What Canada’s AI Strategy Needs to Succeed 

Introduction

Canada stands at a pivotal moment, facing persistent productivity challenges, geopolitical instability, and an intensifying global AI race. This confluence of pressures presents both a critical challenge to our economic security and a powerful opportunity to build a more resilient, competitive, and prosperous future.

For over 25 years, Mitacs has been a key catalyst in the Canadian innovation ecosystem. We bridge the gap between industry and academia by building collaborative R&D partnerships and co-investing in projects driven by post-secondary talent. Our impact is delivered on a national scale and is supported by funding agreements with all provinces and the Yukon. Since 2018, we have injected over $1.42 billion into 35,000 innovation projects, including over 4,800 AI-specific internships representing an investment of more than $174 million (Appendix A).^[1]

This investment yields tangible results for our partners and for Canada. A 2024 Statistics Canada study confirms that companies partnering with Mitacs see an average 11 percent boost in productivity, 9 percent growth in revenue, and a 16 percent increase in sales.^[2] This proven, talent-first model is critical for supporting the journey to commercial success for Canadian firms, from de-risking R&D for novel solutions to driving AI adoption within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Principal Recommendations

Drawing on our over 25 years of on-the-ground experience catalyzing Canadian innovation, we recommend the following strategic priorities for Canada’s next AI strategy:

1. Bridge the research to commercialization and scale-up gap. Canada faces a deep innovation paradox. To address this, the national strategy should strategically deploy highly qualified talent to accelerate R&D in industry. Furthermore, it should enhance support for academic entrepreneurs to foster the development of more startups and scale-ups. This talent-first model should be complemented by strengthening access to the foundational elements of a modern innovation economy, including sovereign compute power, high-quality data, domestic capital, and strategic procurement.
2. Drive widespread AI adoption to boost national productivity. Canada’s persistent productivity gap is directly linked to slow technology adoption by its businesses, particularly SMEs. A national strategy must address this by building the internal capacity of Canadian firms to integrate and capitalize on AI. An effective way to de-risk AI adoption is to embed skilled talent directly into these businesses. This on-the-ground support enables them to identify concrete opportunities to apply AI—such as optimizing internal processes, enhancing customer engagement, and strengthening supply chains—while also demonstrating the return on investment, and building their team’s AI readiness from within. This approach is critical for helping our core industries become more efficient, competitive, and resilient.
3. Launch a national mission to build Canada’s AI awareness, literacy and skills readiness. Canada’s low AI literacy is a critical barrier to both public trust and widespread business adoption. The national strategy should launch a mission-driven effort focussed on two key areas: first, increasing AI awareness and literacy from the “classroom to the boardroom,” including students from K-12 to post-secondary; and second, a dedicated focus on AI literacy for the multi-disciplinary Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) who can bridge research and industrial applications.
4. Build and leverage sovereign compute infrastructure to enhance our research edge and commercialization success. The AI strategy should build on and expand the Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy to accelerate the development of Canadian-owned public supercomputing and commercial data centres. This strategy must also address the critical and related challenge of data access; researchers and firms cannot innovate without secure and equitable access to high-quality, representative datasets to advance their research and commercialize new products and services.
5. Build a governance framework that enables speed and trust. To accelerate adoption and secure public trust, Canada should build a clear, predictable, and pro-innovation governance framework. This framework should be anchored by appropriate safeguards and supported by clear and harmonized standards nationwide. Furthermore, it should be complemented by active Canadian participation in the global dialogue, including strengthening support for the AI Safety Institute and international collaboration on standards.

Enhancing Our Support for Canada’s AI Ambitions

With support from the Government of Canada, Mitacs is positioned to significantly enhance its impact and help deliver on the national AI strategy. We are ready to:

1. Scale our programing to bridge the commercialization gap. To bridge the commercialization gap, we can scale our flagship programming and embed more multi-disciplinary research teams directly into industry to solve complex R&D challenges. We are ready to augment this proven model, inspired by global best practices like AI Singapore’s 100E program, to deploy elite talent that can accelerate the development of novel, high-value AI solutions and create the next generation of Canadian-owned AI ventures.
2. Deepen our support for SME AI adoption. To accelerate AI adoption where it is needed most, we can deepen our support for SMEs through targeted enhancements to our existing programming. By embedding talent directly into more Canadian businesses, this on-the-ground support will help them de-risk their adoption journey, determine the ROI of AI solutions, and build the internal capacity needed to enhance their productivity and competitiveness.
3. Equip Canada’s HQP with Applied AI and Commercialization Skills. We can scale our model to equip thousands more HQP with the applied AI, business, and commercialization skills needed to bridge the gap between research and industry. We are enhancing our core experiential learning opportunities by expanding our specialized training partnerships, like our upcoming collaboration with Concordia University’s AI² (Applied AI Institute), to enhance the AI workforce readiness of our interns.

