AIRI Foundation

Programs
Tell us what you need. We'll figure out the rest.

Your competition isn’t using AI because it’s trendy. They’re using it because it works. And if you’re still trying to figure out where to start, you’re already behind.

We work with businesses and organizations (including non-profits) that know something needs to change but aren’t sure what that looks like. You know your team is drowning in work that could be automated, and there’s a better way to operate, and you need someone to show you how.

Here’s what we do:

► We sit down with your team and figure out where the bottlenecks are, and then we build systems that fit how you actually work.

► Your team learns to run these systems themselves. No dependencies or unending monthly retainers.

► We teach your staff to spot opportunities for improvement and make changes without calling us.

► Your team learns how to think differently about the work they’re already doing, and give them the skills to act on it.

If you’re willing to question how things have always been done, we’ll show you what’s possible.

Our job is to equip your team with the skills and tools that let them focus on work that actually requires human judgment and care.

Academia is the bedrock of innovation and has the responsibility of determining whether technology serves humanity or the other way around. We partner with institutions that recognize this moment for what it is.

Faculties need more than a workshop on how to catch students using chatbots. Honestly, that’s old school already. What they need are frameworks that would help them rethink their teaching and assessment styles.

Students—undergrad to doctoral—also need exposure to and understanding of how the current AI trends might impact their aspirations, irrespective of their discipline. For example, what hope does a student studying Arts have in today’s world when algorithms can generate paintings in seconds or even compose music that moves people to tears? EVOLUTION!

Here’s what’s actually happening: AI-generated content has flooded our world with mediocrity, and that flood has made human originality more valuable than ever. When anyone can generate a decent logo in thirty seconds, the designer who brings genuine insight becomes irreplaceable and commands a premium. The market isn’t rewarding competence anymore: it’s rewarding the things machines can’t fake. Taste. Judgment. The ability to know what matters.

Every discipline faces this moment. So the question isn’t whether the technology will affect your field. It is already! The question is whether you’ll be someone who understands it well enough to shape how it gets used, or someone who watches from the sidelines while others make those decisions.

We run training sessions for people who want to understand what’s happening around them. Doesn’t matter if you’re 16 or 76. Maybe your job is changing, and you want to stay relevant. Maybe you’re tired of feeling like everyone else knows something you don’t. Maybe you just want to try something different on a Tuesday evening.

Maybe your job is changing and you want to stay relevant. Maybe you’re tired of feeling like everyone else knows something you don’t. Maybe you just want to try something different on a Tuesday evening.

Come find out what you’re capable of.

We have a dedicated research and development unit that advances scalable, implementable-ready solutions at various intersections of artificial intelligence application.

Over the next five years, our work will focus on five priorities: inclusive interaction design, low-barrier deployment, adaptable learning environments, scalable ethical frameworks, and strategies to confront AI-driven misinformation.

We collaborate with universities, industry leaders, grassroots organizations, policymakers, and civil society networks to bridge academic insight into real-world implementation. These priorities guide us in developing toolkits and methodologies that make AI accessible and socially responsible across diverse communities, while also strengthening information policies and governance practices.

SectorwiseAI

INFRAACT delivers the missing layer of training and infrastructure that organizations need to compete in an AI-driven economy by creating institutional AI blueprints tailored to each organization’s mission, workforce, and compliance environment. The program integrate real-time data and predictive insights into everyday operations and establishes sector-specific AI playbooks that replace one-off tools with coherent, maintainable systems. Every engagement includes capability transfers where internal teams can evolve the systems without dependence on outside vendors. Tell us what you need. We'll figure out the rest.

AIRI CodeStream

AIRI CodeStream is our end-to-end pathway for building AI-native software skills that are practical and future-ready. Learners progress from coding foundations to advanced AI engineering, designing and deploying real products with confidence. The program combines accessible methods like “VibeCoding” with professional-grade training in Python, data, and large-scale AI applications.

Prodify

Prodify empowers professionals to harness AI as a catalyst for productivity and supercharge their innovative thinking. Designed for workers across education, health, marketing, consulting, design, and beyond, the program equips participants with ethical, accessible AI workflows that save time, enhance creativity, and strengthen competitiveness. Participants learn to integrate AI into client deliverables and business operations while building habits of safety and originality. Prodify also provides toolkits that require free or no costly infrastructure and certifies participants as leaders in AI-assisted professional practice.

