Investments of $75 million: Scale AI propels 10 AI projects
MONTRÉAL, Jan. 14, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - Scale AI, a driving force in projects for the application of artificial intelligence at Canadian-based companies, is announcing $27 million in investments to support 10 projects ($22.6 million from the Government of Canada and $4.2 million from the Government of Quebec). Including these companies' own contributions, this amounts to $75 million committed to modernizing processes for productivity enhancement through creativity and Canadian-developed solutions.
In sectors ranging from shipping to retail, and including aeronautics, healthcare and supply chain management tools applicable to every industry, these projects show the diversity of practical and immediate applications of artificial intelligence being deployed in Canada, by and with local experts.
Julien Billot, CEO of Scale AI, notes, "We are excited by the diversity and quality of the projects submitted to Scale AI's financing program for applied artificial intelligence projects. Funding of $27 million, out of a total of more than $75 million invested in 10 projects, will help accelerate the adoption of AI at the participating companies and will inspire others to follow suit." Hélène Desmarais, Co-Chair of the Scale AI Board of Directors, adds, "The files we are receiving show the appetite in every sector for structure-creating support in artificial intelligence. We are convinced that each achievement highlighting our homegrown talent and know-how plays a role in the emergence of this ecosystem in Canada."
The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, states, "With the announcement of these new projects, it is clear that the Scale AI supercluster has momentum. Scale AI is inspiring companies of all sizes to take the leap toward artificial intelligence and is helping establish Canada as a global leader in this emerging technology. These new projects will help tackle important industrial challenges in Canada's areas of economic strength. They present new opportunities to generate prosperity for Canadian families through new and innovative high-quality jobs."
Mr Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy and Innovation of Quebec, adds, "Quebec occupies an important place in the global ecosystem of artificial intelligence thanks to its pool of talented and highly qualified students and researchers in this area, as well as its innovative companies and start-ups. I am convinced that the projects supported by Scale AI will contribute to strengthening our expertise in this field of the future. In addition, these projects complement our government's efforts to make artificial intelligence a major driver of Quebec's economic growth over the next few decades."
10 Projects With Investments of More Than $75 Million
With artificial intelligence still in its early stages of development, the projects supported by Scale AI show the added value of collaborative partnerships in developing practical and relevant solutions. Altogether, 9 organizations and 40+ key partners have taken part in the rollout of these 10 projects, including the participating companies, consultancies, research centres and business partners (customers and suppliers).
Here is an overview of the projects supported.
Two distinct projects bearing witness to the strategic AI integration process Company: Air Canada Scale AI investment: $12.0 M | Richard Hines, Head, Data & Artificial Intelligence at Air Canada: "The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) will provide additional information about our operations and Canadian supply chain. These two ongoing projects will allow us to introduce AI capabilities that will enhance passenger demand forecasting and cargo operations." |
Improving request and optimization Partner: Plotly | Air Canada wants to benefit from machine learning and optimization techniques and integrate them into various processes associated with the value chain and revenue management. |
Technological improvements | Air Canada wants to implement artificial intelligence solutions in its cargo operations to improve the entire supply chain process. |
Ravel by CF: a digital retail trade supply-chain platform Partners: Adeptmind, Coveo, Fintech Growth Syndicate Scale AI investment: $4.8 M Total investment: $13 M | Ravel by CF is an organization focused on removing the friction from today's retail shopping experience, unleashing the untapped potential of physical space and customer experience within some of the world's best commercial real estate. Ravel by CF will use the co-funding from Scale AI to advance AI solutions that will improve retail engagement at Cadillac Fairview properties across five key areas: Intelligent search, Product recommendation, Wayfinding, Supply chain, and Delivery optimization. Jose Ribau, EVP of Digital and Innovation, at Cadillac Fairview: "As we redefine the shopping experience, we are focused on providing solutions that extend from product discovery to delivery, so we can fuel our retail partners' success. The insights derived from this innovative digital platform will be used to propel development of AI-enabled solutions that service Canadian retailers." |
Cognitive Supply Chain Company: CAE Partner: Presagis Scale AI investment: $2.8 M | CAE will be collaborating with its partners and suppliers to optimize its supply chain, while minimizing inventory and further improving on-time delivery of its products to customers around the world. Marc St-Hilaire, Vice President, Technology and Innovation at CAE: "This project will allow CAE to better predict demand and reduce delays in order to minimize the variability of demand in the production chain. It will improve inventory management while ensuring high-quality and efficient services." |
AI adapted supply chain—from design to delivery in the oil and gas industry Company: Stream Systems Partners: Drift Technological Solutions, Egistix Corporation, IBM, Paramount Resources Ltd. Scale AI investment: $1.8 M | The Stream Systems solution (SimOpti) commercializes the use of artificial intelligence, neural networks (NN), simulation and optimization tools creating a digital reality of field operations, providing real-time and long-term decision-making support to our customers. The result is a full system view of the various factors leading to bottlenecks and constraints that affect the flow of assets throughout the business value chain for an energy producer, allowing the producer to take appropriate actions before the revenue opportunity is lost or gained. Bruno Rizzuto, CEO from Stream Systems: "By utilizing simulation to train AI in conjunction with reinforcement learning tool, the energy industry can unlock complex capacity constraints throughout the overall value chain resulting in significant financial returns." |
