Since discovering AI (Artificial Intelligence) in 2022, Vaseem Baig has been dedicated to helping people harness the power of this technology in positive, meaningful and transformative ways.
Baig, who would move to Brantford later on in his adult life, was born and raised in Brampton, envisioned himself as becoming an author.
“When I was a little…my dream was to be an author. I wanted to write books. I loved reading sci-fi and fantasy and authors like RL Stein and Bruce Coville and really got into some of his books like ‘Goblins in the Castle’ and ‘Into the Land of the Unicorns’. There were so many different fantasy and sci-fi books that I loved reading when I was growing up. I saw myself as one day being a writer…and that’s what I wanted to do,” he said.
Although he would take on various roles through the years, he never strayed away from being creative.
“I’ve always been a creative person….in any of the roles that I’ve taken on, whether it was as a supply chain analyst at Hershey’s Canada, where I ended up creating a national sales tracking tool…with a couple of co-op students…[which] revolutionized the way that they did sales….I’d also get quite creative and go the extra mile…creating ways to use information and data to tell stories,” he explained. “By the time I made my way to the TMX Group, which is the mothership of the Toronto Stock Exchange…that little childhood dream of being a writer and storyteller….went hand in hand with what I was doing there…because I was given massive amounts of data on customers and I had to make sense of it and answer questions like: ‘Who are our top customers?’ or ‘What are they buying?’ or ‘What are they not buying?’ One of my early assignments there was to put together teams, data sets and data pipelines to figure out some of those high-level questions.”
However, it would be a certain technology that got Baig to stand up and take notice.
“I remember the day…it was November 30, 2022, six months after my wife and I moved to Brantford that Chat GPT became public. I was at the office, and one of my coworkers was talking about it. I booted it up on my company laptop and…I started to chat with it…I thought that it was really neat. Fast forward about eight months, I ended up writing a children’s book using AI called ‘ABCs of the Future’, which was shortlisted as one of the top technology innovation books on Amazon. So, suffice to say, I got very creative with AI early on and my early fascinations were about how we could use this technology for the benefit of society,” he said.
In 2025, Baig had a golden opportunity to educate his fellow peers.
“At the time, there was a pilot group at the TMX Group…we were given around 50 licenses for Google’s version of Chat GPT, which was called Bard [and is now called Gemini]. I’d been tinkering and creating with AI for about two and a half years. My peers had not done that at all, and so when they had access to this tool, they were very confused. The first question, especially for people who work at the stock exchange [was naturally]: ‘How do I make more money?’ And then I provided them with some ideas which they quickly dismissed…and I was thinking…only if these people knew how to apply this technology to their day-to-day job. And that’s where the quest began,” he reflected. “One night in the summer of 2025 I took it upon myself to create a crash course on AI. I recorded myself on Google Meet …staying up until three in the morning. The course was rudimentary…providing people with an overview of what AI is and how they could pick it up and apply the information immediately for their benefit. I released it to the pilot group as a gift….and what started as a side project turned into something bigger. I had people messaging me from many of our satellite offices around the world…like Singapore and Malaysia…and they were telling me how I helped them understand AI by delivering the information in a way that made sense. Within seven months…I had won two excellence awards from the VP of HR, and another one from the CFO…all centered around AI adoption within the organization.”
In 2025, Baig made the decision to leave the TMX Group and take on his ‘Vaseem the AI Guy’ brand and help people understand AI across four main tenets.
“I worked with a phenomenal company called Renflow Designs, which was founded by René Lacroix. I met him at a local Chamber of Commerce event. He really took this concept of the AI Guy, and then brought it to life [and in] March 2025 we launched the brand. Recently, we revamped the website and focused more on my leadership series….interviews that I’ve done through media, including YouTube. So that took a life of its own…now looking at the services I offer…I compare it to something like ice cream …it comes in about four flavors. The first flavor is doing public speaking and keynote speeches for organizations and institutions…I come in and do either a 45 minute or an hour and a half presentation….on the subject of AI. The purpose is to improve the AI literacy of whoever the group is [while] raising the bar around their foundational understanding,” he said. “I will go in and address their fears. For example, if there’s someone who’s afraid of AI destroying the environment…we would certainly dive into that. Or if someone is worried about AI taking over people’s jobs…we look into that. We address those concerns and those fears in a public forum without any judgment and in a safe way, because my philosophy is that fear arises when we don’t know something.”
