for changes in policies, incentives, benefits etc.

Enabling market presence initiatives will be provided by existing players (Economic Development Organizations and Amii) supported by the committee. The business plan includes 5 market presence initiatives:

• M1: Develop & execute marketing & branding strategy to communicate the commercial momentum to the world

• M2: Conduct ongoing outbound and inbound visits in strategic locations and attract visits locally

• M3: Organize AI summits, conferences & competitions to increase AI collision opportunities & strengthen global presence

• M4: Foster dev. of AI user groups & associations to increase engagement & build a diverse AI ecosystem

• M5: Develop & implement outreach educational programs to raise awareness of investors, businesses & wider community


the community and

increase market share.

30Alberta AI Business Plan

The Enablers – Market Presence

DRAFTCall to Action

In addition to the initiatives identified, there is a need to advocate for changes that will be key to strengthening the ecosystem

31

Reco

mm

en

dati

on

sB

en

efi

ts

C3: Advocacy on adopting privacy, ethics

& regulations in AI development

▪ Develop thought leadership on AI

privacy, ethics and regulations (e.g.

identification of what constitutes as harm

when it comes to AI)

▪ Socialize and educate on responsible and

ethical development of AI

▪ Sustainability of ongoing responsible and

ethical AI mobilization efforts

Activities are happening across Canada to develop

responsible AI (public consultations were

conducted and efforts are underway in this space)

C2: Lobby for changing post-secondaries

IP policies to streamline

commercialization

▪ Prepare recommendations for the bold

and attractive revised version of the

policy

▪ Create a group of representatives to

influence & lobby change approval

▪ Perception of a more fair profit sharing

split for IP owners and investors

▪ Increased number of products being

commercialized

There is significant efforts already underway at

UofA to make the policy change

C1: Lobby for benefits, incentives and

subsidies for organizations, startups and

entrepreneurs in the AI space

▪ Lobby for expansion of international

digital media tax credit to AI

▪ Lobby for subsidized marketing

expenses, subsidized office spaces for AI

start ups and companies based out of

Alberta

▪ Retention of companies, start ups and

entrepreneurs in Alberta

▪ Increase in number of AI companies and

projects

Activities are happening at other technology and

AI centres to attract talent and companies

(Singapore's SMEs Go Digital program and the

Finnish Government’s Innovation Vouchers etc.)

C4: Advocacy on expanding the available

open data sets that can be used to drive

AI IP creation

▪ Lobby for increase in the availability of

relevant of Open Data from within

government for local AI businesses

▪ Lobby for change on maintaining better

catalogues of the open data

▪ Increase in easy to access and use,

relevant open data sets

There is commitment to implement global best

practice standards to achieve the full potential of

the open data movement; e.g. Edmonton is the

first city in Canada and US to adopt the

International Open Data Charter


DRAFT


Supporting Content

32

• Impact of AI• Centre Characteristics • Persona Interviews• AI Journeys

DRAFTImpact of AI


Value derived from Artificial Intelligence is projected to triple in the next 4 years

Creating an Alberta AI centre presents a significant economic opportunity.

▪ The International Data Corporation forecasts spending on AI to rise from $12 billion in 2017 to $57.6 billion by 20211

▪ More importantly, Gartner forecasts that the global business value derived from AI will total $1.2 trillion in 2018 and reach $3.9 trillion by 2022.2

▪ Rapid growth is expected as a result of three changes: tremendous growth in the amount of data available to businesses, advances and falling costs in computational power, and AI technology innovation.2

Value derived from AI is projected to triple in the next 4 years, and is

predicted to become the most disruptive class of technologies in the next 10

years 2

2018 2022

$3.9 trillion

$1.2 trillion

Forecasted Global AI

business value

2028

> $10 trillion

331. Deloitte Perspectives Analytics Summit 2.Gartner 2018

DRAFTImpact of AI


Every major industry in Alberta is ready for disruption by AI and the province should embrace this growth opportunity.

Traditionally a resource-based economy, Alberta can become a knowledge-based economy by adopting AI in key industries such as health, energy, financial services and construction/engineering.

