How AI and big data are reshaping the future of retail
The emergence of e-commerce has made for a revolution in retail. Whenever you make a purchase online, you generate data, and that data allows for a higher degree of personalization.
Inside the GCPA: Highlights from October's in-person session
A full house at the CPA Québec Info Session! Faculty and students showed up in impressive numbers, eager to learn about the exciting changes coming to the CPA profession.
Insights from the Reshaping the Future of Retail Conference
Meghan Markowski (MMR'25) captures key takeaways from this year's Reshaping the Future of Retail Conference, which brought together over 250 retail leaders, academics, and students at Montreal’s Sofitel Golden Mile on September 26.
Cree Nation Trust Fund part of bid to turn Bay Building into cultural centre
The Bay Building on Saint Catherine Street is one of Montreal’s most iconic retail locations. But after the Hudson’s Bay Company dissolved in 2025, is future is unclear. One of the bidders for it is the Cree Nation Trust Fund.
Maxime Cohen named to world’s most cited researcher list for third straight year
Each year, Stanford University and the academic publishing company Elsevier celebrate the world’s most influential researchers with its top 2% list, which identifies the researchers who are most widely cited in their field. For the third year in a row, Maxime Cohen was among them.
Professor Warut Khern-am-nuai named to Chair in Economics and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
The Institut de valorisation des données (IVADO), with support from the Fonds de recherche du Québec, has created six new research chairs in artificial intelligence to advance knowledge and train the next generation of AI leaders.
China MBA and MMF Luxembourg featured in McGill’s global campus launch
Quebec’s government has made it more difficult for out of province students to attend McGill, increasing tuition fees and requiring that more students speak French at graduation.
Kate Arthur shares insights into literacy in the age of AI in UNESCO keynote
What does it mean to literate in the age of artificial intelligence? According to Kate Arthur (EMBA 2021) , literacy is about more than knowing how to read or write, it’s about having the tools to understand the world around us and our active role in shaping it. Arthur’s own sense of literacy was upended when she was introduced to language of computing.
Customer service chatbots are everywhere, but people prefer human agents to deal with some issues
The use of customer service chatbots has grown rapidly. Maybe a little too rapidly, according to Vivek Astvansh, an Associate Professor of Quantitative Marketing and Analytics at McGill Desautels. The worldwide chatbot market has expanded from US$370 million in 2017 to US$2.2 billion last year, but customers are not always satisfied with the service they provide.
Independent fashion designers likely to lose out in SSENSE bankruptcy
In a bankruptcy filing in late August, the Montreal-based luxury retailer SSENSE cited a liquidity crisis brought on partly by the unpredictable tariff regime in the United States. At the time of the filing, some independent designers who work with the company said they were owed tens of thousands of dollars, but hadn’t been paid in months.
Buy now, pay later loans promise to boost purchasing power—but can come with strings
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) programs allow consumers to pay for items in instalments. And the market for these financial products has been growing at a 12% annual rate, and is projected to reach $7.5 billion in 2025. Fintech companies like Afterpay, Flexiti and Sezzle allow users to break down major purchases into more manageeable monthly or quarterly payments.
Stablecoins could change the economy, but Canada won’t be minting digital currencies anytime soon
Stablecoins are a form of digital currency whose value is tied to a physical currency, such as the US dollar or Euro. Stablecoins can be easily moved between countries, avoiding costly banking fees. But whether they will be widely adopted or not is still an open question. The Bank of Canada looked into the possibility of producing a stablecoin, but quietly dropped the project.
Kai Zhao (MBA’25) recognized as 2025 MBA To Watch
McGill Desautels MBA student Kai Zhao (MBA’25) has been recognized by Poets&Quants as one of its “MBAs To Watch” for the Class of 2025.
Despite rapid rise of AI chatbots in customer service, customers prefer human agents
If it feels like customer service chatbots are everywhere, it’s because they are. The worldwide chatbot market has grown from US$370 million in 2017 to about US$2.2 billion in 2024. But customers trust human customer service representatives more than they trust AI chatbots, writes Vivek Astvansh, an Associate Professor of Quantitative Marketing and Analytics at McGill Desautels.
Rebranding of DEI initiatives is a reactive response to external pressures
The pushback against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs gained momentum in the first half of 2025. And while some institutions are eliminating DEI initiatives, others are rebranding them.
