One in four Canadian businesses now plan to use AI: what the latest Statistics Canada data shows

Statistics Canada reported on October 1, 2026, that 25.2% of Canadian businesses plan to use AI to produce goods or deliver services over the next 12 months. That is up from 14.5% in the third quarter of 2025 and 10.6% in the third quarter of 2024. Planned AI adoption has more than doubled in two years.

This article breaks down the data by industry and size, and explains what it means for businesses deciding whether and how to adopt AI.

Which industries are moving fastest?

Professional, scientific and technical services leads at 54.8% planning to use AI. Information and cultural industries follows at 48.0%. Finance and insurance is at 35.5%, and health care and social assistance at 33.8%.

Some industries have seen dramatic increases. Construction rose from 3.2% planning to use AI in 2024 to 18.3% in 2026. Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction rose from 4.6% to 14.8%.

Retail trade is at 16.0%, up from 5.1% in 2024. Transportation and warehousing remains lower at 8.0%.

What types of AI are businesses planning to use?

Among the 25.2% of businesses planning to use AI, the most common applications are:

• Data analytics: 41.7%
• Large language models: 39.3%
• Virtual agents or chatbots: 31.8%
• Text analytics: 29.0%
• Marketing automation: 23.4%

The planned use of large language models more than quadrupled from 9.3% in 2024 to 39.3% in 2026.

How does business size affect adoption plans?

Larger businesses are more likely to plan AI adoption, but mid-sized firms have accelerated the most.

Businesses with 20 to 99 employees more than doubled their planned AI use from 15.0% to 32.8% between 2025 and 2026. Businesses with 100 or more employees rose from 20.5% to 37.5%.

Even small businesses with 1 to 4 employees now show 25.6% planning to use AI, up from 14.2% a year earlier.

Plans versus actual use

Statistics Canada also tracks actual AI use. In the second quarter of 2026, 19.2% of businesses reported having used AI over the previous 12 months. This is higher than the 14.5% that had planned to use AI when asked a year earlier.

The pattern suggests that more businesses end up using AI than originally anticipated. Competitive pressure, new tools, and changing customer expectations may push businesses toward adoption faster than they planned.

What this means for your business

Competitors are moving from planning to doing. If you are in an industry where more than a quarter of businesses plan to use AI, waiting may mean falling behind.

The practical question is not whether to adopt AI but where to start. The data shows chatbots and data analytics as common entry points. For many small businesses, email automation, customer inquiry handling, and document processing are natural first workflows.

The gap between planned and actual use suggests that businesses often discover applications once they start experimenting. Starting small with one workflow can reveal opportunities you did not anticipate.

How to pick one workflow and measure it

1. Choose a repetitive task. Look for work that happens frequently and follows a consistent pattern.

2. Define success. Decide how you will know if it is working: time saved, tasks completed, customer response time improved.

3. Start with low stakes. Pick something where errors are easy to catch and correct before they affect customers.

4. Measure before and after. Track the baseline before implementing AI so you can quantify the change.

5. Expand deliberately. Once one workflow is working, apply the same approach to the next.

Frequently asked questions

My industry is not in the top tier. Should I wait?

Not necessarily. Lower industry averages may mean less competition has adopted AI yet. Early movers in slower-adopting industries can gain an advantage rather than catching up.

Is this data representative of small businesses?

The survey covers businesses of all sizes. The 25.6% figure covers businesses with 1 to 4 employees. The survey samples businesses with employees, so owner-only businesses with no staff are not included. Mid-sized businesses at 32.8% are even more active.

What counts as using AI?

Statistics Canada’s question asks specifically about using AI to produce goods or deliver services. This includes chatbots, data analytics, automation, and other applications.

See where you stand

The AI readiness quiz takes about two minutes and shows where your business sits relative to these benchmarks. It identifies which of your workflows are ready for AI and what to consider before starting.