BDC Launches Mission AI to Test Canadian-Made Tools With 250 Entrepreneurs, Aiming for 10,000 SMEs

The Business Development Bank of Canada on Monday launched Mission AI, a program that will match small and mid-sized businesses with Canadian-made AI tools after entrepreneurs have tested them in real operations, the Montreal-based Crown corporation announced. The Financial Post reported that the program starts with a target of 250 entrepreneurs and an ambitious goal of reaching 10,000 SMEs in its first year.

Dominic Gagnon, who spent nine months as BDC’s first entrepreneur-in-residence, will run the program as managing director. His team plans to pinpoint routine tasks that owners want off their plates, source Canadian solutions and have a panel of business owners try them before they are recommended more widely. Gagnon told the Financial Post that Mission AI will only use Canadian-made tools and that BDC expects to have around 1,000 products to test over the next three months. Examples in the bank’s release include cutting a quote that takes hours to prepare down to minutes, following up on sales leads before they go cold, and a first AI agent that answers routine customer questions and books appointments after hours.

BDC also created AI Studio, led by technology entrepreneur Raff Paquin, whose background includes Shopify and Lightspeed. The studio will build tools to simplify the bank’s own processes and, in BDC’s words, dramatically reduce the time it takes entrepreneurs to get financing.

What it means in practice

The bank is pitching the effort as a response to slow adoption rather than a lack of interest. Its latest survey found that 69% of Canadian SMEs are AI novices who use the technology rarely or not at all, 83% remain in the learning phase, and only 5% have AI deeply built into operations. A June study by BDC found that 30% of SMEs use generative AI, and those that do are 24% more productive. As of September, BDC said it had nearly $800 million invested directly and indirectly in more than 300 Canadian AI companies, so the program also doubles as a way to put domestic startups in front of customers. It lands alongside federal money aimed at the same gap, including Ottawa’s extra $500 million for the Regional AI Initiative and regional programs such as Amii’s PrairiesCan-funded push into 25 more Prairie SMEs.

What to watch is whether BDC publishes measurable results from the first cohort, how tools are chosen for testing, and whether small firms outside major cities get the same access as those already close to Canada’s AI hubs.