As MIPGlobal was emerging in 2023, I was watching businesses of all stripes and sizes struggle to understand this “AI thing?”
At the time, IT and managed service providers were being asked about AI and how to implement it. Where should they implement it? How should they use it?
One thing was clear: sales tactics weren’t working, and people needed real answers about ROI, implementation, and integration.
I was exceptionally lucky to have a few things going for me. One, I am friends with Rob Rae, the Corporate Vice President of Community and Ecosystems at Pax8. Two, one of my mentors, Bill Scott, had always included me in the Entrepreneur Organization, so I had the privilege of learning from dozens of other tremendous business leaders, such as Richard Waller, Amanda Hamilton, and Cam and Karina Batey. This was an education through observation that has taught me a great deal. Richard was the person I called to help me prepare myself for one of my first leadership roles, and I will always be grateful for the time he took to help someone who didn’t even work for him to prepare to jump into business and leadership.
Rob is another monumental person in my life who has always been supportive. We were sitting outside the Calgary Microsoft office in 2023 when a Microsoft executive joined Rob and me outside after a presentation. Rob and I asked how sales of Microsoft Copilot were going. The executive shared that sales were abysmal, and his team wasn’t really sure why.
To me, it was pretty clear what the problem seemed to be, and still, for the most part, seems to be the problem with AI adoption today: value. I told the exec, “you are just trying to force the product on people and telling them to trust you, without knowing how they will make money, or where they get their ROI.”
Over the next two years, I had further discussions with people around the type of company that could help people address the questions and answers above. I wasn’t personally in a place to start my own company then, but made a transition in February 2025 to work with the amazing Dan Mitchell. I had always wanted to do “cool projects with cool people.” Dan was at the top of that list, as we already had the chance to do panels and speaking engagements, and to collaborate on CanITCon, one of Canada’s largest tech conferences.
Getting to work together kicked off at PAX8 Beyond again in 2025, where we both watched companies dive into Managed Intelligence. Dan saw the vision for MIPGlobal with me and supported getting the company off the ground before we were out of the day-one keynote.
Since then, we have been navigating one of the most transformative periods in business, tech, and human performance in my lifetime. It has not been easy. Implementing AI services and automation is not a tech problem, but a business strategy multiplier that requires all levels of an organization to understand and document exactly how they do what they do for their customers.
MIPGlobal is here because of tremendous people who support people, bringing clarity to a foggy picture that sometimes only makes sense to a few.
Sandy is the Founder and President of MIPGlobal.ai, a Canadian business AI consulting company and the Director of Infrastructure and Technology at Alt-tech Inc.
