Ajay Agrawal is a Canadian economist, professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, and the founder of the Creative Destruction Lab, the science-based-startup accelerator that has become one of the most-influential Canadian institutional bridges between academic research and venture-backed deep-tech companies. He is also a co-founder of Sanctuary AI, Kindred, and NEXT Canada (formerly The Next 36), and the co-author of the AI-economics books "Prediction Machines" (2018) and "Power and Prediction" (2022). His role in the Canadian AI ecosystem combines the academic-economist, institutional-builder, and operating-co-founder positions in a way that distinguishes him from the more typical single-track AI-economy participant.
At a glance
- Education: Bachelor of Science, University of British Columbia; MBA, London Business School; PhD in strategy and business economics, University of British Columbia.
- Current role: Geoffrey Taber Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management since 2003; founder of the Creative Destruction Lab; co-founder of Sanctuary AI.
- Notable prior affiliations: Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research; Faculty Affiliate, Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence; co-founder of NEXT Canada (2010); co-founder of Kindred (2014).
- Key contributions: Founded the Creative Destruction Lab (2012), which has produced startup-graduate companies with collective equity value exceeding $29 billion; co-authored "Prediction Machines" (2018) and "Power and Prediction" (2022), two of the most-influential popular-economics treatments of AI in the late 2010s and early 2020s; co-founded Sanctuary AI in 2018 alongside Geordie Rose, Suzanne Gildert, and Olivia Norton.
- LinkedIn: professor-ajay-agrawal
Origins
Agrawal was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He completed his Bachelor of Science at the University of British Columbia, moved to the United Kingdom for his MBA at London Business School, and returned to UBC for a PhD in strategy and business economics. The doctoral work positioned him at the intersection of economics, entrepreneurship, and the geography-of-innovation literature that has remained the through-line of his subsequent academic career.
He joined the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in 2003 as an assistant professor and has remained at Rotman for his entire academic career. He currently holds the Geoffrey Taber Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the rank of Professor of Strategic Management at the school. His research has focused on the economics of artificial intelligence, science policy, entrepreneurial finance, and the geography of innovation.
Career
Agrawal's academic career at Rotman has been distinguished by a focus on the intersection of economics, science policy, and entrepreneurship. He has been recognised as Professor of the Year seven times by Rotman MBA classes, received the Martin-Lang Award for Excellence in Teaching, and was awarded the Distinguished Scholarly Contribution Award in 2017 and the President's Impact Award at the University of Toronto in 2023.
In 2010 he co-founded NEXT Canada, an entrepreneurship-education programme aimed at high-potential undergraduate students. In 2012 he founded the Creative Destruction Lab, the seed-stage programme for science-based startups that has become his most-prominent institutional contribution. The Lab originated at Rotman and has subsequently expanded to twelve sites globally, including the Saïd Business School at Oxford, HEC Paris, Georgia Tech, the Wisconsin School of Business, the University of Washington Foster School, the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, the University of Tartu, the UBC Sauder School of Business, HEC Montréal, the University of Calgary, and Dalhousie University in Halifax. CDL-affiliated startups have collectively produced more than $29 billion in equity value through 2025, with CDL alumni including Nyrada, RBC Borealis, Bluedot, and a substantial fraction of the early Canadian AI-startup cohort.
Agrawal's operating-company involvement has run in parallel with the academic and institutional work. He co-founded Kindred in 2014, with Geordie Rose and Suzanne Gildert as the technical principals and Agrawal in a co-founder-and-board capacity. When the Kindred founding team spun out Sanctuary AI in January 2018, Agrawal joined as a co-founder alongside Rose, Gildert, and Olivia Norton, bringing the economics-and-strategy perspective on the long-run market for general-purpose humanoid intelligence to the new venture's founding documents.
He has co-authored two of the most-influential popular-economics books on artificial intelligence: "Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence" (Harvard Business Review Press, 2018) and "Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence" (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022), both co-written with Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb. He also co-edited "The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda" (University of Chicago Press, 2019), the National Bureau of Economic Research conference volume that became the standard academic reference for early-2020s AI-economics work.
