From AI hype to AI at work: reflections from Web Summit Vancouver
By Sam Collins, Director Technical Product Management, Bell AI Fabric
I just came home from my first time at Web Summit, and it’s made me reflect on the growth and change in Canada’s AI ecosystem. I’m struck by how much the conversation around artificial intelligence has evolved. A year ago, the buzz was all about potential and promise. This year, the focus has shifted decisively to practice and tangible value.
The energy in Vancouver was incredible. It felt like everyone in the tech industry, from developers to C-suite leaders, was engaged in serious, sophisticated discussions about AI. Gone are the questions of when or whether to start adopting AI. Now people are talking about how to do it right and how to ensure they are developing the in-house talent needed to keep doing it right. The era of cautiously dipping a toe is over.
Masterclass session with Sam Collins, Craig Tavares (President & COO, Buzz HPC) and David Arsenault (Vice President, Global Sales, Hypertec).
The conversation is getting deeper
Last year, I often found myself explaining foundational concepts like what a token is. This year, people came to me with educated questions about decreasing inference latency, comparing specific GPUs, and defining value-driven use cases for AI implementation.
This shift from observation to action is one of the biggest changes I’ve seen. People are no longer just watching the AI phenomenon unfold. They are rolling up their sleeves and looking for ways to get involved. They have specific challenges they want to address. So, at our Masterclass on designing secure, scalable and sovereign AI architecture, participants didn’t ask why we’d done it, they asked specific questions about our partners and about innovations in areas like sustainability.
It’s refreshing. We’re moving past the initial hype and realizing that true value doesn't come from simply adding AI to a product. It comes from using it as the right tool for the right job – to transform business, save money, improve experiences and enhance our lives.
Sovereignty is about more than just borders
One of the most powerful themes at the summit was AI sovereignty. The conversation has matured beyond keeping data within Canadian borders. It’s now about control, economic value and ensuring the benefits of AI are extended to all communities.
For example: when we build AI models on Canadian data for Canadian industries, it means we are doing more than adapting a foreign model to fit our circumstances. We’re building a solution that takes our context into account from the outset. It’s by us, for us. This is sovereignty that’s not about protectionism. Instead, it’s about leveraging local understanding and values to do the best possible work for our people and our businesses.
This extends to how we build our AI infrastructure here at Bell. By partnering with Canadian companies like Hypertec for data centre infrastructure or Buzz High Performance Computing for compute services, we’re doing more than industrializing AI. We're building domestically and responsibly. It’s about developing jobs and expertise here at home and also about ensuring our AI ecosystem reflects Canadian values of sustainability and community stewardship.
What's next? The rise of the agent
If this year was about putting AI into practice, I believe next year will be about the rise of the AI agent.
Right now, using agents as a true power user requires a lot of custom development. But I predict we're on the cusp of a major shift. We’ll soon see agentic capabilities become packaged, easy to use and a standard part of every professional's toolkit, much like chatbots have become in recent years. The conversation will evolve from "what are agents and how do I use them?" to "how do I best manage my team of agents to get work done?"
Leaving the Web Summit Conference, I felt energized by the collective focus on making AI real. The industry is moving from abstract ideas to practical applications, and working with Bell AI Fabric gives me an exciting opportunity to be a part of that change.
To learn more, read Sam’ s blog on the inner workings of Bell AI Fabric or visit the Bell AI Fabric website.
Web Summit photo by Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile.