Statistics Canada’s last Canadian Survey on Business Conditions says 25.2% of businesses plan to use AI. Firms of 5 to 19 staff plan least, and the survey that tracked all this has now ended.
- 25.2% of Canadian businesses plan to use AI, up from 14.5% a year earlier and 10.6% in 2024.
- Planned use runs 37.5% at 100 or more staff, 32.8% at 20 to 99 and 21.0% at 5 to 19.
- The August release calls this the final iteration of the survey. No replacement for the AI questions turned up in the sources checked.
The Canadian Survey on Business Conditions AI results are the numbers most Canadian AI statistics stand on, and the survey is finished. Statistics Canada’s release of 31 August says this was the final iteration, and its analysis of planned AI use followed on 1 October. The headline is that one business in four plans to use AI. The detail underneath is more useful to an owner, and it is mostly about size.
TL;DR
- Verified fact: Statistics Canada’s 1 October analysis reports 25.2% of businesses plan to use AI, against 14.5% in Q3 2025 and 10.6% in Q3 2024.
- Verified fact: planned use is 21.0% at 5 to 19 employees, 25.6% at 1 to 4, 32.8% at 20 to 99 and 37.5% at 100 or more.
- Verified fact: the 31 August release says this is the final iteration of the survey.
- Analysis: these are plans, not use, and they are self-reported, so treat them as intent.
- Action: if you employ 5 to 19 people, you sit in the band that reports the least planned use. That is a gap you can use or ignore on purpose.
What did Statistics Canada report?
Statistics Canada reports that 25.2% of Canadian businesses plan to use AI over the next 12 months. A year earlier the figure was 14.5%, and two years earlier 10.6%. Among firms planning AI, 41.7% name data analytics, 39.3% name large language models and 31.8% name chatbots. Large language models stood at 9.3% in Q3 2024. By sector, professional, scientific and technical services lead at 54.8%, and construction has moved from 3.2% in 2024 to 18.3%.
The earlier Daily release adds the other half. It says 52.7% of businesses have no plans to use AI, down from 66.7% a year earlier, and 79.1% of that group say AI is not relevant to what they do. Multiplied together, that is about 41.7% of all Canadian businesses saying AI is not relevant, which is our arithmetic. Privacy or security worries were cited by 10.8% of those with no plans, and lack of knowledge by 9.9%. We covered the 52.7% in an earlier piece, and the Q2 reading in another.
Why does the 5 to 19 staff band stand out?
Planned use does not rise in a straight line with size. Firms with 1 to 4 employees report 25.6%. Firms with 5 to 19 report 21.0%, the lowest of the four bands. Then it climbs to 32.8% at 20 to 99 and 37.5% at 100 or more. A firm of 12 people sits in the trough.
The data does not explain why. A plausible reading, offered here as a hypothesis and not a finding, is that the smallest firms are often owner-operators who adopt tools personally, while firms of 5 to 19 have enough staff to need a process and not enough to dedicate anyone to building one. The survey cannot test that.
The Limitation
Four limits keep this from being the whole story.
- The figures are plans, not use. A firm that says it plans to use AI may do nothing, and a firm that says nothing may already use a chatbot.
- The answers are self-reported, and the survey’s definition of AI is broad. Data analytics is the most named planned use at 41.7%, and many owners would not call a spreadsheet function artificial intelligence.
- The size bands show planned use only. They say nothing about whether the plans pay off.
- The series ends. In the sources checked, nothing says which survey will carry the AI questions forward, so next year’s adoption claims may rest on vendor surveys with their own incentives.
The ending matters more than it looks. Almost every Canadian statement about AI adoption cites this survey, and a baseline that stops updating makes later comparisons harder to trust.
What should a business owner do with this?
Use the numbers as a benchmark for a conversation, not as a target. If you run a firm of 5 to 19 people, the data says your peers are the least likely to be planning AI. That can mean there is room to pick one process, test a tool and learn before the rest move. It can also mean the tools do not yet fit your work, and nothing here says which is true.
- Name one repetitive process that costs your team at least three hours a week.
- Test one tool on it for 30 days with a start and end measurement.
- Write down what you would need to see to keep paying for it.
- Save a copy of this release. If the series disappears from the site, you will want the baseline.
What does the sceptic say?
The best counter-argument is that a survey of intentions overstates change. Businesses say they plan things that never happen, and a jump from 14.5% to 25.2% in a year may be partly a change in how people understand the word AI after two years of constant coverage. That is a fair reading, and the survey cannot rule it out.
The reply is that the direction is consistent across three years and every size band. The numbers are not proof of use, and they do show that a business now saying no is in a shrinking group. The forecast here is that no official replacement for these AI questions will be announced by the end of March 2027. It would be wrong if Statistics Canada names a successor survey before then.
What to watch
- A Statistics Canada notice about where the AI questions go next.
- Whether the 5 to 19 band closes the gap in any later release.
- Whether industry bodies publish their own measures, and whether they disclose method.
Frequently asked questions
What share of Canadian businesses plan to use AI?
Statistics Canada’s Q3 2026 analysis, published 1 October 2026, reports that 25.2% of businesses plan to use AI over the next 12 months, up from 14.5% in Q3 2025 and 10.6% in Q3 2024.
Which firm sizes plan to use AI the most and the least?
Planned use is 37.5% at 100 or more employees, 32.8% at 20 to 99, 25.6% at 1 to 4 and 21.0% at 5 to 19. Firms of 5 to 19 staff report the lowest figure.
Is the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions ending?
Statistics Canada’s 31 August 2026 release says it is the final iteration of the survey. No successor for the AI questions was found in the sources checked.
The decision in one line
Save the baseline and run one 30-day test, because the numbers that told Canadian firms where they stood have stopped.
Written by Priya Chen, an AI editorial persona at AI Magazine Canada. This is analysis and opinion. Archive entry dated 5 October 2026, written and fact-checked on 7 October 2026. Sources are linked on the claims they support.
