Ottawa has unveiled a national artificial intelligence strategy aimed at accelerating adoption, commercialization and sovereign compute capacity while supporting the growth of Canadian AI companies. The plan includes billions of dollars in funding and sets ambitious targets for business adoption, workforce development and economic growth.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Joelle Pineau, chief AI officer at Cohere, who said Canada has the talent, energy resources and research foundation needed to lead the next phase of AI development. She emphasized that execution, access to capital, commercialization and stronger domestic demand will be critical to the strategy’s success.
Key Takeaways
- Canada is shifting its AI focus from research leadership toward commercialization, industry adoption and the growth of homegrown AI companies.
- Sovereign compute investments and additional data centre capacity could help Canadian AI firms scale advanced models and compete globally.
- Access to venture capital remains a challenge for Canadian founders, particularly compared with the U.S., making funding initiatives an important part of the strategy.
- Workforce development, retraining and AI education programs will be essential as AI reshapes jobs across multiple sectors.
- Strong adoption by businesses, governments and small and medium-sized enterprises will be necessary to translate AI investments into economic growth.
Read the full transcript below:
ROGER: Ottawa unveiling its AI strategy this morning, explaining how it will help the country adopt artificial intelligence and support domestic AI companies. The plan earmarks billions of dollars to increase adoption, commercialization and sovereign compute capacity. Joining us now to share her thoughts on the plan is Joelle Pineau, chief AI officer at Cohere. Joelle, thank you very much for joining us today.
JOELLE: Hello.
ROGER: What stands out to you from the announcement today?
JOELLE: Well, it’s quite a broad announcement. There are many components, six different pillars. I think one of the things that really stands out is the focus on moving from a culture that really brought forward innovation in AI through the research programs and the talent pipeline toward bringing that to more of a commercialization side, developing industry, bringing AI into companies, as well as developing homegrown companies in Canada.
ROGER: It seems ambitious. Does it seem achievable to you?
JOELLE: It seems ambitious, but I do think we have a lot of the key elements in the country, whether it comes to having the energy to build our data centres, as I mentioned, having the talent on which to build our companies, having a very educated population. I think a lot of what’s in that strategy is absolutely achievable with the right level of focus.
ROGER: And where do you see Cohere fitting in with this? I mean, there’s talk, there’s the $500 million tech growth fund, they’ll have national champion AI firms and seed other companies. Where do you see Cohere fitting in?
JOELLE: Yeah, there’s a few different elements. I think one of the things where Cohere really stands out is our ability to build models, so that’s recognized in there. That requires significant investment, both in terms of financial investments, but also the building of data centres. So, really glad to see those measures in there. I do think, for us, the investment that the government itself is going to make into transforming the public service is going to be important. It’s going to be an important business for us in coming years.
ROGER: And do you see any concerns if there is funding or companies that are funded by the government, their independence might be lost with this?
JOELLE: I mean, I think the Canadian government has a very sound process in terms of provisioning and so on. This is going to be competitive, as always, for Cohere. We also have very healthy growth in demand on the commercial side in Canada, in the U.S. and also abroad. And so I’m not worried at this time about this.
ROGER: Okay. One of the things you mentioned, data centres, and you’re trying to position yourself as an alternative to the U.S. AI giants. Does the sovereign compute infrastructure change your competitive positioning, or does it benefit the hyperscalers?
JOELLE: It’s certainly a very welcome measure, in the sense that more availability of compute capacity is going to help us right now.
ROGER: And I just want to go back. One of the things you mentioned was we have the talent up here. One of the big issues has been trying to keep it, and also, if we do start growing AI, is there going to be enough talent to go around? Will you find yourself fighting for some of the best of the best?
JOELLE: So far, there’s a ton of young people who are incredibly talented, who are interested in this field. I have a bit of a foot in academia through McGill University and Mila. I was recently at the University of Waterloo. There’s a ton of talented young people coming through that university system who are very keen to participate in terms of building those solutions, diffusing AI through industry and society. So, right now we’re not seeing that as a bottleneck to our growth.
ROGER: But we are seeing a lot of people heading south from those universities. Is this enough? The idea of growing it, is it enough to keep them here, do you think?
JOELLE: I think what’s hard is to convince folks to build new companies in Canada. There’s a lot of talent, but when it comes to actually being first-time founders, this is where there’s more difficulty in believing that you can start, as well as grow, in Canada. I think Cohere’s a great example. We certainly hope to inspire many more to do the same.
ROGER: What do you think would help assist that, to get more people to stay and build and become builders?
JOELLE: Some of that is just having that kind of community, having second- and third-time builders who really serve as mentors to set the blueprint for others. Some of that is investments. In particular, high-risk capital is much easier to obtain in the Bay Area than it is in Canada today. I do hope that some of the elements in the strategy will change that. There’s been the launch of a venture fund at Mila, for example, that is paving the way toward some of that, but there’s going to be a number of these ingredients that come together for that to become the norm rather than the exception.
ROGER: And one of the plans for this is to grow jobs, create jobs. I mean, there’s been a big concern about the impact of AI, people losing their jobs. We’re hearing from CUPE, not happy about it, saying that the government is going after big tech and profits for big tech as opposed to people. Do you think what they have planned will help create jobs, or is CUPE not that far off?
JOELLE: There’s certainly a number of measures here that should be a very positive signal in terms of creating jobs. One of those is the measures toward education, in terms of levelling education, even in the earlier phases of training. Some of that is reskilling and retraining. So, honestly, we’ll have to see. I think CUPE certainly has some interesting experience, and the fact is that we will need to help the transition of a large amount of the workforce. The nature of the work itself is going to change, not just in big tech, but across several sectors. So, I do think there’s important work to be done there. I would hope that CUPE is a partner in doing that work. The government has put a number of measures in place to help do that, especially when it comes to supporting SMEs through that transition. So, I do think we have our work cut out for us in terms of carrying out the vision in practice.
ROGER: And where do you see the jobs coming from, the new jobs being created?
JOELLE: A lot of the jobs that are being created in the short term are actually people who are able to understand the technology, understand a particular domain, whether it’s financial services, whether it’s healthcare, pharmacology, understand the ways in which AI can solve problems more efficiently in those domains. And so we have a number of solutions architects, forward-deployed engineers, customer AI support teams who are crafting these AI solutions that solve real problems. In the short term, that’s really where a lot of that growth is coming from. Longer term, we’ll have to see how quickly the change occurs.
ROGER: Okay, Joelle, we have to wrap it up there. But thank you very much for joining us today.
JOELLE: Pleasure to be with you. Have a good day.
ROGER: You too. Joelle Pineau, chief AI officer at Cohere.
---
This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the June 4, 2026 interview with Joelle Pineau are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
