Brandon Nussey, CPA, CA on Canada’s Role in AI
March 12, 2025
Artificial Intelligence has been welcomed into our workplaces and our personal lives, with more and more organizations exploring how it can be leveraged.
From a Canadian business perspective, however, questions remain.
How will AI be regulated?
Where does Canada fit into the grander scheme of global artificial intelligence adoption and leadership?
For a seasoned expert like Brandon Nussey, CPA, CA, the general feeling is that we are moving in the right direction – but we still have a long way to go.
The Chief Financial Officer of Coveo, a Canadian SaaS company that builds AI powered search software, Brandon has been a CPA for thirty years, working in the innovation space for over twenty-five. The moment that truly kicked off his career was when the CFO at Descartes resigned and the board decided to take a chance on Brandon, who was just twenty-nine at the time, to fill the position.
Over the course of his varied career, which has also included C-Level roles at tech companies like D2L and Lightspeed, he has found that the one constant is change. This is true for virtually any industry, but the world of technology is particularly temperamental.
“In this space, things are always changing, and so there’s a certain amount of resiliency and adaptability required if you want to do this,” says Brandon.
Despite the ups and downs of the tech world, he reiterates the importance of having a thick skin and staying levelheaded.
“You're never as good as the good times may lead you to conclude – nor are you ever as bad as the tough times.”
You can easily talk yourself into ‘why not’ - the real success, though, comes when you talk yourself into the ‘why’.
Artificial intelligence is one of Brandon’s main focuses in his work at Coveo. Over the last few years, AI has made significant strides in reshaping the way we work with one another, driving innovation, and enhancing our decision-making and strategic capabilities.
“We all know now that AI can unlock new revenue streams, reduce operating costs in certain areas and drastically improve productivity in others. Then there is the process of figuring out exactly what adopting an AI strategy looks like – and it’s different for everyone,” Brandon says.
While we place relatively low in terms of generative AI adoption compared to our global peers, with nearly three-quarters of Canadian firms saying they have no immediate plans to integrate these systems into their day-to-day, Canada has ranked highly in terms of responsible AI adoption. Brandon knows that AI is here to stay – even if it takes a while to adopt.
“AI is going to be ubiquitous. It's going to be everywhere. In the cars we drive, the refrigerators we use and certainly in the tools and software we are all trying to build right now,” says Brandon. “And Canada has the potential to be one of the leaders in terms of innovation.”
According to the Conference Board of Canada’s 2024 Innovation Report Card, our ‘innovation paradox’ is greater than ever: while we do relatively well at building our innovation capacity, we struggle to keep up with our global counterparts to see innovation-based results.
And as CPA Ontario noted in Meeting the Moment: Mobilizing CPAs to Address Canada’s Economic Challenge Canadian productivity is only 72% of U.S. levels and continuing to decline.
Initiatives such as CPA Ontario’s Innovation Leadership Accelerator are aiming to prepare CPAs to take the lead in addressing these issues, encouraging them to use their skills to play a pivotal role in Canada’s innovation economy.
“I do think that there is significant opportunity – not just for AI. I think for innovation in general for Canada. We have great universities, capable infrastructure, banking, and public markets. But if we want to succeed in the innovation economy, we have to take it more seriously,” Brandon stressed.
“How we protect and prioritize innovation, how we attract talent into the country... all of that has to be in place. It pains me when I see foreign companies being selected by Canadian companies for things that Canadian companies are just as well suited to do.”
“I think there is definitely potential there, but before we can call ourselves a leader in AI, there are a couple steps before that. We need to get the basics down first.”
Brandon believes that those possibilities are made all the more achievable with a background in finance and a passion for new and emerging technologies, as well as the innovation economy.
According to Brandon, the breadth of skills that you learn as a CPA not only stick with you for life but can be thoughtfully applied to solving Canada’s productivity crisis. He also recognizes that having a CPA opens up a number of doors – and he has passed these beliefs down to his daughter, who will be pursuing her designation.
“I encourage CPAs to really know their market, know their industries well and think beyond the numbers. We tend to get pigeonholed into being exclusively number crunchers, but it’s really up to you to decide what you do with your CPA.”
Brandon Nussey will be leading a session on artificial intelligence as part of CPA Ontario’s Innovation Leadership Accelerator. To learn more about the program, visit CPAOntario.ca.