Vedula joined NTWIST after helping Nanoprecise raise $52 million in Series C funding in 2025. He said NTWIST sees value in hiring people in sales and product management, but the team simply needs fewer developers than it might have in the past because of what AI can do.
“Our developers spend less than 20% of the time coding, about 40% being a prompt engineer, and the last 40% reviewing (what AI has done),” Vedula said.
While that may sound grim for workers, Vedula said people who adapt to the AI era will still find work.
In making the announcement, Olszewski said a new federal AI strategy is coming soon. She quoted Prime Minister Mark Carney on the federal government’s view that AI’s effects on Canada are inevitable — whether they be good or bad — so intervention is necessary.
“The question is not whether AI will transform our lives — it will,” she recalled Carney saying earlier this spring. “The question is whether it will improve the lives of all Canadians or benefit only some.”
More announcements are expected at Upper Bound amid sessions for about 8,000 attendees. Nate Glubish, Alberta’s minister of technology and innovation, will speak on May 20, and Evan Solomon, Canada’s minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation, is scheduled to appear on May 21.
The conference continues to impress, Olszewski said.
“In just a few short years, (Upper Bound has) gone from a kind of a modest gathering to Canada’s fastest growing AI conference,” she said. “I think that growth says a lot about our province, about Alberta, about Edmonton’s leadership in the AI sector, and through Amii, our post-secondary institutions, local businesses, and the people gathered here today.”