A lot can change in four years, especially in artificial intelligence.
Venn’s Kyle Murray-Zelmer has attended every ALL IN conference since the event began in 2023, giving him a front-row view of how quickly the conversation around AI has evolved. Each year has covered far more ground than could ever be reduced to a single theme, but looking back, one idea has tended to stand out from each conference.
The progression says as much about the changing role of AI as it does about the technology itself.
2023: Hope
At the first ALL IN conference, much of the excitement centred on what AI might make possible in areas where meaningful progress had traditionally been difficult.
One presentation that stayed with Kyle came from Dr. Rene Caissie. His daughter developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome at eight years old and experienced extreme pain before eventually receiving a diagnosis. Caissie went on to co-found Medeloop, a medical research platform that uses large-scale health data and AI to support researchers working on rare diseases and other medical challenges. His daughter ultimately received successful treatment.
The story captured much of the feeling surrounding AI at the time. The technology was impressive, but what mattered more was what researchers, scientists and entrepreneurs might be able to accomplish with it.
There was a sense that AI could help people approach problems that had previously seemed out of reach.
2024: Democratization
Only a year later, the conversation already felt different.
By 2024, sophisticated AI and data capabilities were reaching far more people and companies. Startups had a larger presence at ALL IN, both through conference programming and through the founders attending from across the country, and Atlantic Canada was part of that shift.
Companies such as Newfoundland and Labrador-based Data Farms were applying advanced sensors and software to agriculture, while New Brunswick-based Profitual was building financial analysis technology for businesses. The companies themselves were different, but they reflected the same broader change. Capabilities that once required considerable technical resources were becoming increasingly accessible to smaller teams.
AI was no longer primarily a conversation about what major research institutions or global technology companies might eventually accomplish. Founders and smaller companies were beginning to build with it themselves.
2025: Risk
As adoption accelerated, another part of the conversation became harder to ignore.
By 2025, risk had moved much closer to the centre of discussions around AI.A cybersecurity plenary brought together Jennifer Arnold of Minerva, Norman Menz of Flare, Patricia Thaine of Private AI, Pascal Fortin of Cybereco and Jocelyn Auger of Fasken. Their discussion explored how AI was changing the threat landscape, including its use in fraud, money laundering and foreign interference, as well as the potential for commercial AI systems themselves to become targets.
The mood had not turned against AI, the conversation was simply becoming more mature.
Organizations could see the opportunities, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to discuss adoption seriously without also considering security, governance and the ways the same capabilities could be misused.
2026: Strategic Expansion
This year, another shift was apparent. For Kyle, strategic expansion best describes what stood out at ALL IN 2026.
AI increasingly feels less like a separate technology to experiment with and more like something organizations must learn how to integrate into everyday operations. The conversation has moved toward the practical realities of using it effectively while addressing questions around data security, compliance and responsible adoption.
The international dimension was also particularly visible this year. Minister Evan Solomon introduced new Canada-Germany cooperation around sovereign AI technologies and responsible, trusted AI, while significant new investment in Canadian AI was discussed across several announcements and deals at the conference.
The scale of those conversations feels very different from where ALL IN began four years ago.
AI is no longer defined primarily by demonstrations of what the technology can do. Attention is increasingly turning toward what organizations will actually do with it, how they will manage the consequences, and where it creates enough value to justify changing the way a business operates.
Four Years, Four Very Different Conversations
Looking across all four conferences, the evolution is striking.
In 2023, much of the excitement came from imagining what AI could eventually make possible. By 2024, those capabilities were becoming accessible to far more founders and organizations. In 2025, widespread adoption made questions around risk much more urgent. This year, the conversation has increasingly focused on how AI can be integrated into organizations in ways that are useful, responsible and sustainable.
AI is giving smaller teams access to capabilities that could change what they are able to build and how quickly they can test new approaches. At the same time, simply having access to the technology is becoming less meaningful as that access becomes commonplace.
The harder questions now concern where AI creates genuine value, what it changes for the customer, and whether it requires companies to rethink the way they operate or even what they sell.
Those questions are likely to become even more important as the technology continues to mature.
If the first four years of ALL IN have shown anything, it is that the dominant AI conversation can change remarkably quickly. By the time ALL IN returns in 2027, the defining question may be one that is only beginning to emerge today.