Expertise AI Raises CA$3.2 Million to Close the AI Adoption Gap in Traditional Industries

Led by UpHonest Capital, the seed round backs hands-on AI adoption that helps enterprises build fluency and put proprietary knowledge to work.

TORONTO, Sept. 15, 2026 /CNW/ -- Expertise AI today announced CA$3.2 million in seed funding led by UpHonest Capital, with participation from AMINO Capital, Welight Capital, UpScaleX and AltaIR Capital, to help enterprises in traditional industries build AI fluency and deploy AI agents across sales and customer support.

For enterprises in logistics, utilities and energy, telecommunications, financial services, and manufacturing, buying access to AI is only the beginning. Without practical fluency, teams can spend hours rewriting prompts and correcting outputs without establishing repeatable processes. Sharing proprietary knowledge without agreed rules creates a governance problem alongside the adoption problem.

"An enterprise can spend heavily on AI while its people are still guessing what to ask, what to trust and what to do with the answer," said Hao Sheng, Founder and CEO of Expertise AI.

Agents can answer product questions, qualify inquiries, book meetings, route service requests and update connected systems, with complex cases moving to a person with relevant context.

According to Expertise AI's published case study, Circuit Electric, Hydro-Québec's public EV charging network, recorded a 22.35% reduction in contact-form submissions among engaged website sessions, with measurable impact within 60 days. The study also reports 557 customer contacts avoided in December 2024.

Expertise AI's forward-deployed engineers work directly with customer teams to identify a valuable starting workflow, connect existing knowledge and systems, and establish what an agent should know, which actions it can take and when a person needs to intervene. They evaluate performance against an agreed business measure and refine behaviour using real interactions, helping teams develop practical AI fluency.

Expertise AI provisions a virtual private server for each customer's agents and workflows. Customers choose their models, including open-source and open-weight options, to reflect performance, cost and operational requirements. Unlimited-usage options offer greater predictability in AI spending as adoption expands.

As an initial workflow proves its value, enterprises can reuse its knowledge, integrations and operating rules across additional teams and use cases.

About Expertise AI

Expertise AI helps enterprises build AI fluency and deploy AI agents across sales and customer support, making the progression from experimentation to repeatable business capability accessible to traditional industries. Learn more at expertise.ai.

SOURCE Expertise AI

Media Contact: Riddhima Agarwal, Expertise AI, [email protected]