Sept. 28, 2026, Toronto — The federal government has announced $162 million over five years, beginning in 2026-2027, for Mitacs to support 10,000 co-funded work placements for post-secondary students, recent graduates and post-doctoral fellows to work with Canadian business to help them with AI adoption and innovation. The announcement was made by Even Solomon, minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. “AI is changing the way we work and creating new opportunities across our economy. We want young Canadians to have the skills and real-world experience they need to seize those opportunities,” Solomon said in a media release. “By creating 10,000 AI-related work placements through Mitacs, we are investing in Canadian talent while helping businesses adopt AI, boost productivity and compete. This is how we make sure the opportunities created by AI translate into good jobs and a stronger economy for Canadians.” The investment delivers on a key priority of Canada’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy: AI for All , which focuses on building an AI-skilled nation and helping young Canadians gain practical AI skills and experience for careers in an increasingly AI-driven economy. Through AI for All, the Government of Canada aims to create up to 90,000 AI-related job and work placement opportunities for young Canadians by 2031. The funding will support the Mitacs AI Advantage programming, which enables business-academic collaborations through two complementary streams designed to strengthen Canada’s AI talent pipeline and accelerate AI adoption and commercialization: ADOPT will support work placement opportunities focused on AI adoption, linking industry partners with academic researchers and talent to help businesses, big and small, quickly test and deploy AI solutions across their organizations. AI+X will support work placement opportunities focused on AI innovation, co-funding research work placements and collaborations that apply AI to solve business problems and develop new technologies in a variety of disciplines, including agriculture and health care.