Artificial intelligence (AI) is what has everybody talking in 2023. Ever since OpenAI launched ChatGPT last November, markets have been abuzz about the potential opportunities this new technology could create. The first big company to make a move in the space was Microsoft, which launched a web search-powered GPT chatbot. After that, Alphabet made its own ChatBot, called Bard, based on Google’s own technology rather than GPT.
The big U.S. tech companies are all making bets on AI by now. And Canadian companies are as well. Whether it’s generative AI or “backend” features, Canadian companies are leading the charge in the AI revolution. The following are three such companies that you might want to keep an eye on in 2023.
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Kinaxis
Kinaxis (TSX: KXS) is a Canadian supply chain management company. It develops software that helps businesses keep track of inventory, customer buying patterns, and other supply/demand signals. The end goal is to help businesses manage inventory better, so it’s always procuring what’s needed to serve its customers, but never more than that.
Kinaxis is well known for being an early adopter of AI. It uses AI to augment its supply chain forecasting features. Let’s say you want to know what times of year your customers will be ordering which products, and in what quantities. Kinaxis uses AI to automatically analyze these patterns for you, so you can order exactly the right supplies and inventory at the right time. The result is less inventory sitting unsold at your facilities.
Shopify
Shopify (TSX: SHOP) is a Canadian e-commerce company that develops website building and payment processing software for businesses. The company lets businesses host their own websites that handle e-commerce sales. If you wanted to host your own website that handled sales, you’d normally have to hire a developer to build out the shopping cart functions for you. With Shopify, you skip all that hassle. You do have to pay Shopify fees over the length of the term you use the service for, but they are pretty small on a per-sale basis (usually just a few cents per sale).
How’s Shopify using AI in its business?
It’s pretty simple: it’s using AI to help customers create blurbs and other marketing descriptions for their products. Instead of having to painstakingly write product descriptions by hand, business owners can generate them with AI and Shopify. It’s a major productivity hack that could make a big difference in peoples’ lives and businesses.
Open Text
Open Text (TSX: OTEX) is a Canadian tech company known for content management and text document applications. This company is interesting because it has the most direct take on generative AI of all Canadian tech companies. As a company involved in text analysis, it builds natural language AI applications exactly like the ones that made ChatGPT such a hit.
If you’re looking for a Canadian AI play that is most similar to the U.S. ChatBot companies, OTEX would be the one, as it, like them, is involved in LLM research. It doesn’t have the growth that the other two stocks on this list have, but it is an innovative AI company.