The global healthcare

AI market could reach

C$36.2 billion by 2025.1

AI will transform

healthcare in the below

key areas.2

▪ AI-assisted robotic

surgery

▪ Virtual nursing

assistants

▪ Aid clinical

judgment or

diagnosis

▪ Workflow and

administrative tasks

▪ Image analysis

Health

There are many ways the

energy industry is using artificial

intelligence to grow and gain a

competitive advantage:3 From

ExxonMobil’s and Total’s use of

AI robots to Royal Dutch Shell

using virtual assistants, energy

companies are forging ahead

into AI innovation.4 Other uses

include:

▪ The autonomous grid

▪ Grid edge

▪ Failure management

▪ Upstream exploration

▪ Energy consumption

Energy

According to Autonomous, a

financial research firm,

financial institutions can

expect $1 trillion in projected

cost savings from AI.5 There

are 5 traditional processes

expected to face the most

disruption from AI

adoption.6

▪ Investment

▪ Customer engagement

▪ Fraud detection and risk

management

▪ Regulatory compliance

▪ Stock predictions

Financial

Services

Although the industry remains

severely underdigitized, the

engineering and construction

sector is worth more than $10

trillion a year. Some of the

applications are as follows:7

▪ Project planning and

scheduling

▪ Forecast project risks,

constructability, structural

stability

▪ Supply chain optimization and

inventory management

▪ Maintenance operations

▪ Risk and safety management

Construction/

Engineering

341. (Statista, 2017) 2. (Forbes, 2018) 3. (CB Insights, 2018) 4. (Techemergence) 5.(The Financial Brand, 2018) 6. (FinTech Futures, 2018) 7. (Mckinsey insights) 8. (DHL Logistics whitepaper) 9 &10. (Deloitte Insights).

One of the most visible roles for

AI in transportation is

autonomous vehicles, which are

being developed by companies

like Google and Uber as well as

other auto giants like Toyota

and BMW. 8 There are several

opportunities for AI to also play

a role in logistics, including

▪ Global supply chain

improvement

▪ Cognitive automation

▪ Financial anomaly detection

▪ Cognitive contracts

▪ Cognitive customs

Transportation/

Logistics

Government services are

poised to be transformed with

cognitive applications, letting

government do more with less.

Bookkeeping, data entry, and

machine operations are tasks

likely to be automated first. 9

Below are some of the

potential applications of AI in

government services:10

▪ Robotic process

automation

▪ Predicting high-risk cases

▪ Chat bots

▪ Fraud detection

Government

Services

DRAFTCentre characteristics


A ‘centre’ or cluster contains a number of crucial characteristics.

A centre becomes the best place to work and live as it contains the right talent, houses a community which is in close proximity of one another, and builds a proven track record of commercializing ideas.

Centres form where opportunities exist and where relationships can be leveraged most effectively. The dynamics of a thriving centre become a catalyst for growth; success attracts more talent and funding from other locations, building a centre further.

Knowing that momentum is growing within Edmonton and Alberta, there is a real opportunity to create a centre in the city that benefits Alberta’s industries. The centre can be created by focusing on meeting the needs of companies, and individuals:

→ Companies: Make it easy to create and scale new business

→ Individuals: Be the best place to live and work

Centre

Proximity

Talent

Commercialization

R&D

A high concentration of talent

driving innovation & attracting

businesses & more talent

A proven track record of

business growth making it

easy to create and scale

new business.

An environment which

builds and strengthen

networks

A place which is

convenient and

attractive to live and

work in

35

DRAFT

Q1. What made you choose to stay in Edmonton

after your education?

Came to Edmonton in 2009 from China to pursue an

undergraduate degree in math / computer science. After

completing undergraduate studies, wanted to create

startups and looked at U.S. for incubator/accelerator

funding. After some unsuccessful applications, got a job

at a few local companies

Q2. Are you doing interesting and relevant work in

AI/ML in Edmonton?

