# ColinSmillie

> Digital marketing professional and AI strategist based in Canada.
> Personal site covering marketing, AI, technology, and travel.

## About

- Personal website and blog: https://colinsmillie.com/
- Topics: digital marketing, AI, generative engine optimization, travel, technology
- Contact and professional info available on the site

## Key Pages

- [Work With Me](https://colinsmillie.com/work-with-me/): Services, collaboration, and engagement
- [Contact](https://colinsmillie.com/contact/): Contact form and ways to get in touch
- [About Colin Smillie](https://colinsmillie.com/about/): Professional background and expertise
- [Experience](https://colinsmillie.com/resume/): Career history and skills
- [Writing](https://colinsmillie.com/blog/): All blog posts

## Pages

- [About Colin Smillie](https://colinsmillie.com/about/): Colin Smillie — Technology Executive & AI Strategy Advisor Colin Smillie is a Toronto-based technology executive and AI strategy advisor with over 25 years of enterprise technology leadership. Most recently...
- [AI Governance & Ethics](https://colinsmillie.com/ai-governance-ethics/): A practical AI governance framework built from real experience at YMCA Canada. Six steps to enable responsible AI adoption across your organization.
- [AI Strategy](https://colinsmillie.com/ai-strategy/): AI Strategy AI strategy is the process of identifying where artificial intelligence creates genuine value in an organization and building the governance, literacy, and leadership structures to adopt it responsibly....
- [Ankle](https://colinsmillie.com/interests/ankle/): Ankle fusion surgery (arthrodesis) recovery takes months and information from the patient’s perspective is hard to find. This page documents my full experience — from the decision to fuse, through...
- [Archive](https://colinsmillie.com/archive/): A collection from a kinder, gentler time in a galaxy far, far away. Some of these posts aged like fine wine, others like milk. Views expressed may no longer be...
- [Books](https://colinsmillie.com/interests/books/)
- [Contact](https://colinsmillie.com/contact/): Get in touch with Colin Smillie to discuss product strategy, leadership, or collaboration opportunities.
- [Experience](https://colinsmillie.com/resume/): Colin Smillie's professional experience in product management, digital strategy, and technology leadership.
- [Federated Organization Technology Leadership](https://colinsmillie.com/federated-technology-leadership/): Federated Organization Technology Leadership Federated technology leadership is the discipline of aligning technology strategy and platforms across autonomous organizations that share a mission but operate independently. It requires building consensus...
- [Food](https://colinsmillie.com/food/): Food I love food! This is a small collection of places that I love in Toronto or in other parts of my life! Pizza Burritos Sausages
- [From DIY PVRs to Streaming](https://colinsmillie.com/interests/pvr-to-streaming/): Before Netflix, before Roku, before streaming existed — some of us were building our own. This page started as documentation for my DIY PVR setups in the mid-2000s. Rather than...
- [Home](https://colinsmillie.com/): Toronto-based technology executive and AI strategy advisor with 25+ years of enterprise leadership. Available for CTO/CIO roles, advisory, and board positions.
- [Interests](https://colinsmillie.com/interests/): Personal interests, activities and hobbies for Colin Smillie Ankle Swimming From DIY PVRs to Streaming International Travel Burritos Product Management
- [International Travel](https://colinsmillie.com/interests/international-travel/): It started in high school with a French exchange program. A bag, a flight, and a family in France who didn’t speak much English and I didn’t speak much French...
- [My Burritos Orders](https://colinsmillie.com/interests/burritos/): I love burritos! Especially burrito bowls (Keto and all…). Here are some of my favourite burrito spots and exactly what I order at each one. Burrito Boys Large Naked Burrito...
- [Privacy Policy](https://colinsmillie.com/privacy-policy/): Privacy Policy Last updated: March 2026 This site is a personal website and blog operated by Colin Smillie from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This privacy policy explains what data this site...
- [Product Management](https://colinsmillie.com/product-management/): Product Management Colin Smillie is a Toronto-based technology executive and product leader with over 25 years of product management experience across mobile security, automotive digital transformation, and enterprise SaaS. He...
- [Resume](https://colinsmillie.com/resume-old/): Comprehensive 25-year background providing technical leadership necessary for success. Proven track record of technology innovation, effective communication, and consistent execution on projects across multiple teams and geographic locations. Experience YMCA...
- [Subscribe](https://colinsmillie.com/subscribe/): Colin is an explorer in Technology, Social Networks, Social Media, Father, VP, Digital and Social @ H+K Strategies. He is one of the leading Facebook developers in Canada, serving as...
- [Swimming](https://colinsmillie.com/interests/toronto-island-lake-swim/): Downtown Toronto Swim Club One of the best decisions I made back in 2012 was joining the Downtown Toronto Swim Club. The club was extremely welcoming to me as a...
- [Technology Executive](https://colinsmillie.com/technology-executive/): Technology Executive Product management is the discipline of translating customer needs into technology decisions that create measurable value. It requires understanding users deeply, prioritizing ruthlessly, and shipping iteratively to learn...
- [Travel](https://colinsmillie.com/travel/)
- [Work With Me](https://colinsmillie.com/work-with-me/): Work With Me Colin Smillie is a Toronto-based technology executive and AI strategy advisor available for CTO/CIO roles (full-time or fractional), AI strategy advisory, speaking engagements, and board positions. He...
- [Writing](https://colinsmillie.com/blog/): This blog covers AI strategy, technology leadership, and the realities of building with modern tools — written by Colin Smillie, a Toronto-based technology executive with 25 years of enterprise and...

