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Helping companies prepare for artificial intelligence utilization through the Data Readiness Improvement Program

Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence Priority

Capacity Building

PROJECT TIMELINE
June 2023 to June 2024
PROJECT STATUS
Fund II: Complete
TOTAL INVESTMENT
$372,500

Consortia Contribution
$50,000

Cluster Contribution
$322,500

Partners

Protein Industries Canada

Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute

Goal

To help companies prepare to incorporate AI into their work by providing foundational, customized AI and machine learning training for agrifood professionals with diverse backgrounds in applied research, business development and strategic leadership.

Program Overview

Artificial intelligence tools and technology have the potential to make Canada’s plant-based sector more efficient and more sustainable. To fully harness this potential, however, companies across the sector need to fully understand what goes into an effective AI solution—including effective data pools, and how best to gather and utilize them.

The Data Readiness Improvement Program (DRIP) will be offered through two virtual, three-month training and foundation-building cohorts of approximately five companies, each of which is invited to send two to five participants. Participants of the program can expect the following:

  • An AI/ML curriculum tailored to the needs of Canada’s plant-based food, feed and ingredients sector;
  • Foundational, customized AI/ML training for agrifood professionals with diverse backgrounds in applied research, business development and strategic leadership;
  • An opportunity to identify specific business problems and corresponding AI/ML solutions;
  • Validated project reports with established trajectories for solving specific business problems with AI/ML solutions;
  • A comprehensive project validation/feasibility assessment report that assesses your readiness level for moving into the Proof of Concept Development stage of the AI/ML project lifecycle; and
  • A connection to Amii’s talent pipeline and potential to hire in-demand ML talent in future.

Results and Impact

  • DRIP saw 40 staff across five companies go through its programming. These staff identified more than 90 AI opportunities and outcomes with both short- and long-term impacts.
  • The training focused on foundational AI and ML concepts, including evaluating ideas from an ethical perspective to mitigate risks around ethics and ensure responsible implementations and considerations for AI opportunities.
  • At the end of the training, the companies were presented with detailed reports on the business problem, data requirements, and how the ML solution could be set up. This included investigating commercially available tools and frequently considering the solution architecture for addressing each company’s challenges.

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