Canada’s federal government says it is committed to driving ethical and responsible development and adoption of AI across the nation’s economy and society.
At this year’s ALL IN event, minister François-Philippe Champagne announced $15 million through the Strategic Investment Fund to support Canada’s Coveo Solutions.
Coveo’s search and recommendations cloud platform connects an enterprise’s data sources into a unified index and makes this information available to end users through AI-powered services, delivering personalized results.
“Our government supports AI as a channel for innovation, enabling companies to develop new products that better serve Canadians,” stated Champagne this month. “This sector is expanding rapidly, and we are investing in exciting ventures to drive economic growth and increase productivity, all while opening up new opportunities for work in a variety of sectors that touch AI.”
With government funding, Coveo intends to enhance its platform by “adding advanced generative AI capabilities and other innovations, allowing enterprises to efficiently develop and deploy AI solutions powered by their entire enterprise knowledge base,” according to a statement from Canada.
“Support through the Strategic Innovation Fund will enable us to accelerate the development of our AI Search and Generative Experience Platform, empowering enterprises to thrive in the generative AI era,” commented Coveo cofounder and chief of technology, Laurent Simoneau.
This technology platform “has the potential to serve as a key pillar of an enterprise architecture to make data available to all AI experiences in a wide range of industries, improve customer service, and enhance how companies manage their data.”
“We believe that the innovations resulting from this partnership will not only enhance Coveo’s competitive edge as a leading Canadian AI firm but also strengthen our ability to expand our workforce and customer base in Canada,” stated Simoneau. “Additionally, this investment will allow us to deepen our commitment to applied research, helping to sustain Canada’s leadership in the AI sector.”
Incorporated in 2004, the publicly traded Coveo is headquartered in the City of Québec and currently employs more than 700 people around the world. By 2019, Coveo had become a unicorn. The firm’s expansion is expected to spur up to 600 new “highly skilled” positions in Canada.
The Government of Canada launched the Strategic Innovation Fund in Budget 2017 to create jobs.
