Do you take Toronto and GTA clients in person?

Yes. Shawn Moore travels to Toronto monthly for on-site working sessions. Most engagements include monthly in-person time in downtown Toronto, North York, or the 905 corridor (Mississauga, Markham, Vaughan, Brampton), supplemented by weekly video steering meetings.

Do you bill in CAD or USD?

Either. Corporate accounts payable in either currency is routine. Most multi-month retainers default to USD for currency-stability reasons; fixed-scope engagements (audits, 90-Day Blueprints) are commonly invoiced in CAD for Canadian clients who prefer it.

Can you work with a Bay Street law firm or accounting practice?

Yes. Engagements with regulated professional services firms include explicit privilege, confidentiality, and conflict-of-interest protections aligned to LSO and CPA Ontario expectations. The work product is structured so it survives a partnership review without modification.

What does an engagement look like for a $25M GTA company?

The typical sequence is a 2–4 week paid AI Growth Audit ($15K–$35K range), followed by a fixed-scope 90-Day Execution Blueprint ($25K–$50K range) running monthly in-person and weekly via video. Most companies decide on the long-term advisory shape — fractional CAIO, internal hire, or quarterly cadence — only after one full 90-day cycle.

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Greater Toronto Area

AI Consultant for Toronto and GTA Mid-Market CEOs

Q: How do you handle OSFI Guideline E-23 for financial services clients?

Every AI use case for a federally regulated financial institution is structured to align with OSFI Guideline E-23 (finalized September 11, 2025) for model inventory, documented validation, and ongoing performance monitoring. We design the governance scaffolding so the first production use case passes internal model risk review without rebuilding the firm's framework.

AI Savvy provides strategic AI advisory to Toronto and GTA CEOs of $10M–$250M companies. Engagements include the AI Growth Audit, the 90-Day Execution Blueprint, and ongoing fractional Chief AI Officer support. In-person sessions available across the GTA; founder Shawn Moore travels to Toronto monthly.

Why Greater Toronto Area mid-market is at an AI inflection point

Toronto's mid-market is in the middle of an uneven AI inflection. RSM's 2025 Middle Market AI Survey, released in Toronto in June 2025, found 91% of mid-market organizations across the US and Canada now use generative AI in business operations — yet expertise gaps and governance maturity lag adoption sharply, with most surveyed leaders rating their internal AI capability as below the level required to deploy responsibly. The same June 2025 Microsoft Canadian SMB Report put adoption at 71% of Canadian small and mid-sized businesses, with 90% adoption among digital-native firms.

Statistics Canada's June 2025 analysis on AI use by Canadian businesses confirmed that information and cultural industries lead adoption, with finance, professional services, and manufacturing close behind — every one of which is over-represented in Toronto's economy. The September 2025 follow-up flagged that the majority of Canadian businesses still do not plan to use AI in the next 12 months, which means the GTA winners are pulling away from the median by quarter, not by year.

The ones moving fastest are not the ones with the most engineers. They are the ones whose CEO has personally taken responsibility for AI strategy — exactly the gap mid-market boards are now asking to close.

What we do for Toronto companies

Strategic Advisory →

Fractional CAIO retainers and 90-day blueprints with the operator in the room.

Keynote Speaking →

CEO-audience keynotes and board sessions on AI strategy and governance.

Executive Education →

Working-session programs that hand the methodology to your executive bench.

Ontario-specific considerations

The regulatory ground in Toronto shifted in 2025. The federal Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), introduced in Bill C-27, died in committee in January 2025 — leaving Canada without a comprehensive federal AI law. Ontario has begun filling that gap through Bill 194 and adjacent provincial instruments, while federal Treasury Board policy and sector-specific regulators continue to set the operating rules.

For GTA financial services clients, the binding instrument is OSFI Guideline E-23, finalized September 11, 2025, which formalized model risk management and AI use expectations for federally regulated financial institutions. Any AI deployment touching a Schedule I or II bank, a federal insurer, or a federally regulated trust now needs an E-23-aligned model inventory, documented validation, and ongoing performance monitoring — operational requirements, not legal theory.

Talent is the second consideration. The Vector Institute, the University of Toronto, and the Schwartz Reisman Institute have made the GTA one of the densest AI research clusters in North America — which is excellent for hiring senior researchers and meaningless for hiring an operator who can run a 90-day blueprint inside a $40M company. Mid-market CEOs in Toronto consistently over-index on technical talent and under-index on the executive layer that turns talent into outcomes.

How we work with Toronto clients

Most Toronto and GTA engagements run on a hybrid cadence: monthly on-site working sessions in the GTA (usually downtown Toronto, North York, or the 905), weekly video steering meetings, and async document review between sessions. Shawn Moore travels to Toronto monthly. Engagements can be invoiced in CAD or USD; corporate accounts payable in either currency are routine. For financial services clients, all working materials sit inside the client's environment to satisfy E-23 documentation expectations.

Industries we focus on in Greater Toronto Area

Financial services and wealth management

Schedule I/II banks, regional credit unions, and independent wealth managers — all now operating under OSFI Guideline E-23. We focus on the governance scaffolding that lets the first production AI use case pass internal model risk review without rebuilding the bank's framework.

Professional services (law, accounting, consulting)

Bay Street firms and mid-tier practices facing the same billable-hour question: which AI use cases compress cost without cannibalizing revenue, and how to structure the privilege and confidentiality protections required by the LSO and CPA Ontario.

Manufacturing and industrial (905 corridor)

Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, and Vaughan manufacturers using AI for predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, and quality control. The work is more pragmatic and the readiness gap is wider than headlines suggest.

Healthcare and life sciences

Hospital networks, clinical research organizations, and digital health companies operating under PHIPA and federal health privacy rules. Governance design matters more than model selection in every engagement we've run in this sector.

Foundational reading before we talk

The AI Savvy Readiness Framework — the six-pillar diagnostic used in every Toronto engagement.
The 90-Day AI Execution Blueprint — the four-phase methodology we run in Greater Toronto Area.
AI Consulting Cost Guide for Mid-Market CEOs (2026) — what an honest engagement should cost.

Frequently asked questions

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