The ‘second flavor’ as Baig noted, is offering workshops on how to work with AI.
“Now people have laptops, iPhones, or Androids in hand, and this is where I teach audiences to do prompting techniques [in order to] create certain things with AI like images, infographics, videos or even a marketing strategy…things that would interest professionals. So, if you’ve got lawyers, accountants or project managers…we focus specifically on the task at hand for [a] particular audience, and then we guide them through successful adoption that makes sense for them,” Baig explained.
However, for the ‘third flavor’ the focus is around executive or high net-worth individuals.
“These professionals reach out to me…wanting to know how AI will impact their businesses or their workforce down the road and how they can approach this [technology] with those people like management teams. So, then I get involved around governance and creating AI policies that help these leaders navigate those conversations…in a more systematic way,” he said. “And the last flavor goes back to what the ‘Vaseem the AI Guy’ stands for…there are people who just want me as trusted counsel [which include] dignitaries, politicians or various individuals that want to pick my brain about AI.”
Along with growing his brand and business, Baig has also been very active in the community as a board member with the United Way Golden Horseshoe and also the Grand River Council on Aging.
“One of the tenets of Islam [along with the five others] is called Zakat…and my interpretation of it is to grow your influence in society, and as you grow in your own power…and other things like your income…. then there’s a duty to give back and share your knowledge, and your resources. Throughout my entire life I’ve always been giving back…to my neighbors, and others in my community. So, it became a very natural extension when I was invited to join the United Way as a board member in 2025 while they were going through an amalgamation, which was a tricky time for them. Around that time, I had done an AI presentation at Mercasa [Little Italy Eatery & Catering] for Ladies Who Lead run by Shannon McMannis. An executive of the United Way Golden Horseshoe, Beth Noble Luciani, happened to be there…and approached me, saying that she learned a lot…and that she wanted me to be part of the United Way [in order to] share my knowledge with those in the organization,” he noted. “And with the Grand River Council on Aging, which is led by Lucy Marco…who is a wonderful, inspirational human being. Last summer I connected with her when I was doing [a program] called the Sherpa Sessions at the Chamber of Commerce Brantford-Brant. I worked something out with the Chamber’s CEO, David Prang, because I wanted to give some AI knowledge back to the community. David and I worked out all the metrics and it was approved. Lucy was my first student. A week later she was using AI and enjoying it. We had been in contact for a while and got to know her more and more. Once a board position opened up at the Grand River Council on Aging, she reached out telling me that she wanted my help on the board as I was able to help her as an individual, learning and understanding AI. I went through the formal process and we are here now holding our first AGM in 15 years and I am currently serving as vice president.”
However, for Baig, Al technology can truly help people, but we still have a choice in deciding if we want to use it or not.
“I found that this type of technology can amplify someone’s creativity as opposed to destroying it. And so that’s what I advocate for. There’s a lot of fear and confusion around the subject, which is warranted. Like anything new it’s going to create various amounts of emotions with people…and for me, I try to shine a light on [the positives.] While I may be a bit biased, because I’ve had great experiences with AI, and built some amazing things with it…I can understand other people’s reservations, and so what I, advocate now is for what I take as the safe and brave adoption of AI,” he noted. “If you’re afraid, or overwhelmed, or simply don’t know where to start, or don’t know what tools are available out there, that’s fine…let’s have a conversation about it, and…get the courage to try it out and see what’s possible. After trying it, and you find out that AI is not for you, that’s okay too, because as human beings, we can make that decision.”
While Baig has continued to build his reputation as ‘the Al Guy’, he is looking forward to fulfilling some other important goals.
“Going back to my childhood dream of being an author…there’s definitely a book in the short-term future for me…because I have learned, experienced and seen so many things in this industry…from the clients that I’ve worked with…to the private conversations I have had with them in their living rooms and teaching them and their families about the power of AI. There is a story there…to write about what a safe and positive adoption of AI looks like. Not only for the individual, but at the societal level,” he said. “[Additionally], I’m grateful for this past year and for the opportunity to grow the impact of our message. One of my friends who handles some of my social media…recently turned to me and said that it would be amazing to really help the entire Southern Ontario region…for me as ‘The AI Guy’…[and] to continue to reach out to communities who may not get as much exposure to AI especially those that may be either underserved or underrepresented…. and getting the message to them and get them connected to AI technology and help them for the better in some way.”
