From AI Copilots to Autonomous Agents: Recapping Our June Meetup at BDC
On June 23, La French Tech Toronto and BDC brought together around 60 founders, operators, investors, and innovation leaders at BDC Square for an evening on the shift everyone is talking about: AI moving from copilot to autonomous operator, capable of executing tasks, orchestrating workflows, and making decisions across business systems.
Two panels, six speakers, a full room, and a conversation that stayed refreshingly practical. Here is what happened.
Event Details
📅 Tuesday, June 23, 2026
📍 BDC Square, 81 Bay Street, Toronto
🤝 Hosted by La French Tech Toronto and BDC
👥 Around 60 attendees
Opening Remarks
The evening opened with remarks from Estelle Chen, President of La French Tech Toronto, and our host BDC. In her opening remarks, Estelle Chen encouraged attendees to move beyond AI experimentation and focus on the organizational changes required to translate technological progress into lasting business impact.
Workshop #1: From AI Copilots to AI Employees
Our first panel looked at what companies are genuinely automating today, and where it breaks.
- Karla Congson, CEO and Co-founder, Agentiiv
- Kevin Samson, GTM Lead Canada, Mistral
- Moderated by Elvine Assouline, Co-founder, Credibled
What we explored:
- The move from AI that assists to AI that executes
- What companies automate first, and the bigger opportunity most of them miss
- Why most AI failures are about people, not technology
- Governance, oversight, and how much autonomy to delegate
- Real examples already running in production
A recurring theme stuck with the room: roughly 10% of the work is the tools, 20% is the data and governance, and 70% is people, process, and change management. The organizations seeing results are the ones bringing their teams along, not just buying better software.
Workshop #2: AI Agents vs. SaaS
The second panel asked whether agentic AI will reshape software itself.
- Josh Bragg, Forward Deployed Engineer, Cohere
- Jerry Chien, CEO, Jump Point AI
- Moderated by Dino D’Agostino, Senior Machine Learning Engineer, TD
What we explored:
- AI as a new operating layer over existing tools
- Workflow orchestration across business systems
- The future of SaaS interfaces and how software evolves
- Where agents add real value, and where traditional software still wins
- Rethinking processes from first principles before automating them
The takeaway was less « AI vs SaaS » and more « AI + SaaS. » Software is not disappearing. It is becoming a set of capabilities and services that agents orchestrate behind the scenes, with the interface shifting from screens to intent and outcomes.
The Thread That Tied It Together
Across both panels, every conversation came back to the same place. The more we talked about machines, the clearer it became that success depends on people. Tools are increasingly a commodity. Judgment, trust, and change management are not. That is the real work ahead, and exactly the kind of conversation this community exists to have.
Why This Matters
AI is no longer simply changing how we work. It is changing how organizations are designed, how decisions are made, and where competitive advantage comes from. The conversations taking place across our community are increasingly focused not on whether AI will transform business, but on how leaders can guide that transformation responsibly.
Why La French Tech Toronto Exists
This meetup reflects La French Tech Toronto’s mission of connecting founders, researchers, investors, and corporate innovators to accelerate collaboration between France and Canada’s innovation ecosystems.
The Companies Who Joined Us
Thank You
A huge thank you to BDC for partnering with us and opening its doors to the innovation community. Their continued commitment to Canadian entrepreneurs and technology leaders helped make this conversation possible.
A special thank you to Patricia, who carried this meetup on her shoulders. From content and production to operations, she did an enormous amount of work behind the scenes to make the evening happen.
Thank you as well to our speakers and moderators, and to everyone who came out, stayed for the cocktail, and kept the conversation going well past the agenda.
A special thank you to Estelle Chen, President of La French Tech Toronto, and to Bertrand Pous, Consul General of France in Toronto. As they conclude their mandates this summer, their contribution to the French and Canadian innovation community deserves real recognition.
This conversation is only moving faster. To join the next one, explore our upcoming events and join the community.