Statistics Canada reports that “nearly one-fifth (19.2%) of businesses” used artificial intelligence (AI) to produce goods or deliver services in the 12 months before its spring 2026 survey. For that line to describe a real change in how Canadian companies work, two things have to be true. The answers have to describe tools doing a job in production and not a trial somebody ran once, and the businesses still outside the count have to be late rather than uninterested.
The first condition cannot be tested from the release, which asks about use over a year and says nothing about how often or how deeply a tool is used. The second can be tested, because the same survey asks businesses why they are not using AI, and the release carries no provincial split, so these are national figures that Alberta owners should read as a reference point.
Key facts
- Statistics Canada reported on May 27, 2026, from its Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, that 19.2% of businesses used artificial intelligence in the prior 12 months, up from 12.2% in the second quarter of 2025 and 6.1% in the second quarter of 2024.
- The same Statistics Canada release found that 40.0% of businesses said artificial intelligence is not relevant to the goods they produce or the services they deliver.
- A Statistics Canada analysis published June 11, 2026 put artificial intelligence use at 19.9% among businesses with 1 to 4 employees and 27.8% among those with 100 or more.
- Statistics Canada’s analysis of the third-quarter 2025 survey, published September 11, 2025, found 14.5% of businesses planning to adopt artificial intelligence, 66.7% with no plans and 18.9% unsure.
- Among businesses using artificial intelligence, Statistics Canada’s May 27, 2026 release lists data analytics at 36.6%, text analytics at 34.5% and virtual agents or chat bots at 28.2% as the top uses.
The Strongest Case for the Number Is How Fast It Moved
Start with the optimistic reading and give it its due. The share stood at 6.1% in the second quarter of 2024, 12.2% in 2025 and 19.2% in 2026, which by our count is a gain of 6.1 points in the first year and 7.0 in the second, so the line is not flattening. Size does not explain it either. Among the smallest firms, with 1 to 4 employees, Statistics Canada puts use at 19.9%, almost level with the national figure, while firms with 100 or more employees reach 27.8%.
If that were the whole picture, the other 80.8% of businesses, by our count, would simply be waiting their turn. The case holds on speed and on the small-firm point, and both deserve to be conceded.
The Same Survey Shows a Ceiling the Growth Rate Hides
Two-fifths of businesses told Statistics Canada that AI is not relevant to what they make or sell. That is a statement about the business and not about readiness, and a cheaper tool does not change it. The earlier plans question points the same way. In the third quarter of 2025, 66.7% of businesses said they had no plans to adopt AI, 14.5% planned to and 18.9% were unsure. We could not open a plans figure for 2026, so this column uses the 2025 one and dates it.
The work that businesses do hand to AI is narrow. Data analytics leads among users, followed by text analytics and virtual agents. These are specific tasks, each with a defined input and a result someone can check, which is a very different thing from a company that has been reorganized around a model.
One Expensive Repeated Task Is the Right Size to Start
For an Alberta owner, the numbers argue for a small first step. Cost is a stated barrier for 10.6% of businesses and cybersecurity or privacy for 13.4%, concerns that can be managed on one workflow and are much harder to manage across a whole company. Pick the task that eats the most hours every month and repeats in the same form, run the tool beside the current method for a month, and count the hours saved. If the count does not move, stop and spend the money elsewhere.
That is a less exciting message than the one vendors sell, and it fits the survey better. A technology that has tripled its reach in two years and still meets a 40.0% wall of irrelevance is being adopted job by job, not industry by industry.
We expect the second-quarter 2027 survey, which on this year’s May 27 schedule would publish in late May 2027, to show between 24% and 28% of businesses using AI, provided Statistics Canada keeps the question wording as it is. The gain has run at six to seven points a year, and the not-relevant group caps how far it can go. A reading above 30% would tell us that tools built into everyday software, and not deliberate projects, are doing the counting.
Sources
- Statistics Canada, The Daily, Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, second quarter 2026, May 27, 2026
- Statistics Canada, Analysis on artificial intelligence use by businesses in Canada, second quarter of 2026, June 11, 2026
- Statistics Canada, Analysis in Brief, artificial intelligence plans, third quarter 2025, September 11, 2025
