2 Canadian Companies Are Cashing In on AI — Not Just Talking About it

These Canadian companies are converting AI driven demand into strong revenue, earnings, and recurring cash flow.

Key Points
  • Kinaxis is turning AI into recurring revenue, with strong Maestro-driven growth, rising subscriptions, larger deals, and record customer expansion.
  • Celestica is benefiting directly from the AI infrastructure boom, with its Connectivity & Cloud Solutions revenue surging on strong demand for networking and computing technology.
  • Both companies have significant growth opportunities ahead, as AI adoption drives more complex supply chains and continued investment in data centre infrastructure.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the biggest themes in the stock market. However, for investors, the key question is which companies are actually converting AI into revenue, earnings, and recurring cash flow.

While corporate announcements continue to highlight ambitious AI strategies and future opportunities, relatively few companies can point to clear financial results directly tied to their AI capabilities.

Against this backdrop, here are two Canadian companies that are cashing in on AI and not just talking about it.

Digital brain hologram on future tech background. Productivity of AI evolution

Source: Getty Images

Top AI stock #1: Kinaxis

Kinaxis (TSX: KXS) is a top Canadian stock cashing in on AI. The company provides end-to-end supply chain planning and orchestration through its AI-powered Maestro platform. As supply chains are becoming complex, companies need AI to improve forecasting, inventory management, and capacity planning. Kinaxis is well positioned in this market.

Kinaxis has delivered eight consecutive quarters of rising revenue, supported by new Maestro subscriptions and customer deployments. Its latest results showed strong new-business momentum. Growth came from both new customer wins and expansions within its existing customer base. Moreover, the average deal size is growing.

For instance, its average deal size nearly doubled year over year, while contracts generating more than $1 million in average annual contract value (ACV) jumped significantly. In addition, quarterly ACV bookings from existing customers reached a company record, increasing by more than 70% year over year.

Much of the company’s momentum is driven by the expanding capabilities of Maestro. The platform now incorporates technologies including agentic AI, machine-learning-based demand forecasting, advanced inventory optimization, and enterprise scheduling. These capabilities allow Kinaxis to address an increasingly broad range of supply-chain challenges.

Kinaxis’s Software as a Service (SaaS) revenue increased 20% year over year in Q2, while annual recurring revenue (ARR) climbed 19%. Meanwhile, Kinaxis’s adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 100 basis points to 26%.

Kinaxis could also benefit from a surge in data centre investment. The expansion of AI infrastructure is creating increasingly complex global supply chains. Several customers in the high-tech supply chain are already using Maestro, creating additional demand for Kinaxis.

Overall, Kinaxis’s double-digit recurring-revenue growth, strong customer expansion, improving deal economics, and expanding AI capabilities position it well to deliver solid growth.

Top AI stock #2: Celestica

Celestica (TSX: CLS) is another top Canadian stock cashing in on the AI infrastructure boom.  The data centre infrastructure and advanced technology solutions provider continues to deliver solid growth, with its Connectivity & Cloud Solutions (CCS) segment emerging as a key catalyst.

CCS offers a broad range of technologies, including high-performance networking switches, server platforms, data centre interconnect solutions, enterprise storage, and edge computing infrastructure, all supporting the growing demands of AI workloads.

The business delivered solid growth in Q2. CCS revenue jumped 84% year over year to US$3.8 billion, representing approximately 81% of Celestica’s overall revenue. Communications revenue within the segment increased 62%, supported by robust demand for 800G networking switches and continued strength in 400G products. Meanwhile, Enterprise revenue surged 167%, helped by the rapid rollout of AI and machine-learning computing initiatives for a major hyperscale customer, as well as stronger demand for storage technologies.

Celestica also has several potential growth drivers ahead. Increasing adoption of 800G networking, the upcoming commercialization of 1.6-terabit networking solutions, a recovery in enterprise storage demand, and continued investment by hyperscalers in AI and machine-learning infrastructure could all contribute to further expansion. With these trends working in its favor, Celestica appears well-positioned to capitalize on the long-term AI infrastructure opportunity.

Fool contributor Sneha Nahata has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Celestica and Kinaxis. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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