Current job is through the master’s program at the UofA

(currently enrolled) and I like the current job. There are

way more interesting and applicable opportunities

outside of Edmonton but am staying here to complete

my education and also currently considering pursuing a

doctoral program. Would also like to develop my

entrepreneurial skills later

Q3. What are some key gaps in Edmonton’s AI

ecosystem?

Edmonton has the strong talent to lead Reinforcement

Learning and Deep Learning application but there is a

scarcity of AI/ML opportunities at large corporations in

Edmonton/Alberta. Also career path in AI/ML is not well-

defined in Edmonton. Would benefit to increase

awareness of the benefits and growth potential of AI

while also conducting more hackathons (in-person)

Q1. Why did you decide to stay in Edmonton after

graduation? Did you look at other cities?

I could of graduated in 2012 but dropped out to start a

business which failed. I went back to school in 2015 and

graduated in 2016. I have a good network here in

Edmonton, so looked for opportunities within it.

After a year of working at Trust Science I was

approached by Amazon to move to Vancouver, and so

started looking at other opportunities, but decided

Edmonton was a better place for me.

The city is filled with so many smart people, and I have

some strong mentors who I meet up with regularly.

Ultimately I see myself starting another business in a year

or two.

Q2. What were you looking for in your first job

after graduation? How difficult was it to find that in

Edmonton?

I was looking for a job. I wasn't sure what exactly I

wanted to do. I had a wide arrange of unrefined skills.

I built a script that automatically applied for jobs, which

allowed me to apply for 100 jobs in 100 seconds, so

finding a job was easy. I had a part-time job at Trust

Science a week later.

I know that this is unusual. We have job openings for

data scientists as our company is expanding, but have

few applications. On the other side, I know that people

graduating are looking for interesting opportunities like

this, but don’t know about them. People are trying to fix

this, but we’re all busy, so need some help.

Q3. What are your future plans for development?

Currently I'm heavily involved in blockchain development

and see my near term future in there. Long term is

unknown, but I'll follow the market (Smart contracts -

token exchange - IPFS ads etc.)

Persona Interviews


AI Community interviews (page 1 of 3)

“ I stayed in

Edmonton

because I have a

network and

mentors here“

“The city has so

many smart

people /mile2“

"Strongly believe

that Edmonton

has the talent to

lead RL and DL

application"

“Career path in

AI/ML is not

well-defined in

Edmonton”

Bashir Osman

Data Analyst at Trust

Science, 2016 UofA Graduate

(Young Local Tech Talent)

Leyuan Yu

University Grad Student

AI Developer (SafeContact

Solutions Inc.)

36

DRAFT

Q1. What is your company's story, why are you

in Edmonton and why are you interested in AI?

I have several businesses as investor / co-founder. I

have been involved in AI for the last 4 years and

leveraging RL / ML. I am interested in AI because I

believe it can improve lives. AI talent from the UofA

and Amii are top class. Overall quality of life and cost

of living is attractive for team members in Edmonton

Q2. What you need from AI to be successful?

Need access to talent; not just researchers but we also

need practitioners (data wrangling, cleansing) and

executive / marketing talent to help scale. Diversity of

funds can spread the risk and pre-seed investment is

lacking. Rising Tide is a seed fund (VCs will not do pre-

seed investment unless there is government

involvement). Internal Rate of Return is too low for VCs

to get involved. Overall we need to do better at

▪ Collective efforts on mentorship

▪ Accountability for things to turn into action

▪ Set up of accelerator programs

▪ Increase in commercialization from academia

through collaboration with universities

Calgary is ahead of Edmonton. It has Creative

Destruction Lab program and municipality is more

active in terms of entrepreneurship. People move to

Toronto, San Francisco to perform interesting work

and not necessarily for the money. There is a lot of

interesting research at Amii and we just need to figure

out a way to commercialize it

Q3. What is your point of view on how

Edmonton can be successful at AI

Edmonton is ready to scale; all the ingredients are in

place. Securing funding is challenging and also, these

funds are focused on talent retention. If we can make

the funds more commercial-focused, then it would

help. Alberta Innovates also supports student

sponsorship

Q1. Why did you start an AI business in

Edmonton?

