In 2025, some of Canada's most influential technology leaders strongly embraced the “AI First” ideology.
BetaKit wraps up the year with a look at the biggest tech stories of 2025. There will be even more news in December, you can read the full series Here.
In 2025, artificial intelligence was a gravitational well bubbling at the center of technology, consuming almost every Canadian startup.
Let's start with venture capital, the fuel for most startup rockets, which is almost entirely consumed by artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence startups have taken over almost 50 percent from all venture dollars are invested worldwide in 2025.
This has already happened in Canada difficult year of fundraisingbut unless you were an AI startup, the situation would be bleak. CVCA data shows that AI is driving Canadian investment like never before in 2025, with major deals from AI companies like Approve, Blue JayAnd Moon Valley scooped up a hefty piece Canadian investment dollars.
Money talks about technology, but so do founders. And this year, some of Canada's most influential technology leaders have held fast to the “AI First” ideology.
The market froth was so strong that some Canadian investors tore their old scenarios for creating generative artificial intelligence “radically changed” investment mathematics. Others have invested in any AI-related startup: AI for sales coachingAI for veterinariansAI for floor plansAI for time sheets. Some of these AI-focused companies have begun generating millions of dollars in revenue in a few short months.
But Canada's massive tech shift toward artificial intelligence wasn't just about balance sheets. Money talks about technology, but so do founders. And this year, some of Canada's most influential technology leaders have held fast to the “AI First” ideology.
Take Shopify's Tobi Lütke, who wrote in March explosive note signaling a new era for the company. Lütke ruled that the company would expect “reflexive” use of AI and said employees who don't embrace it (including himself) could be left behind. Shopify teams will now also have to justify new headcounts instead of choosing AI tools.
As Lütke's vision spread throughout Silicon Valley, Canadian companies across sectors were rushing straight into the artificial intelligence maelstrom. Plaintext, Clio, HookAnd Comrade AI are just a few of the Canadian tech companies BetaKit profiled this year that have somehow pivoted radically toward artificial intelligence, abandoning old business models, launching new products and features, making major acquisitions, and cutting headcount.
“There is no neutral ground”
A dizzying share of the global innovation economy is now closely tied to AI. But it's difficult to separate the hype and hype from the real value of the technology.
Canadian artificial intelligence companies such as Cohere and Waabi have had incredible success in attracting large investments at huge valuations. Globally, leading artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have become some of the most valuable private companies of all time, and chip giant Nvidia now accounts for about 7 percent of the total value of the S&P 500.
But financial ties between many of the biggest players in generative AI appear to be a problem. tangled, round web some critics argue that this hides inflated estimates based on subtle evidence return on investment.
While AI can be an incredibly powerful tool, its long-term potential to deliver ROI or meaningfully transform work has yet to be explored. not yet proven. At the Web Summit in Vancouver, Cohere co-founder Ivan Zhang warned that companies are already struggling to demonstrate ROI from AI spending and have reached peak proof-of-concept fatigue.
#CDNTECH 2025
BetaKit looks back at the defining Canadian tech stories of 2025..
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence skeptics argue that market crash could rival the dot-com bubble is just around the corner, as capital and attention will pour into AI long before profits are demonstrated. OpenAI may be the most valuable private company of all time, but it may not be profitable until 2030and another $207 billion in funding could be needed to achieve this goal.
The skeptics may be right, but technology investors believe the demand is real and A.I. growth is structural, not speculative.
And if the skeptics are wrong, AI will make it happen. fundamentally change the economyresulting in any company being too slow to adapt in the dust. As CIBC warns, there is “no neutral groundwhen it comes to AI.
If a gravity well is strong enough, objects caught in its pull will eventually be destroyed. Artificial intelligence firms that are gobbling up investors' money at an exponential rate will soon have to start showing receipts. If they do, the results can be transformative.
In the meantime, we still have many questions. How exactly will AI improve productivity? Will employees be replaced by AI or will they accept the technology as a niche tool useful in specific circumstances? Will capital commitments cease before ROI occurs?
But as 2025 has shown, these questions will not stop the gravitational pull of the AI vortex. Whatever happens next, it pulls us into the future.
Disclosure: BetaKit's majority owner Good Future is the family office of two former Shopify leaders, Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar.
Artistic image courtesy of Madison McLachlan for BetaKit.
