Welcome to Impact AI! Our team will be there to greet you with a warm coffee and something to snack on. Take a moment to settle in and meet the people around you. Some of the best conversations of the day start right here, before the first speaker even takes the stage.

Join us at 10:00 to kick off this third Toronto edition of Impact AI! This year we welcome remarkable guests and cover a range of timely topics that will inspire and spark innovation. We take a few minutes to walk you through the day before handing the floor to our first speaker.

In highly regulated industries, the hard question was never what AI can do — it's what it's allowed to do, and on what data. AI leaders from one of Canada's largest banks and a pharmaceutical manufacturer open up the governance layer that decides what actually ships. How do you validate the data feeding a model, and catch unauthorized or biased inputs before they ever reach production? What changes when use-case review moves from the end of a project to the very beginning? And why is the real blocker to agentic AI not the technology, but the institutional knowledge nobody ever wrote down? Expect specifics: the tools that made it into production, the ones that never earned their keep, and what "move fast" honestly means inside an institution built to move carefully.

Most enterprise AI initiatives fail for two reasons: the problem was never defined, and someone bought into snake oil. The organizations that get it right are the ones treating AI not as a productivity tool, but as a lever to rewrite what their business is actually for. This panel brings together operators from industries where AI is quietly reshaping the operating model. Expect a candid conversation on what it takes to make AI stick inside a legacy enterprise, why the data foundation matters more than the model, and why the real prize is the business model, not the headcount cut.

The hardest part of AI adoption isn't the technology, it's the people. Dave Cachia, CIO of the Municipality of Clarington, shares what it takes to bring AI into an organization where fear of job loss is real and layoffs aren't an option: framing AI as a tool that augments skills rather than replaces them, and turning skeptics into adopters one conversation at a time.

Take the time to eat and socialize! Enjoy a good meal while exchanging with the other participants and reflecting on what you heard this morning. This is the ideal moment to build connections before the afternoon sessions begin.

Most companies have already deployed generative AI. Licenses are distributed, a few workshops have been given, and yet the productivity gains never show up in the numbers. Studies keep confirming it: while roughly 80% of organizations have adopted generative AI, only a fraction report any measurable financial return. This talk is about closing that gap. Why giving everyone a chatbot changes almost nothing, and what actually moves the needle: rebuilding real workflows around AI instead of adding it on top, connecting it to your operational data, and measuring impact where it counts, in hours saved and dollars earned, not adoption dashboards.

Technology is never the hard part. This panel explores how organizations get people to embrace AI: closing the trust gap between technologists and teams in the field, finding champions among domain experts rather than tech teams, and treating change management as the first investment, not the last.

What does it actually take to turn a bank into an agentic organization? Gregory Houston, Head of AI at National Bank, takes us inside the bank's journey. Before agents could take on real work, the bank had to confront a harder problem: the knowledge that lives in people's heads, the exceptions and judgment calls no procedure manual ever captured. Hear how the bank is capturing that expertise, keeping it current as the business changes, and structuring it into an ontology that keeps agents aligned with the way the bank really operates.

As the day comes to a close, we look back on the key takeaways and the most inspiring insights shared on stage. Leave with the ideas and the energy you need to drive innovation and change in your own field.

End the day on a high note with a drink in hand and lively conversations with some of the brightest minds in your field. Enjoy cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and a unique opportunity to network with attendees and speakers in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Let’s celebrate the day’s success together and build lasting relationships!