Canada Launches AI Council to Boost Adoption and Sovereignty

Prime Minister Mark Carney has created a National Council on Artificial Intelligence, putting a 13-member group of researchers, technology leaders, business figures and public-sector voices at the centre of Ottawa’s next steps on AI.

The council will advise the federal government on the evolution of Canada’s AI strategy, including how to deploy the technology while managing risks, seizing economic opportunities, strengthening domestic control over key capabilities and ensuring Canadians benefit.

“Prosperity and sovereignty in the age of AI belong to nations that can build, adopt, and govern AI on their own terms,” Carney said.

A broad table for AI advice

The new council brings together public and private stakeholders from Canada’s technology, research, business and public sectors.

Its members are Yoshua Bengio, Sanja Fidler, Ajay Agrawal, Jordan Jacobs, Valérie Pisano, Michelle Zatlyn, John Graham, Gillian Hadfield, Eric Lamarre, Senator Thomas Pitfield, Jody Thomas, Louis Vachon and Patrick Pichette, who will serve in an ex officio capacity.

Their task is wide-ranging. The council will advise Ottawa on how AI can be used across Canada while considering safety, economic growth, domestic capacity and the public interest.

According to Storyboard18, a small team within the Privy Council Office will support the council, while relevant ministers and departments will remain responsible for policy decisions and implementation.

Adoption targets set the pace

The advisory body arrives alongside an ambitious set of federal goals under the AI for All strategy. Canada is targeting an increase in business AI adoption from about 12 per cent to 60 per cent by 2034.

The strategy also targets about $200 billion in additional economic growth and up to 250,000 new AI-related jobs through AI adoption.

Those figures put a practical test before the new council: how to move AI from a promising technology into the daily operations of more Canadian businesses, while retaining meaningful Canadian control over the systems that power it.

According to Energi Media, the strategy includes free AI training and support for small and medium-sized businesses, intended to help workers learn to use AI tools. The outlet also reported that the plan relies in part on government technology purchases to support Canadian firms.

For younger Canadians, Storyboard18 reported that the strategy aims to provide up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work-placement opportunities.

Computing capacity and clean power

Canada’s ambitions are not limited to workplace adoption. They also turn on access to the computing and cloud infrastructure required to develop and use AI.

According to Energi Media, the strategy calls for a public AI supercomputer and investment in Canadian computing and cloud infrastructure. Those plans are aligned with clean-energy expansion, though the strategy notes that power availability for large-scale AI is currently limited.

That infrastructure question goes to the heart of the government’s emphasis on domestic control. Building AI capacity is not simply about where technology is located, but who can use it, develop it and maintain it.

The council’s work will therefore sit at the intersection of economic policy, public trust and the practical demands of infrastructure.

Safety remains part of the mandate

The push for adoption comes with a parallel concern: what protections Canadians need as AI becomes more present in everyday life.

In earlier comments to Energi Media, computer scientist Francine Berman argued that essential digital systems should be treated more like critical infrastructure. “We don’t apply the same kinds of guardrails and protections to them that we do to other kinds of critical infrastructure,” she said.

Columnist Andrew Coyne also argued that public regulation is necessary. “It’s not enough to rely on the goodwill or otherwise of the tech oligarchs,” he said.

Trent University researcher Anne Pasek raised another question tied to sovereignty: Canadian control over data and technology. “I think it’s more about a question of how we diversify the tech sector,” she said.

Those concerns now form part of the council’s central challenge: advising Ottawa on how Canada can pursue AI’s promised growth without allowing safety, democratic protections and domestic control to become afterthoughts.

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