AIRI R&D

We have a dedicated research and development unit that advances scalable, implementable-ready solutions at various intersections of artificial intelligence application. Over the next five years, our work will focus on five priorities: inclusive interaction design, low-barrier deployment, adaptable learning environments, scalable ethical frameworks, and strategies to confront AI-driven misinformation. We collaborate with universities, industry leaders, grassroots organizations, policymakers, and civil society networks to bridge academic insight into real-world implementation. These priorities guide us in developing toolkits and methodologies that make AI accessible and socially responsible across diverse communities, while also strengthening information policies and governance practices.

Fire Prompt Academy

Fire (Frameworks for Inclusive and Responsible Engineering) Prompt Academy is our dedicated training division for prompt engineering, designed to professionalize the way individuals and institutions interact with generative AI systems. The Academy delivers technical and strategic instruction in the use of text-based models across research, business, education, and service sectors. Training is built around real-world use cases tailored to personal and organizational needs. Participants are also trained on privacy-aware prompting practices and the limitations of language models in sensitive contexts. Some participants are certified to validate their prompt engineering expertise for employers and clients with sector-specific tracks.

GenCTRL

GenCTRL equips university students and young leaders to navigate the ethical, social, and civic challenges of artificial intelligence. Many struggle to understand what responsible AI use looks like or how to innovate without harm. GenCTRL focuses on building a generation of young minds who can anticipate AI’s societal implications and lead the charge for equitable and transparent AI ecosystems, both in Canada and globally.

Imaginauts

Imaginauts inspires teenagers to apply AI for creativity, ethical problem-solving, and real-world impact. The program fosters digital citizenship and critical thinking while offering workshops in prompt engineering and mentorship opportunities with innovators. Imaginauts provides pathways into lifelong skills that prepare these young minds to lead with responsibility and imagination in Canada’s AI-driven future.

SparkSeed (Age 6-12)

Ignites curiosity and foundational AI fluency among Canada’s next generation. The program’s curriculum is grounded in Canadian values of diversity, innovation, and responsible citizenship, ensuring that every participant develops the critical mindset and practical skills needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital world.

Sagenarium

We designed this program to equip seniors (those aged 55 and above) with the tools, confidence, and contextual understanding necessary to engage meaningfully with today’s most widely used artificial intelligence systems, those they are comfortable using. We consider the inclusion of seniors in AI as a civic and strategic imperative for any society aspiring to technological equity.

FirstLight Path

FirstLight Pathways focuses on new immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who need help learning how to use the AI tools that are now part of daily life in Canada. For many newcomers, these tools are confusing or completely unfamiliar. We train participants on how to use AI for everyday needs such as school support, clinic visits, job searches, and communication with government services, while building skills to recognize scams, protect privacy, and assert their rights. Sessions are offered in multiple languages through our train-the-trainer models who are already members or speakers of the immigrants' language.
FAQ Widget

FAQs

Businesses and Organizations

Your competition isn’t using AI because it’s trendy. They’re using it because it works. And if you’re still trying to figure out where to start, you’re already behind.

We work with businesses and organizations (including non-profits) that know something needs to change but aren’t sure what that looks like. You know your team is drowning in work that could be automated, and there’s a better way to operate, and you need someone to show you how.

Here’s what we do:

➤ We sit down with your team and figure out where the bottlenecks are, and then we build systems that fit how you actually work.

➤ Your team learns to run these systems themselves. No dependencies or unending monthly retainers.

➤ We teach your staff to spot opportunities for improvement and make changes without calling us.

➤ Your team learns how to think differently about the work they’re already doing, and give them the skills to act on it.

If you’re willing to question how things have always been done, we’ll show you what’s possible.

Our job is to equip your team with the skills and tools that let them focus on work that actually requires human judgment and care.

Academia

Academia is the bedrock of innovation and has the responsibility of determining whether technology serves humanity or the other way around. We partner with institutions that recognize this moment for what it is. 

Faculties need more than a workshop on how to catch students using chatbots. Honestly, that’s old school already. What they need are frameworks that would help them rethink their teaching and assessment styles.

