I'm Lilach Bullock, an AI implementation consultant, and this is where the top AI experts in Canada sit: Yoshua Bengio of Mila, Richard Sutton at Amii and Raquel Urtasun, who co-founded Vector. Most are researchers, so decide between research, policy and applied help first. I wrote this list and I'm on it, as the practitioner.
Canada's AI bench didn't happen by accident, which is the thing to understand before you read a single name. The Government of Canada's Pan-Canadian AI Strategy launched in 2017 to strengthen Canada's leadership in AI research and expand its pool of skilled experts, and it names three national institutes: Amii, Mila and the Vector Institute.
So if you ask who Canada's AI experts are, you mostly get the people around those three hubs, and that's how I've organised this page. Pick the hub whose work matches your question. I've kept to what each person's own page says, as of Nov 2026, and where a source gives no base for someone, I haven't claimed one.
A word on the list: it's a shortlist, not a ranking. Geoffrey Hinton, Aidan Gomez, Elissa Strome and Diane Gutiw are other names you'll see on Canadian lists.
| Hub | Expert | What to read them for |
|---|---|---|
| Mila, Montreal | Yoshua Bengio | AI safety and where the research is going |
| Mila and McGill | Joelle Pineau | How research becomes reliable and reproducible |
| Mila and DeepMind Montreal | Doina Precup | Reinforcement learning, and one person across a university and a company lab |
| Amii, Edmonton | Richard Sutton | The reinforcement learning view of where AI is going |
| Vector, Toronto, and Waabi | Raquel Urtasun | The route from research to a company |
| No hub: the business side | Lilach Bullock (me) | Getting AI working in a team |
Mila and Montreal
Three people, three different reasons to read them.
- Yoshua Bengio. His site says he's Full Professor of Computer Science at Université de Montréal, Co-President and Scientific Director of LawZero, Founder and Scientific Advisor of Mila, and holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair. Read him if you want to follow AI safety and research direction. He isn't going to help you pick business tools.
- Joelle Pineau. Her page says she's a Professor at McGill University's School of Computer Science and a core member of Mila, and that she led Meta's Fundamental AI Research team as VP AI research from 2017 to 2025. It also says she created the ML Reproducibility checklist and challenge. If you've ever wondered whether an impressive AI result would hold up a second time, that's her territory. Her page notes she's on part-time leave from McGill.
- Doina Precup. Her page lists her as a Canada-CIFAR AI Chair at McGill University and Mila, and as Research Director at DeepMind and Research Team Lead at DeepMind Montreal, with a main focus on reinforcement learning and on reasoning and planning under uncertainty. She's a clear example of how one person can sit across a university lab and a company lab.
Amii and Edmonton
Richard Sutton's page describes a long list of roles: Founder and Research Scientist at Oak Lab, Professor of Computing Science at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Chief Scientific Advisor at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), and Founder and Chief Scientist at the Openmind Research Institute. He writes that his life is devoted to understanding the simple general principles that underlie both natural and artificial intelligence. Most business readers will find that a long way from their to-do list, and they'd be right. Read him for perspective on where this is going, and don't expect a how-to.
Vector and Toronto
Raquel Urtasun is the company-route example on this list. Her page says she's Founder and CEO of Waabi, Co-Founder of the Vector Institute for AI and a Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. If you're a founder or an investor, her path from university research to running a company is the part to study. Her page is mostly an academic CV, so I've stuck to those facts.
When you'd rather talk to an institute than a person
Two of the hubs have a door for businesses, and for a Canadian company that's often more useful than chasing a famous name.
| Institute | Where | What its site says it does for business |
|---|---|---|
| Amii | Edmonton | Describes itself as bridging research and industry adoption, and lists AI training for professionals and teams |
| Vector Institute | Toronto | Says it bridges breakthrough AI research and real-world application, with an AI Adoption section for enterprises, startups and the public sector |
They're institutes and they aren't consultants for a small team, so check what each one offers at your size before you assume there's a fit. My explainer on Canada's AI strategy covers how the national picture fits together, and if a firm's what you're after, I've put together a list of AI consultants in Canada.
For a business that needs AI at work
Nobody above is trying to do this job, so I've labelled it separately. I'm a practitioner, not a research scientist, professor or lab head. I'm British, I work in English with clients worldwide, and for a Canadian team I'd run it live online. My sessions are live and built on the team's own tasks. I've spent 23 years in marketing, and in 2024 I went all in on AI and rebuilt my own consultancy around it.
Here's my evidence, and it's about my own business. Between January and September 2026 my site went from 1,322 Google clicks a month to 6,412, and visits sent by AI assistants went from 32 a month to 3,599, on my own Search Console and GA4. One business, mine. It tells you I use what I teach, and it can't tell you what'll happen in yours. My page on working as an AI expert for Canadian businesses has more on how that works.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
How to turn this into a shortlist of your own
- Name the question. 'Is this safe?' points to Bengio. 'Can we rely on this result?' points to Pineau. 'How do I get my team using it?' points away from this list's researchers altogether.
- Read one thing the person wrote, on their own site, before you read anything written about them.
- If you need a body rather than a reading list, ask Amii or Vector what they offer at your size.
- Try one idea on one job, and measure the time it saved before you do anything bigger.
My advice for a Canadian owner
I'd read Bengio if you're on a board and AI safety is on the agenda, and I'd look at Amii or Vector's business pages if you're a company of any size that wants local, institute-backed help.
I'd skip the reinforcement learning research unless you've got a technical reason to read it. It's important, and it's also not going to shape your next quarter. And if the only thing you want is your team doing less busywork by the end of the month, I'd skip the whole research bench and find someone who'll sit down with your tasks.
If that's where you are, getting a team working with AI is the part I do. I run AI training and workshops for teams, and help businesses with AI enablement and workflow automation, so the busywork runs itself and people get time back. Most of that work is with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses. Here's how we can work together.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the top AI experts in Canada?
My shortlist names Yoshua Bengio, Richard Sutton, Joelle Pineau, Doina Precup and Raquel Urtasun, grouped by the institute or lab they work with. I'm Lilach Bullock, I wrote the list and I've included myself as the business practitioner, so weigh that accordingly. It's a shortlist, not a ranking.
What are Mila, Amii and the Vector Institute?
They're Canada's three national AI institutes. Mila is the Montreal hub Yoshua Bengio founded, Amii is in Edmonton and Vector is in Toronto. Amii and Vector both describe work that connects research with businesses.
How is an AI researcher different from an AI consultant for a business?
A researcher pushes on what AI can do and publishes the results. A consultant takes what already exists and fits it to a company's work. You'd read the first to understand direction, and you'd hire the second to change how your team spends its week.
Where can a Canadian business get practical AI help?
Start by asking Amii and the Vector Institute what they offer at your size, because both have sections for industry. A consultant or trainer is the other route. Before you commit, ask to see how they'd work on your own tasks.
Which Canadian AI expert should I follow first?
Follow the one who matches your question. For safety and direction, I'd pick Yoshua Bengio. For whether results can be trusted, Joelle Pineau. For the move from lab to company, Raquel Urtasun. If you just want your team using AI, none of them is the right first stop.
