We’re excited to share that some of our most popular IgniteAI features are coming soon for Canvas customers in Canada, giving institutions more ways to bring secure, in-context AI into everyday teaching and learning workflows.
Beginning in June, Canadian customers will be able to access two premium IgniteAI features in Canvas: Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader and IgniteAI Agent. Both features are designed to help educators save time, reduce repetitive work, and stay focused on students, while giving institutions control over if and how AI is enabled.
IgniteAI Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader available Jun 17, 2026
Beginning Wednesday, June 17, Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader will be available for Canvas customers in Canada.
Grading takes time, care, and consistency. With Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader, educators can draft feedback and suggested scores for open-ended assignments directly within SpeedGrader, helping reduce time spent on one of the most time-intensive parts of teaching while keeping the educator in control of the final evaluation. This reflects a core principle of IgniteAI: AI should support educators, not replace them.
Although Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader went to production earlier this year, access for Canadian customers was temporarily unavailable while we awaited regional model availability. Now that the models needed to power the feature are available in the AWS Canada Central Region in Montréal, also known as YUL, we’re able to make it available in Canada. User data will be processed in the EU.
Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader will be available as a feature option and disabled by default, giving Canvas admins the choice to decide whether and when to enable it for their institution.
IgniteAI Agent available June 15, 2026
IgniteAI Agent will be available for Canvas customers in Canada beginning June 15.
IgniteAI Agent is an optional generative AI assistant embedded in Canvas that helps educators and admins complete everyday teaching and course-management tasks through a conversational interface. Educators can use it to support tasks like creating assignments, updating due dates, sending announcements, and analyzing course activity.
Like Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader, IgniteAI Agent will be disabled by default. Admins can decide whether to enable the feature for their institution, and no data is shared or processed unless the feature is enabled.
For Canadian customers, IgniteAI Agent will launch using cross-regional inference. Canvas instances will continue to be hosted in Canada, while AI-related data processing for IgniteAI Agent will occur in AWS data centers located in the EU. This approach allows us to make IgniteAI Agent available in Canada while maintaining strong data protection standards under EU Adequacy Decisions. For more information, read our subprocessor FAQ.
IgniteAI Agent is also designed with educator oversight in mind. No actions are applied without user approval, and educators can edit or override AI-generated output before it is finalized in Canvas. AI sub-processors are contractually bound to Zero Data Retention for prompts, and customer data is not used to train underlying AI models.
Access and availability
Canadian customers will have free access to Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader, IgniteAI Agent, and other premium IgniteAI features through September 30, 2026.
After September 30, 2026, long-term access will require the appropriate Canvas subscription:
Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader will require a subscription to Canvas Plus.
IgniteAI Agent will require a subscription to Canvas Next.
Built for institutional choice and educator control
Together, IgniteAI Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader and IgniteAI Agent give Canadian institutions more ways to bring IgniteAI into Canvas, where teaching and learning already happen. These features are designed to support meaningful use cases, reduce administrative burden, and help educators work more efficiently while keeping institutions in control of AI adoption.
