Introduction

Okay.

Speaker Introduction

Hi guys. My name is Catherine. I am the CEO of Abundant Science and Abundant Markets. I'm going to talk to you guys about just AI as a catalyst.

AI as a Technology

It's quite topical, just how Canada can take advantage of AI and really like help us expand on the international stage, different like creative ways to do so and how we did so as a company. But kind of before I go into that, I actually spoke this time last year and the topic was just about how like AI is just a technology and it's designed to support and improve existing industries. It should not be looked at like vertically as like just something that solves every problem.

And that's kind of the theme of it all is like technology is not always better, that much better, cheaper, relevant, applicable to whatever industry you're in, you have to be smart and practical about how you're actually applying it.

The Practical Use of AI

And that goes to AI and LLMs. So LLM products are not all objectively useful in every industry.

Sometimes when you're dealing with numbers, how is a language model really going to make things better? That's just not true.

So I kind of boiled it down. There's some things that are objectively useful.

Effective AI Applications

like semantic smart search that has just made archaic search a lot better. Like you can use like vector search to find closer patterns and closer search results.

Document summary and extraction, that's better. Now we can summarize huge amounts of volume of language, of content, of words, contracts, and make it easier.

Chatbots are better now because of LLMs.

Benefits of AI in Various Fields

Content generation has been better.

Deep research, data style, language translation, all these things actually are better.

And I think it really is the last 10%.

AI in Government and Industry Solutions

So for example, if you work in the government space and you deal with RFPs every single day, applying smart search, document extraction, language translation, that could be a very, very powerful tool that can turn into a massive business that anybody in the government or as a manufacturer or supplier would actually use regularly. And that changes that industry.

And that's a problem that People in AI don't necessarily know.

And if you are in an industry with a specific problem, you're going to know the problem better than anybody else. And that's what we did with abundant markets.

Personal Experience and Application

So yeah, that was basically my talk last year.

And I took my own advice. And then I was thinking, what would my next business be?

And then how can I apply AI to it?

So we just last year founded a company called Rapid Test.

And the idea is like, imagine you go into a pharmacy and you can see the same test you used for COVID detection, now you can use for vitamin D detection, iron deficiency detection, cholesterol, progesterone, PSA, like dozens and dozens of these tests exist in many, many parts of the world.

In Germany, you go to a pharmacy and you can like find these tests in the airport. But you can't do that in Canada today.

And like the reason is because like manufacturers, many global manufacturers avoid Canada. Like they're under the perception, the false perception that Canada is too small.

Case Study: Rapid Test

It's not worth the hassle. It's just like the US or just as expensive. Health Canada is strict.

Like we don't even want to bother. Recalls happen too easily.

And this was from talking to like hundreds of manufacturers when we were actually sourcing our own supply and like the truth is that they just avoid Canada because we are like a highly regulated country, we have high standards, like Health Canada audits very carefully every product that is like a medical device needs to pass like Health Canada approval in the US like FDA and it goes back to like how can AI actually make this better and the answer is like just like summarizing information, making Health Canada more accessible,

Canada's Position and Challenges

consolidating databases that are like so old and outdated and adding semantic search so somebody can find like, oh, is a vitamin D rapid test available in Canada? Who are the manufacturers? And answering that question very easily.

So because of this, Canadians miss out. We miss out on a lot of things and something me and my co-founder are very passionate about is like affordable healthcare. So we miss out on like affordable health care.

So, what?

We miss out on economic gains and long-term trading partners We miss out on like a very open global market and especially given the times like we should be building out those relationships So this is like we are the case study for this like my background isn't what I is in logistics and in just regulated goods.

Implementing AI to Overcome Challenges

So it's like we built up on the markets to translate the Health Canada website. It's like terrible.

Add AI search, create, summarize like QA and compliance checklists, make the process easier and faster. So then now a global billion dollar manufacturer in China or in Turkey or in like Korea or like,

Germany, they can actually think of Canada separate from the U.S. and be like, oh, like it actually doesn't cost a million dollars like we incorrectly thought. It actually costs like a thousand dollars to bring one of our products into the country.

Building on AI Innovations

So I think I'm just using ourselves as like a case study. What we did was take the building blocks of LLM, so smart search document summary, real time chat, and we created abundant markets as like kind of a sub channel of abundant science.

So really I think to conclude is like AI can power every sector. I think I'm really passionate about you know your sector best, you know it better than the people building in AI trying to find a problem for their solution.

So You know, like, you know where the breaks are, where the gaps are, where the, you know, inconsistencies or, like, inefficiencies are.

Potential AI Projects in Canada

Some examples are, like, Parks Canada. Like, the website is just very, like, old school.

I was talking to somebody who is like, yeah, why don't we just make it just better? Like, to search up parks and to... improve tourism in Canada.

Canada RFPs already talked about, there's trade policy, there's so many things in different fields that like if we just learn a little bit about what LLMs can actually do in like the easiest sense, then we can actually apply it to our industry.

Enhancing Canadian Independence

And then I think just zooming out a little bit, that's the best way to make Canada just more like independent, right? Like we can just improve the pillars that we already have today and then Yeah, and then just like stand alone. Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Conclusion

This is my information. Right now, yeah, if you're interested in building LLM solutions in your industry, like I'm happy to chat, give you advice or tell you what is like a practical way to apply different proven out pillars that are objectively better.

We're also looking to just refine what we're building. So if you have like, AI or LLM experience, I'd actually love to chat with you.

We're just like looking for actually a CTO right now.

And then if anybody else wants to connect, you know where to find me. Thanks.