Lure of growing AI hub attracting top talent despite low Quebec unemployment
MONTREAL — The lure of Montreal’s burgeoning artificial intelligence hub is helping the city to attract highly skilled talent even though Quebec is facing historically low unemployment, officials from tech giants like Google and Microsoft and municipal officials said at an AI conference.
Microsoft data innovation strategist Charles Verdon said the city’s flourishing status as a global centre of deep learning has become a calling card for highly skilled researchers who want to work with fellow experts and large multinational companies.
These people can obtain lucrative employment packages, but the desire to work on specific projects often drives their decision.
“In our field there’s already zero unemployment so it’s really attracting all the key talent out there,” he said in an interview at a Montreal Board of Trade-sponsored AI conference on Monday.