Albertans have a habit of being told they are late to something they are actually built to lead. The AI conversation is the latest example. Look at the history of this province and a different story comes into focus, one where Alberta does not chase the resource. It builds the economy around it.
The discovery was never the point
On February 13, 1947, a drilling crew near what is now Devon struck oil at Imperial Leduc No. 1. It was well number 134, drilled after 133 consecutive dry holes and roughly $23 million spent. Within a decade the province had been transformed. Alberta did not become wealthy because of one lucky well. It became wealthy because of what came after the well, the pipelines, the refineries, the capital markets, the regulatory frameworks, and the engineering culture that turned a discovery into a durable economy.
Turner Valley taught the harder lesson first
Three decades earlier, Turner Valley’s Dingman No. 1 struck wet gas on May 14, 1914 and set off the province’s first energy boom. For years afterward, enormous volumes of natural gas were flared off before proper conservation rules existed. Alberta learned from that waste. By 1947 the province was ready with more discipline and more infrastructure thinking. The resource was only ever the beginning. What you build around it decides what it is worth.
AI is Alberta’s next resource. The difference this time is that it is not buried under the prairie. It is distributed, and the work of building around it has already started.
Why this history is operational, not nostalgic
The energy sector produced an engineering culture that understands large-scale infrastructure, long-horizon investment, and the management of complex systems under pressure. Agriculture developed a data orientation long before the word was fashionable. Construction built a workforce around sequencing and delivering complex outcomes on time. These are present-day strengths, and applied AI amplifies every one of them.
What building around it looks like now
For AI, building around the resource means four things done deliberately: a workforce with genuine fluency, data governed and kept on Alberta-controlled infrastructure, guardrails that create confidence, and compute infrastructure built with the seriousness this province already gives to physical assets. Leduc could have been another Turner Valley. It was not, because Alberta had learned to build. The same choice is in front of us again, and I would bet on Albertans making it the same way.
Frequently asked questions
What was Leduc No. 1?
Imperial Leduc No. 1 was an oil well that came in on February 13, 1947 near present-day Devon, Alberta. It was well number 134, drilled after 133 consecutive dry holes, and it set off the modern Alberta energy economy.
Why is AI called Alberta’s next resource?
Like oil and gas, AI is a deployable, compounding asset whose value depends on the infrastructure, governance, and skill built around it. Alberta’s operational strengths in energy, agriculture, and construction map directly onto what applied AI rewards.
What did Alberta learn from Turner Valley?
Turner Valley’s gas was flared off for years before conservation rules caught up. The lesson was that finding a resource is not enough. The discipline and infrastructure you build around it determine its real value.
This piece is part of the Alberta Tribune series on applied AI in Alberta. See also Alberta’s Energy Is the Launchpad for AI Infrastructure and The Distributed AI Province: Compute for All of Alberta.
ZAK is the founder of AIwithZak.com and CEO of ORKA AI. He writes on provincial AI strategy and policy at AI Alberta, and works with leadership teams across Alberta and Western Canada on applied AI strategy and execution.
If AI is Alberta’s next resource, are we building the infrastructure to capture it, or flaring it off again?