## Recent Posts

- [The Rise of AX: Why Every Website Will Need Agent Experience Analytics](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/05/08/rise-of-ax-agent-experience-analytics/): Agent Experience (AX) is the next analytics frontier. Learn how to measure AI bots, comprehension, and agent workflows on your website.
- [When AI Enters Legal Workflows: The Emerging Crisis Around Attorney-Client Privilege](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/05/07/ai-attorney-client-privilege/): AI conversations are not protected by attorney-client privilege. United States v. Heppner is the early signal. What enterprises and individuals should do now.
- [The AI Labs Are Becoming Consulting Firms](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/05/06/ai-labs-consulting-firms/): OpenAI partners with the Big Four. Anthropic builds Palantir-style implementation teams. Both labs have realized AI is an implementation problem, not a licensing one.
- [AI, Havel, and ‘AI for All’: Taking Back Some Control](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/05/06/havel-ai-for-all/): Václav Havel's framework on participation explains the AI compliance trap. Why 'AI for All' matters, and Canada's real opportunity to shape, not just consume, AI.
- [Mythos Isn’t About Hacking. It’s About Systems.](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/05/05/mythos-systems-not-hacking/): Mythos isn't a confirmed Anthropic model. It's shorthand for AI crossing from generating outputs to understanding entire systems, with security as the first signal.
- [AI Is the New Geopolitical Battleground, and We’re Already in It](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/05/04/ai-geopolitical-battleground/): AI is a geopolitical battleground now. Dark-money influencer campaigns, US vs China narratives, and why compute, not rhetoric, is the real power layer.
- [Canada’s AI Compute Landscape: What I Found When I Tried to Build on It](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/05/02/canadas-ai-compute-landscape/): Canada has 39 GPU compute providers but no clean way to compare them. A CTO's view of sovereignty, pricing opacity, and the access gap that M alone won't fix.
- [The Next Frontier in AI: Token Efficiency](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/27/the-next-frontier-in-ai-token-efficiency/): Token efficiency is the next critical metric in AI. As agentic workflows replace chat, token usage compounds and breaks unlimited pricing models. The competitive advantage shifts from access to efficiency.
- [From AI Chat to AI That Acts: Why the Next Wave Will Feel Very Different](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/26/from-ai-chat-to-ai-that-acts-why-the-next-wave-will-feel-very-different/): AI is crossing a critical line: from systems that talk to systems that act. Agentic AI can navigate tools, access data, trigger workflows, and make decisions across connected systems, all...
- [Building an AI-Operated EV Intelligence Platform for Canada](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/25/building-an-ai-operated-ev-intelligence-platform-for-canada/): Most EV websites are graveyards of yesterday's news. EVD2.ca tracks Canada's EV market like a stock trader watches a portfolio, following vehicles instead of articles. Here's what we learned building it.
- [Your AI Needs Performance Reviews Too](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/23/your-ai-needs-performance-reviews-too/): Most people use AI like a vending machine. But quality comes from review cycles. Learn how structured AI reviews, self-critique loops, and guardrails compound quality over time.
- [Storytelling Is Becoming the Most Important Skill in the Age of AI](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/21/storytelling-is-becoming-the-most-important-skill-in-the-age-of-ai/): AI is compressing execution, but storytelling remains the skill it can’t replace. In product management and technology leadership, the ability to frame problems as narratives, translate user experience into stories...