Appendix A: Mitacs History in AI

Mitacs takes a flexible, demand-driven approach to innovation, supporting areas where the economy and society show emerging need. As artificial intelligence (AI) gained traction as both a research field and a commercial opportunity, Mitacs’ flexible programming enabled us to be an early supporter for AI-related projects across sectors. In 2019, a dedicated tracking tag was introduced to monitor AI-specific activity across our portfolio of projects.

Mitacs role in artificial intelligence in Canada 2019-2025^[3]

From 2019 to 2025, Mitacs-supported AI projects show notable growth and reach, evidenced by the strong growth internships year after year. Similarly, interns placed on AI projects are drawn from a variety of disciplines, with engineering and computer science graduates taking the main share.

Impact on AI adoption across sectors

Mitacs offers several internship programs designed to support innovation across sectors. Our flagship Accelerate program supports industry-academia collaborative R&D, while our Business Strategy Internship (BSI) program plays a growing and complementary role in driving AI adoption and commercialization. BSI is an innovation-focused internship that helps organizations improve products, services, processes, marketing, and business strategies, while providing interns with hands-on experience.

Percent of interns and projects focusing on AI as part of Mitacs BSI program

This program is particularly valuable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups. By embedding skilled talent directly into operations, BSI supports the adoption of transformative technologies—including AI—across industries. The result is stronger commercialization pathways, improved productivity, and enhanced capacity for innovation.

Supporting AI Adoption in Small Businesses

Mitacs supports small businesses, specifically those with fewer than 50 employees, in embedding artificial intelligence directly into their products and services. These organizations often use the BSI program to access skilled talent and accelerate innovation. Skinopathy, a Canadian health tech company, is using AI to develop tools for identifying skin lesions. Taking advantage of our BSI program, they are advancing product development and currently selling to Canadian healthcare providers.^[4]

Our Accelerate program is our key mechanism for de-risking the lab-to-market journey for research-intensive startups. FluidAI, an AI-powered med-tech company founded by University of Waterloo students, was scaled through a long-term Mitacs R&D partnership. Starting in 2016, our support was critical for prototype development, R&D, clinical validation, and business expansion. This sustained partnership helped the company validate the technology and make the leap from student startup to a company improving patient outcomes across Canada.^[5]

Supporting AI Integration in Large Enterprises

Larger firms (500+ employees) typically leverage the BSI program to embed AI into their operations, driving efficiency across business functions. These projects focus on process optimization, digital transformation, and scaling AI capabilities. Rogers Communications is using BSI to support AI integration across key business units, including Customer Care, Network Operations, and Human Resources to enhance service, drive efficiency and support its broader digital transformation strategy.^[6]

Beyond our BSI internships, our flagship Accelerate program is the primary vehicle through which we support the cultivation of the next generation of AI technologies with industry.

• Example: RBC Borealis AI has partnered with Mitacs to build a robust talent pipeline and retain top-tier AI researchers in Canada. This long-term partnership embeds graduate and post-doctoral talent from Canada’s top AI universities directly into Borealis’s labs to conduct research.^[7]

• Example: Thales has partnered with Mitacs to fuel the development of its AI R&D hub, cortAIx Labs. This partnership provides a critical talent pipeline – with former Mitacs interns accounting for roughly one-third of the lab’s full-time staff – to develop advanced, ethical AI for applications in aviation and defence.^[8]

Role in strengthening AI capacity in the workforce

To enhance Canada’s AI advantage, we must address our HQP’s well-known and persistent skill gaps. Academic excellence and highly refined technical skillsets are not enough; our HQP must also possess the applied, practical skills that industry demands to drive digital adoption.

Mitacs actively develops this talent through a comprehensive approach. First and foremost, the innovation-focussed WIL internship itself is the most critical intervention, immersing HQP in a real-world business environment. We then enhance this experience with our core skills curriculum, which is designed to enhance the professional skills of our interns by providing foundational training in project management, leadership, communication, and entrepreneurship.

To provide best-in-class, specialized training, we also act as a national innovation connector and partner with leading institutions. Our upcoming partnership with Concordia University’s AI² (Applied AI Institute) exemplifies this approach. This initiative will deliver a curriculum specifically designed to enhance the applied AI literacy of our program participants and equip them with effective, industry-ready skills.

The modules are purpose-built to address the key gaps between academia and industry:

• AI Foundations for industry-ready research students
• Applied AI Skills for innovation in industry
• AI Strategy and project management
• Sustainable AI Practices: Balancing Innovation with Responsibility
• AI & Career toolkit

This targeted training is designed to ensure our interns act as catalysts for digital transformation, driving technology adoption within their host organizations—particularly non-tech SMEs.