Students—undergrad to doctoral—also need exposure to and understanding of how the current AI trends might impact their aspirations, irrespective of their discipline. For example, what hope does a student studying Arts have in today’s world when algorithms can generate paintings in seconds or even compose music that moves people to tears? EVOLUTION!

Here’s what’s actually happening: AI-generated content has flooded our world with mediocrity, and that flood has made human originality more valuable than ever. When anyone can generate a decent logo in thirty seconds, the designer who brings genuine insight becomes irreplaceable and commands a premium. The market isn’t rewarding competence anymore; it’s rewarding the things machines can’t fake. Taste. Judgment. The ability to know what matters.

Every discipline faces this moment. So the question isn’t whether the technology will affect your field. It is already! The question is whether you’ll be someone who understands it well enough to shape how it gets used, or someone who watches from the sidelines while others make those decisions.

Community Members

We run training sessions for people who want to understand what’s happening around them. Doesn’t matter if you’re 16 or 76. Maybe your job is changing, and you want to stay relevant. Maybe you’re tired of feeling like everyone else knows something you don’t. Maybe you just want to try something different on a Tuesday evening.

Maybe your job is changing and you want to stay relevant. Maybe you’re tired of feeling like everyone else knows something you don’t. Maybe you just want to try something different on a Tuesday evening.

Come find out what you’re capable of.

 

Businesses and Organisations


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Academia


James Yékú

James Yeku holds a PhD in English from the University of Saskatchewan and is an associate professor at the University of Kansas, where he teaches courses in postcolonial digital humanities and African literature. He is the author of the monographs The Algorithmic Age of Personality: African Literature and Cancel Culture and Cultural Netizenship: Social Media, Popular Culture, and Performance in Nigeria, as well as two poetry books and a nonfiction collection.
 
He is a joint winner of the Pius Adesanmi Early Career Research Excellence Award of the Canadian African Studies Association and a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship. James lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

James Yékú

James Yeku holds a PhD in English from the University of Saskatchewan and is an associate professor at the University of Kansas, where he teaches courses in postcolonial digital humanities and African literature. He is the author of the monographs The Algorithmic Age of Personality: African Literature and Cancel Culture and Cultural Netizenship: Social Media, Popular Culture, and Performance in Nigeria, as well as two poetry books and a nonfiction collection.
 
He is a joint winner of the Pius Adesanmi Early Career Research Excellence Award of the Canadian African Studies Association and a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship. James lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

Janelle Marietta

Janelle Marietta is a recognized leader with 15+ years of experience guiding not-for-profit organizations across Canada. She is an active researcher in the areas of social marketing, not-for-profit marketing/management, immigration settlement, and community-based participatory research. 

 

Janelle is also a doctoral researcher and instructor at the University of Lethbridge Dhillon Business School, where she teaches courses such as consumer behavior, social marketing, not-for-profit marketing, services marketing, and business research methods. She has served on many boards, supporting Local Immigration Partnerships, Economic Development, Community Social Development, and initiatives such as the Alberta Living Wage Network. She has a keen interest in how technology and innovation can support the not-for-profit sector in building stronger communities.

Presley Ifukor

Dr. Presley Ifukor is Chair and Research Director at the Alberta Centre for Emerging Democracies. He brings substantial leadership, research, and consulting experience, with deep technical expertise in artificial intelligence, professional training, and computational linguistics.


A German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) alumnus, Dr. Ifukor earned graduate degrees in Cognitive Science and linguistics, focusing on AI-driven projects such as computing analogies, knowledge representation, and intelligent tutoring systems in mathematics. He has also served as a Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University and Boston University in the USA.

Gurpreet Singh

Gurpreet Singh is a machine learning expert whose work focused on the critical ethical challenges of modern artificial intelligence and its domain applications. He advocates for frameworks that prioritize transparency, fairness, and accountability, urging a shift from a focus on mere innovation to a deep consideration of AI’s societal impact. A key component of his approach is advancing AI literacy, empowering individuals and communities with the knowledge to critically engage with the technologies that shape their lives.

