During the G7 Industry, Digital and Technology Ministers’ meetings in Montréal in December 2025, the AI Adoption Initiative, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, convened senior industry leaders for a focused discussion on what it will take to move from AI ambition to AI adoption. The event examined how infrastructure, governance and practical implementation can drive economic growth and competitiveness across the G7. Participants included leading policy and business leaders from Open AI, Nvidia, Mozilla, AWS, Nscale, Cohere, the IAPP, and many others.
Discussions reinforced a central theme of the AI Adoption Initiative’s work: global competition is no longer defined by innovation alone, but by which countries can successfully deploy AI at scale. As artificial intelligence, cloud computing and quantum technologies become core economic and geopolitical assets, leadership increasingly depends on operational readiness, access to infrastructure and clear, interoperable policy frameworks. Canada’s 2025 G7 presidency reflected this shift, with an emphasis onexpanding access to AI infrastructure and enabling responsible adoption that delivers concrete economic, social and national security benefits.
These themes are echoed in Taking Stock of Canada’s 2025 G7 Presidency in the Digital Domain, a report published by Italy’s Istituto Affari Internazionali. The report underscores how Canada’s approach moved beyond agenda-setting toward implementation, highlighting the importance of AI governance, infrastructure readiness and international coordination to support real-world adoption.
Speakers highlighted two adoption imperatives. First, AI adoption should be treated as a foundational driver of productivity, innovation and long-term economic growth. Second, fragmented and misaligned regulatory approaches risk slowing adoption by constraining digital trade, cloud services and cross-border cloud infrastructure.
As AI leaders look towards France’s G7 presidency in 2026, G7 nations face a shared challenge and opportunity: building the conditions that allow AI to be used safely, effectively and at scale. Continued progress will depend on strengthening AI infrastructure, data governance, cybersecurity and safety frameworks in ways that are practical for businesses and governments. Through these events and conversations, the AI Adoption Initiative is focused on bridging strategy and execution so that AI adoption delivers measurable economic and societal impact.