Mitacs as an institutional partner

Our national reach in AI projects and

Mitacs is a partner for accessing AI talent across Canada. With a network that spans over 190 post-secondary institutions and a business development team covering every province and Yukon territory, Mitacs helps connect organizations with the skilled talent they need to advance AI adoption. Our reach is national, and our delivery is local, making it easier for partners to engage with AI expertise wherever they are.

The table below shows how Mitacs-supported AI internships are distributed across the country, with active projects in every province and one territory. This reflects not only the breadth of our national reach, but also the depth of our relationships with Canadian businesses at local level (from startups to established firms) who are embedding AI into their products, services, and operations.

This footprint positions Mitacs as a potential matchmaker for AI talent. By working closely with academic institutions and industry partners, we are able to build the connections that support innovation and workforce development. For governments and business leaders looking to grow AI capacity, Mitacs offers a practical, scalable way to engage talent across Canada.

Mitacs also has ongoing contractual arrangements with all provincial governments across Canada, as well as the Yukon Territory, to support internships, including those focused on artificial intelligence.

Our partnerships with AI ecosystem players

Mitacs works with a range of leading organizations in Canada’s AI ecosystem to strengthen research and commercialization efforts. These include:

• IVADO: Mitacs works with IVADO to amplify AI-related initiatives across sectors. This includes joint efforts in data science, operational research, and artificial intelligence, helping extend the impact of innovation in Canada.
• Mila: Mitacs collaborates with Mila on AI research and talent development. This includes supporting over 650 internship units over two years to promote AI adoption and diversity. Mitacs also partnered with the University of Montreal’s Professional Master’s Program in AI (DESS and M.Sc. in Machine Learning), enabling 200 internships focused on machine learning applications in sectors like finance and healthcare.
• Vector Institute: Mitacs partners with the Vector Institute to advance both fundamental and applied AI research. These collaborations include work on trust in AI systems, notably through the Confiance AI consortium, which supports secure and reliable AI adoption in industries such as finance and healthcare.
• AMII (Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute): Mitacs supports collaborations with AMII to drive AI research and commercialization in Alberta. These efforts contribute to regional innovation and help SMEs scale AI solutions tailored to local industry needs
• CIFAR: Mitacs aligns with CIFAR’s thought leadership, including insights from the State of AI in Canada report. These insights inform Mitacs’ strategic focus on addressing talent shortages, ethical concerns, and barriers to AI adoption across sectors.
• Pan-Canadian AI Strategy: Mitacs expanded its AI partnerships following the launch of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy in 2017. This enabled Mitacs to elevate its contributions to AI adoption and commercialization, reinforcing Canada’s global competitiveness in AI.

Our international partnerships

Mitacs collaborates with partners from every continent and currently works with post-secondary research institutions in 24 countries, as shown in the table below. This includes active relationships across the G7, where interns from countries such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States regularly participate in Canadian research projects, including those focused on AI.

Mitacs works with institutions across the world – Including in 5 out of 6 fellow G7 countries

While not limited to AI, Mitacs’s international programs provide a pathway for foreign interns to contribute to cutting-edge work in Canada. Through both formal agreements and ongoing collaboration, Mitacs helps connect Canadian researchers and organizations with global talent—supporting knowledge exchange and innovation across borders.

[1] Aggregations covering all programs as of March 2025, including cancellations, for the period of April 2018 to March 2025

[2] Statistics Canada (2024). Fueling Innovation: Measuring the Economic Impact of Mitacs. Based on economic performance of companies who participated in Mitacs programs between 2009 and 2018. Considers three years after Mitacs’s support

[3] Aggregations covering all programs as of March 2025, including cancellations, for the period of April 2019 to March 2025, where project partners indicated the project focuses on artificial intelligence at least in part. 

[4] Mitacs (2025). Mitacs talent helps AI startup transform skin cancer detection, url: https://www.mitacs.ca/our-innovation-insights/mitacs-talent-helps-ai-startup-transform-skin-cancer-detection/

[5] Mitacs (2025). Mitacs empowers safer and smarter post operative care with FluidAI, url: https://www.mitacs.ca/our-innovation-insights/mitacs-empowers-safer-and-smarter-post-op-care-with-fluid-ai/

[6] Rogers (2024). Rogers and UBC renew 5g research partnership through 2025, url: https://about.rogers.com/news-ideas/rogers-and-ubc-renew-5g-research-partnership-through-2025/

[7] Mitacs (2025). Brain drain got you down, try brain gain, url: https://www.mitacs.ca/our-innovation-insights/brain-drain-got-you-down-try-brain-retain/

[8] Mitacs (2025). Redefining safety with ethical AI in aviation and beyond, url: https://www.mitacs.ca/our-innovation-insights/redefining-safety-with-ethical-ai-in-aviation-and-beyond/