Anne Nguyen named AI minister for Quebec

QUEBEC CITY – Not only did Anne Nguyen (pictured), LSSBB win a seat in the recent Quebec election, she has also been appointed as minister for artificial intelligence (AI) and digital affairs and minister responsible for the Laurentides region in the new PQ government.

Ms. Nguyen previously served as chief AI officer at the Quebec Council for Innovation since January 2024, where she had been driving the adoption of AI across the province.

In 2023, she spearheaded the institutional data strategy at CHUM as chief health data officer, cultivating a data-centric culture.

At Logibec (Nov. 2020 – Dec. 2022), she fueled innovation by expanding opportunity streams beyond Quebec through analytics-driven products. During her tenure at the Montreal Heart Institute (Nov. 2016 – Oct. 2020), she led digital transformation efforts and managed large-scale projects.

She is graduate of the Université de Montréal and Harvard University’s Business Analytics Program.

Anne is also a passionate advocate for women in science.

Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon praised Ms. Nguyen’s expertise in artificial intelligence during the election campaign, noting that knowledge is a key asset to government at a time when all societies are undergoing major technological transformations.

However, during the campaign, St-Pierre Plamondon also pledged to shut down Santé Québec, the giant government agency that runs healthcare in the province.

He said his government would get rid of Santé Québec in a bid to reinvest in direct patient care.

Savings, he added, would go toward strengthening frontline care via local health clinics known as CLSCs, and reducing the wait list for surgeries.

St-Pierre Plamondon pointed to Santé Québec as a failed experiment by the Coalition Avenir Québec government, that has led to a bloated bureaucracy.

“We are dealing with a bureaucratic monster, pure and simple. We need to regain control over this Crown corporation, and it must be held accountable for growth that is completely out of control,” he said.

St-Pierre Plamondon added that in just two years, the number of people employed by Santé Québec has jumped from 760 to 1,300. Sources at Santé Québec later disputed several claims made by Plamondon during the campaign.

Santé Québec was created in 2024 and became the sole employer in the health and social services network.