Beyond academia, Gurpreet is a results-driven leader who has made a significant impact through his roles as Director at Oxford Learning Lethbridge and active member of the Alberta Anti Racism Advisory Council, where he champions equity, diversity, and inclusion in both business and community settings. He is deeply committed to addressing the use of personal data and AI in healthcare and the risks of algorithmic bias to minority, at-risk, and underrepresented communities. Through his advocacy for robust governance and human-centric design, Gurpreet works to ensure that technology does not perpetuate historical biases. Also recognized for expertise in digital humanities and project management, he delivers actionable solutions at the intersection of technology, ethics, and community needs. 

Dr. Ignatius Ezeani

Dr. Ignatius Ezeani is a Research Fellow at the School of Computer Science, Lancaster University, and formerly a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research Africa. Ezeani’s work focuses on developing tools and methods to process and empower underrepresented languages through advanced AI techniques. His notable projects include the pioneering Igbo-English Machine Translation initiative, which has set new benchmarks in the evaluation and accessibility of African language resources. Further contributions span collaborative research in semantic annotation for genomics, leveraging pre-trained embeddings for minority language taggers, and the development of accurate part-of-speech tagging and diacritic restoration for Igbo.

Throughout his career, Dr. Ezeani has passionately promoted diversity and inclusion in the technology sector and regularly collaborates with cross-disciplinary teams driving innovation in machine learning, language technology, and spatial humanities, ensuring that resource-scarce communities have access to cutting-edge AI advancements. Through his technical advisement and mentoring, Dr. Ezeani inspires new generations of researchers and is actively engaged in global AI communities through Deep Learning Indaba, Masakhane, and Black in AI, championing African and underrepresented voices in the future of AI.

Osasu Imarhiagbe

Osasu is a Computer Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer, and Artificial Intelligence Specialist working at the intersection of AI in health and security. He leverages advanced machine learning and deep learning techniques to build impactful, responsible AI systems. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Lethbridge, where his research focused on designing novel AI architectures in neuroscience to support radiologists and clinicians in the study of schizophrenia. His work has been presented at peer-reviewed conferences and has contributed to advancing precision medical imaging and multimodal integration in clinical diagnostics.

Osasu is deeply committed to democratizing AI and has a strong track record of using technology to drive inclusive, community-centered solutions. Aside being the co-founder of ALMA Network Solutions LTD, he founded ZAIR, a tech startup and has previously served as a specialist consultant, reviewer, and drafting member of the Nigeria Startup Act—an initiative enacted into law by the Nigerian presidency to protect the country’s tech ecosystem, nurture innovation, and support the funding of startups. Now active within Canada’s innovation landscape, he continues to champion responsible AI practices across sectors. As a member of the AIRI Foundation leadership, he brings a systems-thinking approach and a deep commitment to advancing equitable AI literacy, particularly among underserved populations.

Frank Onuh

Frank Onuh is the Executive Director of AIRI Foundation and a member of Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. He has extensive leadership and R&D experience in Applied Generative AI and misinformation studies.

Frank is a consistent voice in AI ethics and digital empowerment and has designed and led major cross-sectoral projects that span AI literacy and capacity building, including designing low-cost AI-powered auto systems. As part of this work on de-biasing GenAI outputs, he developed the AI Bias Detection Canvas, a structured framework for identifying and mitigating algorithmic inequities. Frank has facilitated digital training partnerships that help provide training to BIPOC professionals in the data science and AI fields across Canada.

Mr Onuh has worked across sectors to translate emerging technologies into accessible tools for both technical and non-technical communities. He serves on the boards of leading social impact organizations and advises organizational and national policy projects involving AI use while helping them develop rounded, AI-safe policy and use case frameworks.

Sidney Shapiro

Dr. SidneyShapiro is an Assistant Professor of Business Analytics at the Dhillon School of Business, University of Lethbridge, where he joined the faculty in 2023. He earned his PhD in Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies from Laurentian University, specializing in social network analytics. Prior to his academic appointment, he spent over a decade in data science leadership roles, including as a data science team manager in the occupational health and safety sector, where he led projects involving business intelligence, data engineering, machine learning, and automation.

His research focuses on the practical application of artificial intelligence in business and program evaluation, particularly examining AI adoption, data privacy, and the integration of analytic tools into decision-making processes. In the classroom, Dr. Shapiro teaches a range of data analytics courses covering data management, visualization, and applied modeling, aiming to equip future business analysts with both theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills.

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