The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, July 3, edition that Canadian companies are often seen as slow to adopt artificial intelligence, but Safe Software's experience suggests otherwise. The Globe's Joe Castaldo writes that six months ago, it spent $20,000 a month on AI tools for its 370 employees. Now costs have surged to about $100,000 monthly. "We need to get this under control, as it costs over a million a year," said chief executive officer Don Murray. These costs would be less concerning if Safe Software had a clear picture of the return on investment, but that's unclear in some cases. Safe recently hired a director of AI to clarify how employees should use these tools and assess their benefits and ROI, according to Mr. Murray. Companies that make AI software are embedding staff with customers to build custom applications, which is typically called forward-deployed engineering. OpenAI purchased a consulting and engineering firm this year and launched a new business called the OpenAI Deployment Company to work with clients on bespoke solutions. Kinaxis is building teams to install with its clients, too. Kinaxis says it's a new way to work with customers, "rather than selling software and walking away."