Our Organisations face barriers to adopting AI tools that align with our values and needs.
Our Organisations face barriers to adopting AI tools that align with our values and needs.
Every organisation in the solidarity economy is confronting the same uncomfortable question: how do you adopt a technology that could transform your operations when that technology is owned, governed, and monetized by the corporate interests our sector exists to counter?
The Urgent Reality
The AI landscape is currently dominated by proprietary platforms that conflict with co-operative values. AI assistants are integrated into most of our applications, collecting personal and organisation usage data for a handful of corporations. News articles decry the disruption of numerous professions while the venture capital driven hype machine makes it difficult to understand AI’s wider relevance. In late 2025, Hypha and CanTrust surveyed individuals and organisations from the solidarity sector, and this survey data paints a stark picture of the sector’s current vulnerability.
The Threat of “Shadow AI” is Immediate
67% of respondents are using AI in the workplace, yet less than a third of surveyed organisations have a formal AI usage policy. This has led to over half of employees using commercial tools without permission, creating invisible data leaks that expose sensitive information to third-party corporate systems. Providing a verifiable, secure alternative is now an operational necessity to prevent data leakage and compliance issues.
Sovereignty Requires Ownership
So-called “Canadian” AI services that rely on commercial API wrappers for American models do not provide true sovereignty. Data processed through these applications remains vulnerable to foreign legislation, including the U.S. CLOUD Act and the Foreign Intelligence Act (FISA). Sovereignty compliance demands physically hosting data on infrastructure owned by Canadian-controlled organisations, and shielding sensitive data from foreign surveillance.