Disruptors

AI is no longer a future technology. It is already changing how work gets done, how companies make decisions and how economies compete. This special edition of Disruptors was recorded at the Creative Destruction Lab’s Super Session during Toronto Tech Week. Host John Stackhouse is joined by Fabien Curto Millet, Chief Economist at Google and Sonia Sennik, CEO of Creative Destruction Lab, to explore AI adoption, productivity, jobs and Canada's competitiveness. Fabien brings a global view of AI adoption: where the data is showing productivity gains, why the jobs conversation is more nuanced than the headlines suggest, and why simple interventions like training, guidelines and encouragement can unlock experimentation. Sonia brings the founder and commercialization lens from CDL, where hundreds of science-based startups are working across AI, health, energy, agriculture, manufacturing and more. Together, they explore why AI is moving fast but unevenly, why some sectors and workers are pulling ahead while others remain cautious, and what leaders need to do to move from pilots to scaled workflow redesign. For Canada, the test is clear: the country has deep AI talent, strong institutions and a global reputation in modern AI. The gains will depend on adoption - especially among SMEs, public institutions and the sectors that make up the bulk of the economy. Think of it as an AI adoption blueprint for you and your organization.

Canada has a scaleup problem. We create entrepreneurs, but too many of them feel they need to leave to build world-class companies. Fred Lalonde is one of the exceptions. He is the founder and CEO of Hopper, the Canadian travel-tech company that used data, prediction and fintech to help travellers book with more confidence. Now Lalonde is bringing that same ambition to Deep Sky, a Canadian carbon removal company. In this episode of Disruptors, recorded in front of a live audience, John Stackhouse speaks with Fred about what it takes to build and scale from Canada - and why the country needs more founders willing and able to do it here. Fred is funny and blunt, but underneath it all is a builder's clarity: disruption is not something he manages. It is something he assumes.

In this episode, John Stackhouse visits Ross on the outskirts of Ottawa to talk with CEO David Ross about how the company grew from a small Canadian manufacturer into a global live-production infrastructure player. They discuss why the economics of live events changed so dramatically, how cheaper and more powerful screens transformed stadiums and concerts into multimedia platforms, and how Ross helps turn live data into visual storytelling through graphics, overlays, motion systems and production control. Ross Video is one of Canada’s most consequential technology companies, even if most audiences have never heard of its name. They work across more than 100 countries. Their technology now sits inside countless modern live-event and broadcast experience: On field graphics, robotic camera systems, data-rich stadium presentation, newsroom and broadcast automation and the production systems behind concerts, major sports, studios and major event coverage for clients like MLB, NFL, PGA, NHL, Premier League, Metallica, Taylor Switft, Coldplay the list goes on and on and on. The conversation also surfaces a bigger business story. Ross describes its work as brand amplification technology, helping sports teams, venues, concerts and companies use screens, graphics, motion systems and production tools to deepen audience experience and strengthen commercial value. David lays out the company’s operating logic clearly: expand into adjacencies, acquire expertise when needed, keep founders and technical talent engaged, and never fall behind in technology. That approach shows up in Ross’s reinvestment model too: roughly one-third of the company is in R&D. This episode is about sports broadcast innovation, stadium technology, robotic cameras, concert production, real-time graphics, data storytelling, and the broader live-entertainment economy. Ross sits inside a much larger market shift: a world where live sports, concerts, venue systems, and production technology are becoming more immersive, more data-driven and more economically important.

Congestion isn’t just annoying, it's an economic drag. In this episode of Disruptors, John Stackhouse speaks with Kurtis McBride, co-founder of Miovision, about how a Waterloo-built company turned intersection data into a real-time operating layer for cities and how that platform is scaling globally. McBride explains how Miovision began with a simple insight from manual traffic counts, then evolved into a digital twin approach that helps cities reduce congestion, improve safety, support transit performance, and shorten emergency response times. He also shares how Miovision is applying AI including a conversational interface that lets traffic teams ask plain-English questions about their network and get actionable recommendations. The conversation expands into a founder playbook for selling into cities, navigating cross-border requirements like Build America, Buy America, and building the connected intersection infrastructure that can make vehicle-to-everything (V2X) services and eventually autonomous mobility safer and more affordable.

We’re all using AI more, but how many of us actually trust it? AI is now used by more than a billion people worldwide, but trust in these systems is far from settled. In this episode of Disruptors, John Stackhouse speaks with Yoshua Bengio, Turing Award winner, founder of Mila, and Co-President and Scientific Director of LawZero, about whether AI is getting safer or more dangerous as it becomes more powerful, more agentic, and more embedded in work, public systems, and everyday life. They explore LawZero’s mission to build non-agentic, trustworthy AI, including Scientist AI, and why Bengio believes the next generation of artificial intelligence should be designed to reason, evaluate, and supervise rather than independently pursue goals. John is also joined by Jaxson Khan, Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, to discuss AI sovereignty, the risks of dependence on foreign cloud and compute infrastructure, and what Canada should be thinking about as it prepares its next national AI strategy. This is a conversation about AI safety, Canadian AI sovereignty, trustworthy AI, and who should shape the systems that are increasingly shaping us. Yoshua Bengio’s work through LawZero offers one of the clearest Canadian answers yet.