Artificial Agency, a company building advanced artificial intelligence tools for video game development, was named the Most Edmonton Startup of the Year at the YEG Startup Community Awards on May 8.
The company raised US$16 million last year to aid its development of a behaviour engine that will allow developers to harness generative AI for game mechanics. Artificial Agency CEO, Brian Tanner, said in the funding announcement that the tool will give "developers the tools to transform ... characters as well as other decision-making systems into individualized AI agents with perceptions, actions, personalities, and goals."
The awards were handed out at the Art Gallery of Alberta on May 8. The rest of the winners are below.
Other 2025 YEG Startup Community Awards Winners
- Rising Star of the Year: Bigyan Karki, the CEO and co-founder of The Drive AI, a multi-tool digital workspace with storage, chat, and collaboration features. The Drive AI recently added functionality to search within video using AI.
- Community Champion of the Year: MNP, an accountancy. Angelo Talamayan, the company's provincial leader for technology, media, and telecommunications, was also nominated for Connector of the Year.
- Community Initiative of the Year: Fit for Tech Edmonton, a hybrid between networking and working out for the startup community. It is usually held on the last Sunday of the month at Black Tusk Athletics.
- New Startup of the Year: FireSafe AI, which uses AI to detect and prevent wildfires. While new, the company has already been a finalist in Summit XI by Startup TNT.
- Disruptor of the Year: Northernmost, which makes medical devices to preserve and transport organs. It secured $2.7 in seed funding in April to help it develop a device to transport donated kidneys.
- Connector of the Year: Jillian McLaren, the managing director of the Community Safety and Wellness Accelerator. The CSW held a demo day on May 5, when it hosted the announcement of the Super Session Pitch Competition, which is powered by Alberta Innovates.
- Best Supporting Actor of the Year: Syed Abbas Mehdi, the research and development operations associate for Future Fields, which won Most Edmonton Startup of the Year in 2024. Mehdi wears many other hats, too, including as the co-founder of the YEG Startup Community Awards.
- MVP: Richard Roy, an associate with DiscoveryLab. For the first time, attendees of the awards got to vote on this category.