As artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities evolve and it becomes more accessible, Canadian businesses continue to adopt this technology to improve efficiency and respond to changing business conditions. According to Statistics Canada, the proportion of businesses using AI to produce goods or deliver services increased by 6.1% over the past 12 months.

This increased adoption of AI is especially evident at one organization in Northern B.C. that's using it to shape how work is performed.

Integris Credit Union, serving roughly 28,000 members across rural communities, faces a challenge familiar to many financial institutions: how to innovate without compromising sensitive data. For VP of Information Technology, Jeff Anderson, the answer isn’t just smart tech—it’s data sovereignty.

“Our members trust us with their financial future," said Anderson. So, we can't share data with anybody. We need to protect member assets for the long term and must do so securely.”

AI platforms can come with risks

In a region where physical branches are often out of reach, Integris began exploring AI tools years ago to keep pace with mobile-first expectations. But the team realized that adopting consumer-grade AI platforms came with risks—data exposure, compliance concerns, and a lack of transparency.

“There’s limited transparency as to how data flows for most AI outcomes,” said Zoho Canada Managing Director, Chandrashekar Lalapet Srinivas Prasanna (LSP). “Where is the data going? Who is it training?”

Those concerns are increasingly common. Tech companies, including file-transfer platform WeTransfer faced customer backlash earlier this year for updating its terms of service to feed user content into AI training systems without explicit consent.

In regulated industries like finance, even a minor misstep can trigger legal trouble and impact customer trust.

AI sovereignty and data residency matter

The stakes will only grow with impending Canadian privacy legislation that aims to modernize how personal data and artificial intelligence are regulated. That’s why terms like AI sovereignty and data residency are becoming part of boardroom vocabulary. And it's why Integris looked for a platform built with those safeguards baked in.

Zoho owns every layer of its AI stack, from infrastructure to models, and keeps all Canadian customer data local—no rerouting to foreign servers, no surprises in the fine print. LSP says it’s not just a philosophy, but a working model, based on Zoho's privacy commitment.

This approach is more expensive for Zoho, and more complex, LSP added, but it means that Zoho's customers aren’t at the mercy of shifting terms of service. He adds that it builds on the company's AI differentiation and commitment to designing and incorporating AI guided by the principles of customer privacy and value. Its general AI models across contextual, assistive, and agentic AI are not trained on consumer data and do not retain customer information.

Moving fast without breaking things

Today, Integris uses Zoho’s integrated AI features for things like writing support and data analysis, all within a tightly controlled enterprise layer. The system tokenizes sensitive information before any prompt leaves it. Anderson views this usage with “cautious optimism” and as a way to move fast without breaking things.

That agility was put to the test recently, when new rules around non-sufficient fund fees required immediate notification workflows. With AI-assisted tools, Anderson’s team deployed a compliant system within days instead of the weeks it might’ve taken before.

"The goal is to help staff work more effectively and efficiently with systems that are more responsive," Anderson emphasized. "We're not looking to replace our teams with AI."

Trust is at stake

WeTransfer's recent backlash is a sign of what’s at stake. When the company tried to grant perpetual use of its customers' content to train machine learning models, the public response was swift.

“Training AI on customers' data is a bad idea,” LSP said. “It makes more sense for companies to take a measured approach to training on open data and commit to not selling information.”

This approach enables Integris Credit Union to harness AI responsibly by balancing technological progress with ethical stewardship.

“As we continue using AI to innovate for our members," Anderson added. "Trust doesn’t come from using new tools, it comes from demonstrating that you know how to use them responsibly.”