- [Zeever.ca: A Low-Budget Experiment in Sovereign Canadian AI](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/17/zeever-ca-a-low-budget-experiment-in-sovereign-canadian-ai/): Canada has committed billions to sovereign AI, but what happens when you actually try to build something? Zeever.ca repurposes a desktop GPU, an existing VPS, and open models to answer real municipal questions using Canadian data.
- [The Engagement Loop Is Back. This Time It Thinks.](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/15/the-engagement-loop-is-back-this-time-it-thinks/): AI systems are optimizing for the same engagement loop that made social media toxic. New research in Science shows that sycophantic AI increases user confidence while reducing willingness to reconsider,...
- [I don’t need a CMS anymore \(And Soon Neither will you\)](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/11/i-dont-need-a-cms-anymore-and-soon-neither-will-you/): After 20 years inside content management systems, I've stopped reaching for one first. Why AI coding tools like Claude Code are making WordPress optional.
- [Why Most Organizations Have No Idea Which AI to Trust](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/09/why-most-organizations-have-no-idea-which-ai-to-trust/): Most organizations use multiple AI models but have no way to evaluate which one to trust. Learn why structured AI evaluation matters and how to build a trust layer for your enterprise.
- [🇨🇦 Canada’s AI Problem Isn’t Intelligence. It’s Cost.](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/04/03/canadas-ai-problem-isnt-intelligence-its-cost/): Hedder recently described AI’s coming “oil shock moment.” It’s a great framing. But it misses something important. This isn’t just about scarcity. It’s about discipline. Canada’s biggest AI challenge isn’t...
- [What 81,000 People Told AI About AI](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/03/27/what-81000-people-told-ai-about-ai/): Anthropic interviewed 81,000 people about AI across 159 countries. The sharpest finding: hope and fear live in the same person.
- [Your Computer, Your Agent, Your Risk?](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/03/25/your-computer-your-agent-your-risk/): AI agents that click, type, and delete on your behalf are a new security category — and prompt injection is now OWASP's top-ranked AI vulnerability. Here's what organizations need to do about it.
- [The Resume Is a Lie. Wealthsimple Just Proved It.](https://colinsmillie.com/2026/03/21/the-resume-is-a-lie-wealthsimple-just-proved-it/): Wealthsimple ditched the resume and asked 1,152 Canadians to build a working AI prototype instead. Five got offers. Here's what it revealed about hiring, AI judgment, and what resumes actually measure.

## Topics

- [Technology](https://colinsmillie.com/category/tech/): 91 posts
- [Marketing](https://colinsmillie.com/category/marketing/): 63 posts
- [Event](https://colinsmillie.com/category/event/): 62 posts
- [Social Media](https://colinsmillie.com/category/social-media/): 37 posts
- [AI](https://colinsmillie.com/category/ai/): 27 posts
- [Featured](https://colinsmillie.com/category/featured/): 16 posts
- [Entertainment](https://colinsmillie.com/category/entertainment/): 14 posts
- [Gov](https://colinsmillie.com/category/gov/): 11 posts
- [General](https://colinsmillie.com/category/general/): 11 posts
- [Work](https://colinsmillie.com/category/work/): 10 posts
- [Startups](https://colinsmillie.com/category/startups/): 8 posts
- [Design](https://colinsmillie.com/category/design/): 7 posts
- [Travel](https://colinsmillie.com/category/travel/): 4 posts
- [Services](https://colinsmillie.com/category/services/): 1 posts