The Empire Club of Canada brought leaders from universities, industry, and Canada’s AI ecosystem together to examine how Ontario can move from early adoption to sustainable progress in their event on Talent, Technology and Trust: Launch of the Council of Ontario Universities’ AI Task Force Report.
Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Waterloo, joined one of our newest members, Shannon Bell, Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Officer and Chief Information from OpenText, for a conversation alongside Glenda Crisp, President and CEO of the Vector Institute, on the actions required now to be a leader in the global AI economy.
The discussion focused on how Ontario can prepare students for an AI-driven workforce and support industry in scaling AI adoption to drive innovation and productivity across key sectors. As a leader in higher education, Vivek spoke about the importance of work-integrated learning (WIL) in preparing students for a world with rapidly changing AI infrastructure. As an industry leader, Shannon highlighted the value of critical thinking skills and using AI effectively once adopted.
Their insights, along with the findings in the AI Task Force’s report, align with BHER’s recent report on Understanding AI Workforce Skills Needs prepared in partnership with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii).
BHER’s report finds that AI is not changing who employers hire, but rather what they expect those workers to do. As AI transformation accelerates, stronger partnerships between employers, post-secondary institutions, and governments — including but not limited to more WIL models — will enable workers to develop and apply AI skills in real-world contexts.