Spotlight on Quebec’s Digital Transformation

Digital TransformationTechTech Adoption
Published on
Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon / Minister of Economy and Innovation - Government of Québec
Alexandre Sieber / Executive Vice-President, Business Financing and Client Strategies - Investissement Québec
Jean-Louis Lalonde / President & CEO - AZUR Group
Guy Parent / General Manager - Opimian

Quebec, especially Montreal, has positioned itself as a global hub for tech titans seeking to capitalize on its world-class tech talent, AI capabilities and other tech advantages that make it the envy of many regions battling for tech supremacy. But are the tech developments the province is pioneering being leveraged locally to improve Quebec SMEs’ competitiveness? What are the rewards if this democratization of tech can be achieved? And what must key stakeholders do to achieve this?

Key Takeaways & Calls to Action

  1. We must ensure that the linkages are made between our local SMEs and our world-leading tech firms, in order to improve our economic output and competitiveness.
  2. Tech is not only an important industry in and of itself, but one that produces the tools other industries need to leverage in order to become more efficient and more relevant. In this sense, all businesses are tech businesses.
  3. To be competitive in the new AI and digital era, Quebec’s SMEs will need to rely on smart AI-powered solutions based on their own internal IP and mission-critical systems.
  4. Artificial intelligence is the fourth industrial revolution, so we need to embark on it and fast. However, to do so, we must offer the best digital infrastructure at the lowest price to help SMEs anywhere in Quebec to compete on the world stage.
Watch and Read the Experts’ Full Interviews:
The Minister Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon Minister of Economy and Innovation - Government of Québec "The first step is to get SMEs to understand the real value behind investing in digitalization – around products, around customers, around opportunities – because to make this happen, we need complete alignment." The Investor Alexandre Sieber Executive Vice-President, Business Financing and Client Strategies - Investissement Québec "Technology, alongside demographics and climate change, is one of the three megatrends that will impact not only how businesses are functioning but also the way our economy is evolving." The Tech Innovator Jean-Louis Lalonde President & CEO - AZUR Group "The solutions and capabilities that stem from that AI research need to be democratized by being implemented into all of Quebec’s companies so that they – and the province – can benefit from it right now!" The Digitizing SME Guy Parent General Manager - Opimian "If we don’t empower our leadership and workforce by nurturing digitalization locally, regionally and nationally, we will fall behind globally."
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