Scotiabank backs new consortium to build shared AI control infrastructure

Additional projects under consideration for the consortium include an AI Operations Center intended to give members shared visibility into performance, resilience and cost across their AI systems, and an AI Token Exchange designed to pool members’ scale to secure broader and more efficient access to sovereign AI infrastructure.

Tim Clark, global head and chief information officer at Scotiabank, said the collaborative structure reflects the shared risks that come with deploying AI at scale.

“AI is scaling rapidly across our organizations, and with agentic systems, real-time control and monitoring have become essential to manage risk. Through the AI Consortium and Agentic Control Plane, we have built a secure foundation prioritizing risk and control up front to ensure that AI is deployed responsibly from the outset. Taking this unique, collaborative approach reflects our institutions’ shared commitment to solve common challenges across industries, integrate best-in-class technologies into our most critical systems, and share insights as new risks surface.”

Lightworks founder and chief executive John Painter said the consortium had been in development for a year and a half and represents more than a shared technology build.

“This marks the unveiling of a vision built over the last 18 months: uniting some of the world’s largest and most regulated institutions to advance the adoption of AI at scale. The AI Consortium is not only a technical program but a reimagining of how services, integration, intellectual property, and partnership work in the AI era. By combining execution across organizations facing the same requirements, we achieve a scale and capabilities beyond what could be done alone. This is the first step of many, and we invite others who share this ambition to help build what comes next, together.”