This is my 5th startup. I’ve worked at 2, invested in 2

others and have now build TestFire Labs, which is a

business which uses AI technology for business

meetings.

Q2. What do you need to be successful?

Like any other startup access to capital is very important.

There are some large pockets of wealth here, but it’s

hard to unlock it quickly. It took 6 months to raise

funding, and I can expect a similar time length in the

future, which is slow in comparison to the Valley.

I have a really talented team here, some of who work

part time or remotely, working on other interesting

projects. It have to spend time telling students about my

company and others like it, as there isn’t as much

awareness of local startups as I would like. This pays off

in great talent, but it’s time lost that I should be using on

my company.

Q3. How does Edmonton need be successful?

There are some great spaces, but there needs to be

more collisions and meet-ups. Availability of fast capital

is critical to startup success. Edmonton needs to define

its identity and launch a sustained PR campaign to

promote its AI ecosystem. Another innovation space with

low occupancy will not be effective. An entity like

TandemLaunch (Montreal) that matches

commercialization-worthy IP with entrepreneurs would

be a nice thing to have here

Persona Interviews



“Availability of

fast capital is

critical to startup

success”

“Provide IP

opportunities

with

entrepreneurs”

“I want to create

more new

companies and

deal flow… I

want more R&D

opportunities for

entrepreneurs”Dave Damer

Testfire Labs

(Startup founder)

Ashif Mawji

Rising Tide Venture

Capital

37

DRAFT

Q1. What do you think are the potential AI

applications?

Not using AI at the moment but one AI application in

use is JobScore which is used to screen resumes for best

match. Other potential uses are

▪ Finding companies that need space because of

something happening at the company (e.g. growth)

▪ Restructuring opportunity identification via AI/ML

▪ Access to early info in the commercial real estate

business

▪ Tools to help negotiate favorable property tax deals

would be great

Q2. What is the motivation to adopt new tech for

business leaders?

It should provide leading edge against competitors and

must provide good for the overall community.

Q3. How can we effectively onboard executives to

adopt leading technology like AI?

AI education needs to be force-fed to executives not in

the tech space

AI executive outreach program would be helpful BUT

▪ Do not make it a long session; a lunch-and-learn is

preferred over a full-day workshop

▪ Do not make it open to the general public where the

presentation is not tailored to discuss specific and

relevant use cases

▪ Target commercial real-estate consortiums: NAIOP

(National Association for Industrial and Office Parks) /

BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association)

Average businesses in Edmonton often do not relate to

AI/ML because it seems so irrelevant to their day-to-day

operations. The UofA can do better at educating the

business community on the potential applications of the

research at the university. Commercial real estate firms

are ripe for change and are willing to listen to

opportunities

Persona Interviews



“We have

worked on AI

property deals

including

DeepMind … but

we need more

information to

help us invest in

the AI ideas we

have”

Cory Wosnak

Avison Young Business

Leader

38

DRAFTAI Journeys: Day in a life of Sam

AI is no longer locked in academia; it is pervasive across our every day life and the

commercial opportunities are endless for those who unlock it first.


A Day in the Life by Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer

Sam gets up and checks e-mailMachine learning algorithms watch what emails

you read and what you discard. They quickly learn

what is important to you and what should be

thrown away.

Sam uses voice assistant to check

weatherSiri (Apple) and Alexa (Amazon) are examples of speech

recognition systems. A natural language system parses

the words, turns them into meaning and acts on them.

Sam goes to work and uses

self-parking feature in her carCars that can parallel park themselves are

the first generation of self-driving (or

autonomous) vehicles. They are safer drivers

than humans.

Sam takes the elevator to her officeThe AI program observes what floor people get into an elevator, the floor that

they exit and the day/time that this occurs. It then builds a model of elevator

usage, so that when an elevator is free that AI sends it to a floor where the

button is likely to be pushed.

Sam uses Google assistant to make lunch reservationGoogle Assistant takes information about where you want to eat and when, and

then makes a phone call to the appropriate restaurant, talks to the hostess, and

makes the reservation for you using natural language technology.

