AI Governance & Practical Readiness for Credit Unions
AI Is Moving Fast — And So Are the Regulators.
OSFI's E-23 guideline has set a new standard for technology and AI risk management across Canada's financial sector. And while credit unions aren't directly subject to federal oversight, the pressure to align is already here. Provincial regulators like FSRA are adopting the same principles. Auditors are asking new questions. The window to build a defensible AI governance framework before enforcement arrives is closing.
The question for most credit union leaders isn't whether to act — it's how to build practical AI governance without a $1M consulting engagement, a dedicated compliance team, or months of delay.
That's exactly what this session is designed to answer.
Join Celestial Systems, Dataiku, and Digital Shift for an intimate, invitation-only breakfast in downtown Toronto — bringing together senior leaders from Ontario's credit union sector for a frank conversation about what AI governance looks like in practice, and what it takes to get there.
What We'll Cover
✅ Why AI governance pressure is coming at credit unions from every direction — and why the E-23 benchmark matters even if you're provincially regulated
✅ How to frame the business case for AI governance inside your organization — moving beyond compliance language to practical risk reduction and operational value
✅ What a realistic path to AI governance readiness looks like for a credit union of your size — without starting from scratch
✅ Open discussion: where your peers are in the journey, what's working, and what isn't
Before and after the main session, attendees will have hands-on time with three showcase stations:
🔹 Dataiku Advanced Govern — model risk management and audit infrastructure for regulated AI deployments
🔹 Practical Governance Accelerators — essential tools for building an audit-ready AI posture, presented by Digital Shift
🔹 The GenAI Reliability Framework — a 10-point methodology built around one of the core unsolved problems in enterprise AI: how do you know when your AI is giving you the wrong answer? For regulated industries where even a small percentage of undetected errors carries real operational and compliance risk, this framework surfaces the problem and provides a structured path to addressing it
Who Should Attend
This session is designed for senior leaders at Ontario credit unions who are responsible for — or accountable to — decisions about AI adoption, technology risk, and regulatory readiness. If you're navigating questions about where to start with AI governance, how to respond to increasing regulatory scrutiny, or how to ensure your AI investments are defensible, this is a room worth being in.
VPs, Directors, and Heads of Risk & Compliance
Technology, IT, and Data leaders
Operations and Digital Transformation executives
AI Strategy and Governance leads
Expect a small group, candid conversation, and a take-home shortlist of actions you can bring back to your leadership team.
Our Speakers
Karen Ryan — Principal, Digital Shift
Karen Ryan is a leading voice on AI governance and regulatory strategy in Canadian financial services. She has authored AI policy frameworks for FSRA and developed practical governance tools used by regulated institutions navigating the shift from AI experimentation to accountable, auditable deployment. Karen brings both the regulatory depth and the implementation experience to bridge what E-23 requires with what organizations can actually build.
Maurice Chang — AI Strategist, Digital Shift
Maurice Chang is a consultant at Digital Shift specializing in AI evaluation and governance for regulated industries. He is the architect of the GenAI Reliability Framework — a 10-point methodology that helps enterprises assess the trustworthiness of GenAI outputs. His work addresses one of the most underrecognized challenges in enterprise AI adoption: knowing when your AI is wrong, and what to do about it.
Doug Harrison — Country Manager, Dataiku
Doug Harrison brings deep experience in financial services AI deployments. He will demonstrate how Dataiku Advanced Govern operationalizes E-23-aligned model risk management — from model inventory and versioning to audit documentation and risk flagging.
Kristopher Lau — Senior Account Executive, Celestial Systems
Kris will outline how Celestial's managed services and advisory offering provides a practical, low-friction pathway for credit unions to build and maintain a governed AI environment — without building a large internal team from scratch.
The Venue
The session will be hosted at the University Club of Toronto, 380 University Avenue — a central, executive-calibre setting that's easy to get to and a step above the standard hotel boardroom. Well-suited to the kind of candid, peer-level conversation this session is designed to create.
About the Organizers
Celestial Systems — Founded in 2001, Celestial Systems combines a heritage of industry leadership in application engineering with deep expertise in AI solutions. With headquarters in Burnaby, BC and a fully in-house engineering team, Celestial empowers organizations to leverage AI in practical, responsible ways — unlocking new opportunities, reducing risk, and sharpening competitive advantage.
Dataiku — The world's leading platform for Everyday AI, enabling organizations to build and use AI responsibly at scale. Dataiku Advanced Govern provides the model risk management and audit infrastructure that regulated industries need to deploy AI with confidence — from model inventory and documentation through to monitoring and compliance reporting.
Digital Shift — Digital Shift partners with financial institutions to navigate the strategy, governance, and delivery challenges of AI adoption. With deep roots in Canadian financial services regulation and a track record of building practical governance frameworks for provincially and federally regulated entities, Digital Shift ensures AI strategy translates into results — and that those results hold up under scrutiny.
Space is limited to ensure meaningful conversation and peer exchange.