Bringing together leading experts on technology adoption and public policy, the Canadian AI Adoption Initiative (CAIAI) is tasked with addressing the long-standing productivity crisis in Canada.
"This initiative aligns with a growing government focus on AI adoption and will provide policymakers advice on best practices and support in developing the metrics that track country-wide adoption," says Joël Blit, co-director of CAIAI, professor of Economics at the University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).
As one of Canada's most innovative universities, Waterloo is ideally suited to help develop this nation-building project through its research, graduates and connections to industry. It was established with a similar goal in the 1950s when a group of business leaders imagined a new university built to power the economy and address local and global challenges through unconventional means.
CAIAI will bring together partners from academia, government and the private sector to develop approaches and policies for adopting and assessing AI.
"So far, Canada has invested heavily in AI research and should continue to do so, but most of the economic value generated by AI will come from integrating it throughout the economy, including in traditional sectors," says Danielle Goldfarb, co-director of CAIAI, and a senior fellow at CIGI and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. "To ensure success, Canada needs to set an ambitious adoption target and advance AI adoption as a nation-building exercise."
Across sectors, AI is already having a transformational impact. From health and sustainability to economics and technology, AI is disrupting how society functions in many ways.
"Public trust will grow when Canadians see the value of AI in action, understand how it works and believe they have a role to play in shaping its future," Blit says. "AI is a general-purpose technology, and as such it is going to transform most sectors of the economy and society."
Both Blit and Goldfarb believe AI presents a historic opportunity for Canada to address its productivity decline and change its economic trajectory.
"Canadians are some of AI's pioneers, but collectively as a country we've been slow in commercialization and uptake," Goldfarb says. "Broad-based AI adoption is Canada's best way to reverse the productivity decline, raise living standards and strengthen the country's economic competitiveness."
The priorities that CAIAI has laid out include developing recommendations to foster adoption, launching a data hub tracking AI adoption and equipping small- and medium-sized enterprises with AI starter packs.
The Canadian AI Adoption Initiative is a partnership between CIGI, the Centre for the Study of Living Standards and the University of Waterloo.
