Turning AI research into enterprise products.

We founded Element AI in Montréal to help organizations put advances in artificial intelligence to work. The challenge was to bridge research and the messy reality of enterprise adoption.

Jean-François Gagné speaking at Web Summit in Lisbon in 2019 — Web Summit, Lisbon · 2019. Photo: Vaughn Ridley / Web Summit (Sportsfile). CC BY 2.0 / credits

The work

Building the company meant bringing researchers, engineers, designers and commercial teams together around that mission. We grew to more than 500 people, raised a US$102 million Series A in 2017, and developed AI products for enterprise customers.

The work extended beyond any one product. We mapped the Canadian AI ecosystem, published research on the global AI talent pool, and contributed to the public conversation on responsible AI. Those reports and essays are preserved on this site.

ServiceNow acquired Element AI in January 2021. I joined ServiceNow to continue the work at the scale of a global enterprise platform.

My contribution

Built an applied-AI company and multidisciplinary team from Montréal.
Led the transition from research capabilities to enterprise products and customers.
Raised a US$102M Series A and a CAD$200M Series B.
Supported ecosystem research and public work on AI governance and adoption.

Read the acquisition announcement ↗

Recognition of the company