He was appointed to the Order of Canada in June 2022, the country's second-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his contributions to Canadian innovation and entrepreneurship. He received an honorary PhD from the University of Calgary and the King Charles III Coronation Medal.
Affiliations
- University of British Columbia: Bachelor of Science; PhD in strategy and business economics.
- London Business School: MBA.
- Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto: Assistant professor (2003 onwards), now Geoffrey Taber Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Professor of Strategic Management.
- NEXT Canada (formerly The Next 36): Co-founder, 2010.
- Creative Destruction Lab: Founder, 2012.
- Kindred: Co-founder, 2014.
- Sanctuary AI: Co-founder and board member, 2018.
- National Bureau of Economic Research: Research Associate.
- Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence: Faculty Affiliate.
Notable contributions
- Creative Destruction Lab. Founded the seed-stage programme that has produced more than $29 billion in collective equity value across alumni companies through 2025, with sites at twelve universities globally. CDL is one of the most-important institutional bridges between the Canadian academic research base and the venture-backed deep-tech startup ecosystem.
- "Prediction Machines" (2018) and "Power and Prediction" (2022). Co-authored the two best-known popular-economics books on AI in the 2018 to 2022 period, both published by Harvard Business Review Press. "Prediction Machines" was named to Forbes' top-ten technology books of 2018; "Power and Prediction" extended the framing to the system-level economic implications of AI deployment.
- "The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda" (2019). Co-edited the NBER conference volume that became the standard academic reference for early-2020s AI-economics research, with University of Chicago Press publication.
- Sanctuary AI co-founding (2018). Co-founder of the principal Canadian humanoid-robotics company, providing the economics-and-strategy perspective on the long-run general-purpose-humanoid market.
Open questions
- CDL's third-decade strategy. The Lab is approaching its fifteenth year of operation in 2027, with twelve global sites and a sustained alumni-equity-value compounding trajectory. The strategic question of whether the Lab continues expanding to additional sites, deepens its existing relationships, or evolves toward a more focused thematic posture (such as a CDL-AI-specific or CDL-bio-specific track) will shape the institutional trajectory of one of Canada's most-prominent science-based-startup vehicles.
- The AI-economics framing under the deployment era. "Prediction Machines" and "Power and Prediction" were written during a period when the deployment-and-system-level economic implications of AI were largely speculative. The 2024 to 2026 period has produced substantial empirical evidence on AI deployment patterns, costs, and revenue trajectories. Whether Agrawal extends the AI-economics work into a third book that incorporates the deployment-era evidence, or shifts the research focus to a different domain, is the central question on the academic trajectory.
- Continued operating-company involvement. Agrawal's two operating-company co-founder roles (Kindred, Sanctuary AI) have both produced meaningful outcomes for Canadian deep-tech (Kindred's $260 million Ocado acquisition; Sanctuary AI's continued development as the principal Canadian humanoid-robotics company). Whether he takes on additional operating-company co-founder roles, or maintains the existing CDL-and-academic position, will shape the broader Canadian deep-tech founder-network trajectory.
Sources
- Ajay Agrawal Wikipedia entry. Background on his academic career, institutional building, and operating-company involvement.
- Ajay Agrawal Rotman School profile. Official Rotman School biography.
- Professor Ajay Agrawal personal site. His public-facing site with his publications and Creative Destruction Lab activities.
- Founder of CDL and Rotman Professor Ajay Agrawal Named to the Order of Canada. The June 2022 Order of Canada announcement.
- How a U of T professor is creating high-tech superstars. Globe and Mail profile of Agrawal during the early CDL expansion period.
- Vector Institute for AI Ajay Agrawal profile. Vector Institute affiliated-faculty biography.
- Companion profiles: Sanctuary AI, Geordie Rose, Suzanne Gildert, Olivia Norton for the Sanctuary co-founder cohort context.
