ScalePad hosted the first Generative AI Montreal Meetup

March 28th marked a milestone for the Montreal AI community, ScalePad proudly hosted the first Generative AI Montreal Meetup at our Montreal studio. This event holds a special place in my heart, as it signifies a culmination of collaboration and innovation within the tech community. It all began at ConFoo in February, where serendipity brought Farid Bellameche, Director of Generative AI at CGI, across my path. Our encounter sparked the idea for this groundbreaking event to take place at ScalePad studio. This event resonates with me the feeling of the early days of JS-Montreal when mobile and web responsiveness were new things and everything was in front of us to be built.

The first Generative AI Montreal Meetup Event at ScalePad Studio

Led by Farid and co-organized by Xavier Bouclet, co-founder of Digit'Owl, the event drew over 50 tech enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds. Xavier kickstarted the evening with insightful perspectives on the evolving landscape of Generative AI, setting the stage for Farid's illuminating talk on leveraging personalized data for ChatBot enablement using the RAG technique and showing new features of LangChain such as Semantic Routing. The event concluded with invaluable networking opportunities. I was stunned by the various people present, from developers to managers to data scientists. Everyone present was unified by the same sentiment, curiosity, and the will to build together.

This meetup marks the dawn of a new chapter in Montreal's tech collaboration story, solidifying the city as a cornerstone of innovation. I'll delve into why supporting Generative AI Montreal is pivotal for the next phase of AI innovation and how it aligns with our mission of building impactful products.

Navigating the AI Hype: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead

The past 18 months have witnessed a surge in AI adoption, reminiscent of the excitement surrounding transformative technologies like ChatGPT. However, amid this fervor, many organizations have grappled with effectively harnessing AI's potential. While some projects have successfully navigated the proof-of-concept stage, translating promising results into real-world applications remains challenging. The commonplace examples of those challenges are:

• Chatbots don't provide an intuitive user experience if you are not a power user. No one expects their user to be a prompt engineer 
• Those models are not reliable, no one wants in production a chatbot that makes up things such as refund policies that don't exist.
• If you build a software pipeline using Large Language Models (LLM), it requires the development team to rethink their paradigm. LLM does not give the degree of control we used to have. After all, how do you unit test a function when the algorithm's core is an AI model trying to reason to produce output?

We've observed instances like Connectwise's integration of ChatGPT into their ASIO platform, mspGPT, and AirCanada's Chatbot, which are, while intriguing at first, sometimes dull and often lack the creative spark needed to push the boundaries of Generative AI truly. 

Merely incorporating AI into products without a clear strategy for value creation has left many ventures stranded in the realm of experimentation, succumbing to the allure of buzzwords.

User-Centricity in Product Development: A Non-Negotiable Principle

Harvard Business School research highlights a stark reality: 95% of innovative products fail. The AI landscape is no exception, with ventures often faltering due to a lack of user-centric focus. 

While the rush to integrate chatbots with no guardrail into existing systems may seem progressive, it's akin to Henry Ford's famous “faster horse” quote. This analogy underscores the importance of thinking beyond incremental obvious solutions and instead focusing on solving real user problems. Our RnD Teams are committed to exploring novel approaches to AI that empower users and provide tangible value to MSPs. That is why we are hyped for ideas that will emerge from groups like Generative AI Montreal.

Empowering the AI Community: ScalePad's Commitment to Collaboration

Groups like Generative AI Montreal are crucial in fostering innovation within the AI ecosystem. They serve as catalysts for knowledge sharing, collaboration, and problem-solving, propelling the industry forward collectively. By actively engaging with such communities, ScalePad contributes to and benefits from a wave of innovation that promises tangible value for users. Just to name a few domains I believe the community will contribute to making the research move forward:

• Data security with Generative AI
• Developing applications that can reason
• Guardrail techniques to reduce hallucination
• Trends in models, benefits and cons of each option
• Integration of Generation AI to your data pipelines
• Frameworks trends and participation in their development
• New prompt engineering techniques
• Data Analytics using Generative AI

Julien from ScalePad Platform Team

Montreal: A Nexus of Technological Innovation

One of the reasons I am so hyped for the upcoming success of that group is related to Montreal's long history of the tech community. The city’s reputation as a hub of technological innovation is well-deserved, thanks to its vibrant community of developers and innovators. Ranked consistently in the top three cities globally for AI investment, Montreal boasts a thriving tech scene. From grassroots meetups to prestigious conferences like ConFoo, the city cultivates a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing reminiscent of its early tech gatherings that laid the groundwork for today's innovations. Generative AI Montreal is the new exciting addition to those groups.

Looking Ahead: Charting the Course for AI Innovation

As ScalePad embarks on this journey with the Generative AI Montreal community, we're excited about the possibilities ahead. By leveraging our collective expertise and passion, we aim to drive meaningful innovation that benefits not only our MSP partners but the broader tech ecosystem. Together, we'll shape the future of AI, ensuring that projects within the MSP stack are not just innovative but also impactful. Montreal's tech community will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in shaping this landscape, cementing its position as a beacon of innovation in the AI space.

For anyone in the Montreal area, we encourage you to join the group if you are curious, passionate, and want to be a pioneer in building the future.

Farid and Xavier co-organizers of Generative AI Montreal Meetup