She goes to the mall after workMost malls have security cameras that “watch” people in a shopping

mall: who enters/exits and the flow of shoppers throughout the mall. In

the past five years, computers have become super-human at doing facial

recognition allowing them to identify most shoppers who enter a mall.

She makes a purchaseDetecting credit card fraud was

one of the earliest major

applications of machine learning.

She goes home and wants to

watch a show on TVNetflix, like other shopping sites including

Amazon, observe what products customers

look at and buy. From this, the software can

build a profile of the customer’s likes and

dislikes, and provide recommendations.

Time for a quick game before ending the day Since her friends are not online, Sam plays against ‘bots’ – computer-

generated opponents. AI for games is arguably the biggest success story for

the field. It started with popular board and card games, where computers are

super-human at checkers (1994), chess (1997) and poker (2016)

Sam is sleeping and her smart watch is

watching her sleeping patternsYour daily information – such as heart rate, weight, amount of

exercise, etc. – is data, and this data can be analyzed to see if it

is “normal” or an outlier. Soon it will be used to predict health

problems before they become serious.

Sam

DRAFTAI Journeys: Journey of an Entrepreneur

The business plan impact on an aspiring entrepreneur creating an AI company in

the province


Future entrepreneurDavid has a business degree and has been working

his way up the ranks of a real estate development

company for the last ten years. He always had an

interest in entrepreneurship but didn’t know where

to start.

Interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI)He kept his eyes open for new ideas and had heard

about the emergence of AI technologies and research

being done at the University of Alberta (U of A). Out of

curiosity he attends an Alberta AI meetup event and

realizes that AI could have applications in the real estate

industry and in particular smart buildings.

Access to local AI spacesAfter some more research he starts

to formulate a business idea. He spends

time at the centre. At an Alberta Machine

Intelligence Institute (Amii) seminar, he

meets a U of A computing science student

who he learns has similar interests.

Enabler-Facilitated CollaborationDavid and the student, Susan, start discussing over coffee at the AI centre co-

working space how they can combine their ideas and expertise. They both attend

a Preflight event at Startup Edmonton to lay out a business plan.

Tapping Local Knowledge Base and OpportunitiesSusan participates in a U of A hackathon to test out some of their concepts

while David is introduced to some local entrepreneurs who give him advice

on how to put the business plan together.

Accelerated MomentumDavid & Susan submit their idea to the local AI accelerator program

and are accepted for the next cohort, receiving an investment of

$100,000. They spend six months with 5 other startups refining their

plan and receiving advice from industry mentors. At the demo day, an

investor in the audience who is a local successful real estate developer

approaches them to invest in the business.

Startup GrowthDavid & Susan receive a $250,000 seed

investment and set up shop in the AI centre

co-working space. They hire a team of five

programmers to build out the technology.

The local real estate industry group introduces

them to potential local customers.

.

Global PotentialDavid & Susan participate in an AI outreach

trip to the United States and Asia, where they

are introduced by the local Government of

Canada offices to potential clients. They keep

attending Amii seminars and attract the

attention of a prominent AI researcher who

agrees to sit on their board of directors.

Successful Product LaunchAfter their first product sale in Alberta, new customers come on

board. The attention attracts venture capital (VC) investment from a

VC fund in Toronto as well as investment from an Asian VC fund

who first came to Edmonton to visit Amii.

AI Company Success StoryToday, David and Susan operate their business from downtown Edmonton

where they maintain their contacts with Amii and their local AI and technology

business community. They now have over 50 employees and have signed a

lease for 11,000 square feet of space near the local innovation hub.

DRAFTAI Journeys: Journey of a Large Company

The business plan impact on an existing large AI company in the province


Ready for InnovationChristine is the CEO of a multi-disciplinary

engineering firm with 250 employees in Edmonton.

She had built a successful business but the firm’s

long-term prospects are still tied to the energy

sector. She constantly faces the volatility of oil

prices which are out of her control.