Operationalizing AI models and metalanguage for Canadian supply chain companies Company: Plotly Partners: Hydro-Québec, S&P Canada, Musashi Canada, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (AMII), BuildDirect, Dex Clothing, Enhance Energy, RenoRun, Xtract AI Scale AI investment: $2 M | Key business decisions increasingly rely on outcomes from AI and data intensive modelling; however, most business decision makers cannot easily interact with, explore or understand these models, undercutting the data investment altogether. Plotly's Dash and Dash Enterprise products enable data scientists, engineers and analysts to develop highly interactive data-driven web applications that any business decision-maker can easily access and analyze to form their own understanding and operationalize takeaways accordingly. Jack Parmer, CEO of Plotly: "Organizations around the world rely on Dash to support the development of interactive analytic applications. This is particularly true for complex AI and machine learning-based applications like supply chain optimization. We're excited to partner with Scale AI and innovative Canadian organizations to offer cutting-edge AI solutions essential to business success." |
Refit optimization: Intelligent multi-objective planning system Company: Thales Partners: Sodan, Simwell, Genoa Design International, Polytechnique Montréal, Laval University, Dalhousie University, Seaspan Victoria Shipyard Scale AI investment: $1.2 M | A Canadian leader in research and technology, Thales Canada combines over 50 years of experience with the talent of more than 2,000 skilled people located coast-to-coast. Combining a unique diversity of expertise, talents and cultures, Thales' architects design and deliver extraordinary high technology solutions, meeting the most complex needs and requirements of its customers across all operating environments. For this project, Thales brought together specialists in technology and design, in addition to university researchers, to develop an innovative optimization solution for the planning of naval in-service support. Mark Halinaty, President and CEO, Thales Canada: "Together with our partners in academia and industry, we are working to develop an intelligent planning system to manage complex activities. As a Canadian leader in maritime in-service support (ISS), developing the refit optimizer gives us the opportunity to incorporate model-based AI into our ISS capabilities, increasing value to our customers." |
Smart platform for the automated construction of local pricing and promotional plans. Company: Rubikloud Partner: Institut Vecteur Scale AI investment: $1.0 M | Rubikloud is enhancing its retail and CPG planning and optimization capabilities by expanding its current AI-driven workflow engine to automatically generate an entire promotional calendar, given the objectives, constraints, local consumer conditions and business rules on behalf of planning teams at a retailer or consumer packaged goods (CPG) company. Waleed Ayoub, CTO from Rubikloud: "Scale AI's objective of boosting economic development in Canada through faster adoption and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) to supply chains is very much aligned with Rubikloud's mission. We are proud to partner with a strong consortium to further push the boundaries of AI's potential across retail and CPG use cases, accelerate our product and AI roadmap, and continue to be excited about growing our business in Canada. |
Bringing home care to the future for better patient outcomes Company: AlayaCare Partners: CBI Health Group, Bien Chez Soi, IntegraCare, Polytechnique Montréal Scale AI investment: $0.9 M | AlayaCare has established an innovative software platform that enables home care providers to deliver best-in-class services and improve patient outcomes. Naomi Goldapple, Head of AlayaLabs, at AlayaCare: "We put technology to work to provide clients with key business insights to increase efficiencies and better deploy resources. Using AI, optimization and machine learning technologies, we are building a bridge between what our clients need and what science can deliver. From scheduling, time reporting, clinical documentation, remote patient monitoring and mobile apps, our software platform helps to propel towards innovation. Our mission is to bring home care into the future by equipping home care professionals with technology needed to deliver better outcomes." |
Object detection and augmented reality Company: OVA Partners: Bombardier Inc., CiMMi Scale AI investment: $0.4 M | OVA's virtual and augmented reality technology applies artificial intelligence to identify defective aircraft equipment and components, which significantly reduces repair times for Aircraft Fleet Operators and optimizes the process as a whole. Harold Dumur, Founder and CEO at OVA: "Empowering aerospace professionals with the capacity to optimize and improve Operator trainings, as well as the repair process itself, is vital to the aerospace industry. The solution developed by OVA came in response to this urgent need." |
About Scale AI (scaleai.ca)
Scale AI is an investment and innovation hub that accelerates the rapid adoption and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and contributes to the development of a world-class Canadian AI ecosystem.
As one of Canada's five innovation superclusters, supported by nearly 120 industry partners, research institutes and other players in the AI field, Scale AI develops programs to support investment projects of companies that implement real-world applications in AI, the rising of future Canadian flagships in the sector, as well as the development of a skilled workforce.
SOURCE Scale AI
Source: Isabelle Turcotte, CMO at Scale AI; Contact: Amélie Forcier, 514 843-2307, [email protected]
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