Inaugural BC AI Research-to-Adoption Summit a major step forward in bringing AI community in BC together
Nearly 250 AI experts in academia, industry and government gathered on May 7, 2026 to explore how BC can turn AI research into real-world applications across sectors
The BC AI Research-to-Adoption Summit, co-hosted by UBC Computer Science and SFU School of Computing Science, brought together leaders in academia, industry and government to strengthen collaborations across their sectors and bring awareness of BC as the forefront of AI innovation. The Summit included three panels, three plenary talks, and two poster sessions, with speakers and attendees coming from all across BC and Canada. The event was sold-out, indicating a strong appetite for academia and industry to create more connections.
“We had an incredibly strong turnout and engagement at our AI Summit,” says UBC Computer Science Professor and Co-Head Joanna McGrenere, one of the lead organizers of the event. “It was inspiring to see a shared commitment to advancing AI research, collaboration and real-world adoption in BC.”
The top leadership at UBC and SFU kicked off the day, with opening remarks from lead organizers Dr. McGrenere and SFU Professor and Director of the School of Computing Science Oliver Schulte. Speeches from UBC President Benoit-Antoine Bacon and SFU Vice President of Research & Innovation Dugan O’Neil reinforced the importance of BC researchers and their contributions to advances in AI. The Honourable Rick Glumac, MLA, BC’s Minister of State for AI and New Technologies, also gave a video welcome.
Attendees heard from several panels of researchers, funding agency representatives and industry leaders who shared their perspective on how to turn AI research into impactful applications. UBC Computer Science Co-Head Margo Seltzer and Professors Leonid Sigal, Raymond Ng and Kevin Leyton-Brown chaired panels. As one of the panelists, Dr. Leyton-Brown spoke about how AI is not a specialized approach like rocket science, but rather a general-purpose technology that requires knowledge translation from AI researchers to Canadian industries.
Throughout the panels, the messages were clear: BC has a strong AI ecosystem, with stellar AI researchers and a strong tech sector that is applying AI; there’s a strong appetite from academia and different industries to improve how AI research is translated into applications; and that while industry and academia must strengthen its collaboration, more government support is needed to foster those relationships.
The Summit invited leaders from various industrial sectors to discuss AI advances and innovations. Assistant Professor Vered Shwartz presented her research on large language models for legal software while Professor Mark Schmidt spoke about his research on understanding and improving algorithms used to train machine learning models. SFU Distinguished Professor Richard Zhang shared his research on functional intelligence for AI systems in the physical world. From agriculture to cancer surveillance to game development to business, industry leaders shared the latest in how AI intersects with their work.
Researchers from academia and industry presented their posters in the packed foyer outside of the conference room. From using AI for banking to a generative model for music composition to understanding AI literacy, attendees had the chance to take a sneak peek at the most cutting-edge research findings from labs at UBC, SFU and the University of Victoria.
The excitement of the day carried on throughout the evening with a cocktail reception, where conversations continued and participants left more inspired than ever to strengthen cross-sector connections, advance a common goal of showcasing BC’s AI, accelerate the research-to-adoption pipeline and attract greater funding across the province.
“The event was a success in large part thanks to everyone’s participation, engagement and thoughtful discussions,” says Dr. Schulte. “Now is the time to harness the momentum of the field and build long-lasting partnerships to usher us into the new era of AI in BC.”