CEO Remarks – Toronto Canadian Club

Canada’s AI Moment

Check against delivery

Hello everyone.

It’s great to be back at the Canadian Club.

I was last here more than two years ago. Since then, the world has changed a lot. And so has Bell.

The Canadian economy is changing, our industry is changing and technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace.

The AI revolution is in full swing. It has the potential to change how we work, live and connect.

At the same time, global instability is rising. And Canada and other countries are reassessing long-standing relationships that, in some cases, seem far less solid than they once were.

For the past 18 months, Bell has been reshaping its strategy and is well-positioned for growth in this new environment.

Today, I’d like to show you why – and take a deeper look at one area in particular: AI.

I am proud to lead a re-energized Bell.

Our company, which celebrated its 145th anniversary this year, has adapted to a fast-changing landscape.

At our Investor Day two weeks ago, we reinforced that everything we do as a company is centered around four strategic priorities:

• Put customers first
• Deliver the best fibre and wireless networks
• Lead in enterprise with AI-powered solutions
• Build a digital media and content powerhouse

And we were excited to unveil a refreshed brand and new tagline – “Connection is Everything.”

This new tagline reflects the full breadth of what we do to serve our customers in a world where connection matters more than ever.

We lead with the country’s largest fibre network and best 5G+ network.

This year, we completed the acquisition of Ziply Fiber, establishing our U.S. fibre footprint and cementing Bell as the third-largest fibre Internet provider in North America.

Ziply’s secret to success is the fastest fibre network in America and a commitment to deliver a refreshingly great experience for its customers.

In the enterprise segment, we’re responding to your needs by modernizing our core services and providing AI-powered solutions that help you deliver better outcomes for your own customers.

That is why Bell Business Markets is number one in enterprise. We are the trusted network provider to all levels of government and the country’s largest businesses, many of whom are here in this room.

In the past year, we’ve launched three game-changing, AI-powered solutions businesses which position us for growth:

• Ateko, our service integrator for AI automation platforms
• Bell Cyber, our cybersecurity centre of excellence
• And Bell AI Fabric – Canada’s largest full-stack AI compute project

Our goal is to double the revenue from these new businesses to $1.5 billion annually by 2028.

I could say a lot about each of these businesses, but today I want to focus on one area dominating discussion in boardrooms, newsrooms and Cabinet rooms across the country: Canada’s AI moment.

The federal government has set a clear ambition: build the strongest economy in the G7, by focusing on competitiveness and productivity.

While Canada and the U.S. remain vital allies and trading partners, the uncertainty of the past year has forced policymakers and business leaders to reevaluate certain assumptions about our economic relationships.

There is consensus among Canadians that we need to invest in an economy that is not as dependent on others as it has been in the past.

Here’s the reality: we cannot achieve this ambition without the private sector. We cannot do it without digital infrastructure like fibre networks. And I don’t think we can do it without leaning into AI.

AI is a force accelerating productivity and enabling Canadian businesses to lead the way in reshaping our economy.

Success for both the public and private sectors depends on broad AI adoption, talent and new infrastructure capacity.

And with that comes an imperative to ensure that our success as a country is not contingent on the goodwill of others.

To protect our digital sovereignty.

To ensure that no one can turn Canada off.

Technological sovereignty goes far beyond where data is located. It means authority over compute, over data movement and storage, and over governance.

In short, sovereignty means control. Control over the systems that power our economy and protect our security.

It boils down to this: In the most critical times, who do we trust to oversee Canada’s AI moment?

A Harris poll commissioned by Bell and released today underscores that AI is an enterprise priority, central to long-term strategies.

We surveyed executive-level decision-makers from Canadian-based companies with more than 1,000 employees, and the results are clear.

75% say AI is a strategic, enterprise-wide priority. 56% say AI will be core to their company’s future. And 99% of businesses plan to invest in AI over the next 12-24 months.

Confidence in Canada’s AI potential is equally strong. 95% of leaders surveyed say Canada is well-positioned to be a global leader in AI.

That’s important, as digital sovereignty is becoming non-negotiable.

With rising global and geopolitical pressures, nine in ten business leaders say Canadian data must stay in Canada – especially sensitive data such as health and financial information, intellectual property and national security.

