ALL IN 2026 brings Canada’s AI ambitions into one room

Canada has no shortage of AI ambition. 

We’ve moved beyond whether or not the world should be paying attention to us. (And it absolutely should.) 

It’s time for the harder questions, like what gets funded, what gets deployed, what infrastructure can support it, and which Canadian innovations make it beyond the pilot stage, helping build the country’s digital economy.

Canadian businesses are also using AI more widely than they were a year ago. 

Statistics Canada says 19.2% of Canadian businesses used AI to produce goods or deliver services in the 12 months before its second-quarter 2026 survey, up from 12.2% a year earlier and 6.1% in 2024. Among businesses that named barriers to AI use, 13.4% cited cybersecurity or privacy concerns, while 10.6% cited cost. 

ALL IN 2026 is planning on bringing all the pieces for this conversation into one spot. 

The fourth edition returns to the Palais des congrès de Montréal on Sept. 16 and 17, with more than 7,500 leaders, decision-makers, researchers, policy-makers, and investors expected from over 40 countries. 

Organizers have booked more than 260 speakers across four stages, including: 

• Yoshua Bengio, professor at Université de Montréal, co-president and scientific director of LawZero, and founder and scientific advisor of Mila
• Aidan Gomez, CEO and co-founder of Cohere
• Amandeep Singh Gill, United Nations under-secretary-general and special envoy for digital and emerging technologies
• Tulsee Doshi, senior director of product management at Google DeepMind
• Marjorie Janiewicz, chief revenue officer at Mistral AI
• Hugo Larochelle, scientific director at Mila, adjunct professor at Université de Montréal and McGill University, and scientific lead at Adaption Labs
• George Osborne, managing director and head of OpenAI for countries
• Calista Redmond, vice-president of global initiatives, NVIDIA

This year, five content tracks focus on shaping AI’s future, covering AI and society, applied AI and enterprise transformation, AI at the frontier, AI, data and infrastructure, and physical AI and robotics.

Themed showcases will focus on AI infrastructure and quantum computing, alongside the return of the AI challenges initiative, hands-on workshops, roundtables, and AI ecosystem tours.

Hélène Desmarais, founder and co-chair of the board at SCALE AI and co-founder and chair of ALL IN, says the event gives international participants a place to see new AI developments and make “vital connections” with the builders, investors, adopters, and organizations involved in bringing them to market.

A bigger room for a more connected ecosystem

In a statement, ALL IN says the participant mix is about 60% AI adopters and 40% AI providers. 

Having been to many tech events, it’s an interesting mix, giving Canadian organizations a concentrated place to compare what is being built with what they may eventually have to buy and run. 

That said, the network has already stretched beyond Montreal. 

ALL IN launched two one-day offshoots in the spring, drawing more than 500 people to ALL IN Talks West in Vancouver in April, and more than 650 to ALL IN Talks Toronto in May. 

Both events brought together organizations looking to use AI and Canadian companies building it, with sessions on how to buy, deploy, and scale the technology.

“By putting homegrown AI services and solutions front and center,” says Julien Billot, CEO of SCALE AI, “ALL IN gives organizations from every sector and region a direct marketplace to find, evaluate, and adopt local technology.” 

That mix of buyers, builders, and investors also carries into the event’s international programming.

Following France in 2024 and the United Arab Emirates in 2025, Germany is this year’s Country of Honour, bringing a delegation of more than 50 business leaders to Montreal, along with a dedicated pavilion. 

Their participation follows the Canada-Germany Digital Alliance announced in December 2025 and the Sovereign Technology Alliance launched in February, which includes cooperation on AI, compute infrastructure, digital sovereignty, research, commercialization, and talent. 

“Our goal is simple: more meetings that turn into pilots, partnerships, and deals, and more AI being deployed in the real economy,” says Isabelle Turcotte, co-founder and CEO of ALL IN. “Above all, it reinforces ALL IN’s role as a global hub where business and technology leaders meet to build and scale.”

Canada launched its new national AI strategy in June, focusing on adoption, infrastructure, skills, and commercialization. ALL IN arrives three months later, with many of the people expected to realize these priorities under the same roof.

“Around the world, flagship technology events serve as strategic national assets for countries seeking to accelerate innovation and strengthen their global competitiveness and their tech leadership — and that is precisely what ALL IN is building for Canada,” added Turcotte.

Nobody at this event needs another keynote telling them AI is here. We’ve basically hit the “don’t make me tap the sign” point.

The real measure of ALL IN 2026 is after the badges come off, when meetings have to become pilots, pilots have to earn a budget, and Canadian companies have to find their way into real operating environments.

Final shots

• AI adoption is rising, and cost, privacy, cybersecurity, and infrastructure are already part of the operating decision.
• A 60/40 mix of adopters and providers at ALL IN gives Canadian technology buyers a chance to compare what’s available against what they can run IRL.
• International AI partnerships now reach into compute, sovereignty, infrastructure, and commercialization, putting vendor decisions under a much bigger policy umbrella.