Microsoft Canada: Committing to a world of innovative, responsible AI

About two-and-a-half years after generative artificial intelligence entered the picture, AI’s prominence has Canadians looking to industry leaders to answer how the country can set itself up for success through responsible implementation and a commitment to skilling the next generation.

With that goal in mind, Microsoft Canada president Chris Barry led the Maclean’s Ideas Summit: The Year Ahead on February 26 as part of a fireside chat moderated by Maclean’s publisher Jason Maghanoy. Barry, a 23-year veteran of Microsoft, discussed the AI opportunity in Canada, where it’s headed as a tool to boost productivity and how the country can commit to its sustainable and responsible use. “This is a general purpose technology, we would say—much like electricity or the internet. It is of that scale,” he said.

A 2024 KPMG survey found 46 per cent of Canadian information workers use some form of artificial intelligence (AI), while the majority of the Maclean’s Ideas Summit audience acknowledged they use the technology. With big-picture impacts and everyday use combined, Barry said, “There’s a lot of, dare I say, unsexy but super important work that’s happening that’s helping make organizations of all stripes be more efficient.” 

Barry described how the City of Kelowna in British Columbia has developed a solution to speed-up the building permit application process thanks to an AI-powered chat bot, reducing administrative burden on both citizens and government staff. “That’s one town in one province in this country for one function,” said Barry. “You take that one point example and extrapolate that across the opportunity set broadly, and you see how this can start to transform organizations.”

Similar examples of Canadian innovation come from Alberta—where a partnership between AI company AltaML, the provincial government and Alberta Wildfire to implement Microsoft AI-powered fire prediction technology is helping to better allocate money and resources—and the financial sector, where TD Bank Group leveraged generative AI to enhance customer experiences in its contact centers and accelerate the coding workflow for its engineers.

Microsoft is committed to using AI to build a strong future, having invested $500 million USD to expand cloud computing infrastructure in Quebec. With this commitment to making AI a part of Canada’s next era comes a need to adapt to major change—Barry compared AI to calculators as a device people were uncertain about making readily available. The emergence of generative technology, he said, is in line with those of the personal computer, the Internet and mobile devices as the big four platform shifts in computer technology. 

“We have assimilated to technologies and figured out ways to establish norms about their use,” he said. “There will be an evolution around AI. It depends on the industry, the sector, about what is seen as the provenance of a piece of work, and our acceptance of how much that was aided or created by AI.”

Companies like Microsoft also have to navigate the necessary balance between generative AI and human judgement in driving decisions. Barry described that they encourage employees to use Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft’s intelligent conversational AI technology, to write their quarterly performance reviews, but the manager must write their own feedback to employees. “For us, there’s an element of judgment that’s being brought there. And so you have to delineate the acceptable use versus where we want the human to stay fully in the loop of the creation bit,” explained Barry. 

Another development in the field is that of agentic AI. Barry noted that Microsoft Teams uses agentic AI in its transcription service, which offers a breakdown of how meetings transpired, who was called out and what action items stand. He says humans are always kept in the loop.

As Canadians look to how they can take advantage of the AI opportunity, Microsoft also factors into helping Canada build a skilled and AI-literate workforce. Recognizing that generative AI skills are becoming essential, they’ve collaborated with organizations such as the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, Logics Academy and Imagine Canada and the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience to launch customized training initiatives. In addition to these tailored AI skills programs, the Microsoft AI Skills Navigator is a free, AI-assisted platform built to empower all Canadians to learn how to unlock the opportunity and power of AI at work. “We’re so deeply invested in AI skilling because there are millions and millions, arguably billions, of people that need to get those skills,” said Barry.

Another key to building a healthy AI ecosystem is public-private collaboration and regulation. The AI Data Act (AIDA) was halted in the Canadian government in January, leaving questions about how regulation will keep up with the technology and the industry.

Microsoft set up an office of responsible AI in 2018, framed around principles such as fairness, transparency, equity and trust. Barry said the company believes AI should be regulated, equitably. “What you don’t want to end up with is a set of regulations that are too disparate so that people that leverage the technologies are facing dramatically different experiences across borders,” he said.

A question from the audience brought up the environmental impact associated with AI and companies’ associated responsibilities. Microsoft’s commitments include a goal to be carbon negative, zero waste and water positive by 2030 and to be carbon negative enough by 2050 to account for their emissions since 1975.  “When it comes to things like data centers…it is about ensuring we have sustainable net carbon negative power sources,” said Barry.

At the end of the day, there is plenty of room for AI to grow and adapt in 2025, alongside evolutions in regulation, sustainability, training and accessibility.

“We may see some pretty profound change,” said Barry.

Microsoft will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding on April 4 as well as the 40th anniversary of Microsoft Canada later this year.