Built-In AdvantageOne of her top engineers, Sunny, comes to her to share

an idea on how machine learning (ML) could change

their business. They realize they generate a lot of data

which can be processed by unique machine learning

algorithms to not only improve their internal operations

but be sold as a standalone product to other customers.

Learning OpportunitySusan is excited but doesn’t fully

understand the potential of Artificial

Intelligence (AI) nor how to

commercialize the technology within

her existing business.

Enabler-Facilitated LearningShe has her engineering team attend Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)

seminars to learn more about AI and ML. They also attend sessions on product

development sponsored by Startup Edmonton and TEC Edmonton.

Accessing Local Talent for CollaborationAt an AI & Business networking event, she meets a professor from the

University of Alberta (U of A) who understands what they are trying to

accomplish and arranges for a collaborative research project with the U of A.

Innovation CatalystsSusan wants her team to start thinking differently and not be tied to the

company’s traditional way of doing things. She facilitates her team’s

exposure to other entrepreneurs by renting co-working space at the AI

centre. At the AI centre the team meets a number of entrepreneurs and

programmers who they hire to help them to scope out their new

products.

New ConnectionsThe U of A professor introduces Susan

to an Asian-multinational corporation

who has set up a corporate research

lab in Edmonton. This company is

interested in the firm’s product line

and offers to be a test site at the

home base in South Korea.

.

Global PotentialSusan is able to cement the relationship to the

Korean company by going on an Edmonton

Global/Amii AI trade mission to Asia. On the

trip she also has the opportunity to meet other

potential customers in Taiwan, Japan and

China.

Diversified ExpansionChristine formally sets up a dedicated AI division and rapidly

expands the firm’s offering into several new markets and using their

AI technology as a competitive advantage.

AI Innovation Success StoryToday, the firm’s subsidiary consisting of AI driven product lines employees 275

people and its revenues and staff count exceed that of their traditional business.

DRAFTAI Journeys: Journey of a Researcher

The business plan impact on a University of Alberta Researcher Founding a

Startup


The Beaten PathNori has completed his PhD in reinforcement

learning (RL) at the University of Alberta (U of A)

and is considering pursuing opportunities towards

a career in Academia.

The Road Less TraveledWhile taking a break before starting his search for an

academic position, he begins to see how his RL research

could have applications in several different consumer

products in the healthcare space. He is excited by the

commercial potential and societal benefits.

Open Data OpportunityPreviously, Nori worked with TEC

Edmonton to protect his intellectual

property (IP) but he now needs more

data to test out his ideas. He attends a

meetup at the centre and learns about

local and provincial open data initiatives.

Enabler-Facilitated InnovationNori participates in a hackathon that gives participants access to government data.

The app he develops with the data serves as a proof of concept. He rents a desk at

the centre co-workspace and works on turning his technology into a product.

Talent Collisions Lead to CollaborationAt the co-working space, Nori meets Salma, who has several years of product

development experience but little background in technology. She also has a

few product ideas.

Networking PropulsionNori and Salma continue their conversations and through some AI

networking meetings, they meet two others with similar interests. The

group develops a collaboration over time and collectively drafts a

business plan with Nori’s IP at the core. The group starts drafting patent

applications and begins working with a local IP lawyer they meet at an

IP protection lunch-and-learn event put on by the AI centre.

Forming a CompanyThrough their networking, the group

meets Lan, a serial entrepreneur

looking for her next gig. They hit it off

with Lan and the group forms a

company with her as CEO, Nori as

CTO and Salma as VP Product

Development.

Team WorkIn order for Nori and Salma to concentrate on

product development, Lan takes on the

administrative tasks like leasing office space,

developing the HR systems, and negotiating

the agreements for accessing government

open data.

Startup SuccessThe new company garners interest from venture capitalists and is

able to raise considerable funding to launch and expand. Today, the

company has offices in North America, Europe and Asia and the

team is even thinking about an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Same Priorities, Different PlanNori’s academic career is on permanent hold since he can now direct his own

research team, pursuing his passion to create products that benefit society and

while considerable financial security.

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