When we talk to our partners in the public and private sectors, we are hearing that they are on the verge of adoption at scale. And they want a Canadian partner.

That’s where Bell AI Fabric comes in.

Built in Canada, for Canada, Bell AI Fabric delivers full-stack AI solutions that allow businesses to develop and control made-in-Canada AI systems on a scale not otherwise possible. 

Bell AI Fabric combines:

• Our leading fibre and 5G networks
• Canada’s largest sovereign purpose-built AI data centres
• Hardware infrastructure through our partnerships with Groq, BUZZ HPC and others
• Advanced software, including Large Language Models through our partnership with Cohere
• And enterprise workforce automation through our systems integrator and professional services firm, Ateko 

Our first AI facility in Kamloops has been live since June, with other facilities coming online later this year and additional capacity at Thompson Rivers University expected early next year.

Bell AI Fabric is fully compliant with Canada’s sovereign AI principles, ensuring that infrastructure and data remain under Canadian jurisdiction – free from foreign government oversight.

If your data has to move from St. John’s to Vancouver, and points in between, we can ensure they always stay in Canada.

Expanding into AI was a natural step for Bell.

Our nationwide fibre networks, deep customer relationships and trust built over 145 years are unique advantages.

We’ve had demand, sales and customers since day one.

With Bell AI Fabric, we are delivering cloud services for Canadian businesses as a trusted alternative to U.S.-owned providers that have traditionally dominated the market.

And we are partnering with Canadian tech leaders like Cohere and Coveo to round out our service offering.

Our partnership with Cohere is just over nine weeks old. And yet we are already adopting their North agentic AI platform internally – and packaging it for our enterprise customers.

We are moving at startup speed, capitalizing on the opportunities ahead of us.

I also want to recognize Dave McKay for his work championing RBC’s own leading position in AI and partnership with Cohere.

In doing so, two of Canada’s largest companies are enabling Canada’s AI ecosystem. And that’s really important.

Because a sovereign AI ecosystem cannot be built by one company alone. To make this a nation-building project, it must be a national effort – an integrated technology supply chain where each layer enriches the next so that data becomes insight, insight becomes action, action becomes a business outcome and that business outcome leads to economic impact and competitive differentiation.

Broadly speaking, we have an opportunity as a country to transform our underlying digital assets into an economic advantage – and we should take it.

Properly executed, sovereign digital infrastructure drives productivity, creates prosperity for citizens and businesses and positions us for the new AI era.

Unlike digital ecosystems dominated by global tech giants, AI is still in its formative stage. We are not yet locked into platforms and systems that cannot be unwound.

That’s why now is the perfect time to support Canadian tech companies who have shown they can deliver leading-edge AI solutions.

This is how we turn technical capability into something real – industrialized, practical, repeatable business outcomes at scale.

That’s exactly what Bell’s doing with the sovereign ecosystem we have created. That’s what Bell AI Fabric is all about.

We’re proud to partner with great companies like Cohere, Coveo and ThinkOn and with institutions like the Vector Institute and Mila, who are doing incredible work to advance AI in Canada.

We’ve partnered with Simon Fraser University to connect their Cedar Supercomputing Centre in Burnaby with the future Bell AI Fabric site at Thompson Rivers University to deliver scalable, secure and locally controlled AI infrastructure.

We have time – but not much – to build the Canadian-owned and operated full-stack infrastructure that will strengthen our economy and help us compete globally.

Our government and the business community have a fundamental role to play in this vision of a fully Canadian tech ecosystem.

By bringing together academia and industry, including large, small and nascent players, we can nurture the next generation of AI leaders – and ensure they remain in Canada.

Because when we keep our best and brightest here, we protect our national security, economic resilience and leadership.

Canada can lead – not follow – in the AI economy. To do so, we need to move beyond cautious, incremental approaches and act quickly to challenge the status quo, accelerate adoption and spark innovation.

It’s possible.

The global AI race is no longer only about algorithms in labs. It’s about industrial deployment at scale, embedding AI into factories, call centres, farms, business processes and public infrastructure.

Together, we can build AI in Canada, for Canada. The time to act is now.

Let’s work together. If we do this right, we’ll look back with pride knowing that we seized Canada’s AI moment – and didn’t let it slip away.

Thank you.