Canadian businesses use AI most in three industries, and plans are rising in most others.

Why the answer holds

Statistics Canada’s Canadian Survey on Business Conditions asks businesses directly whether they use AI. In the survey run from 1 April to 6 May 2026, 19.2% of businesses reported using AI to produce goods or deliver services in the previous 12 months. The same release puts the share at 12.2% in the second quarter of 2025 and 6.1% in the second quarter of 2024.

Use is far from even. Among the industries in the same release, information and cultural industries (42.3%), finance and insurance (40.4%) and professional, scientific and technical services (32.4%) were the three most likely to use AI. Finance and insurance includes insurers, so it is wider than banking.

Plans point the same way. A second survey ran from 2 July to 6 August 2026. In it, 25.2% of businesses said they plan to use AI over the next 12 months, up from 14.5% a year earlier and 10.6% two years earlier.

What the surveys measure

Both surveys are part of the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions. The first received 9,251 responses from a sample of 21,105 businesses with employees. The second received 9,601 responses from a sample of 21,161.

The questions differ. The spring survey asks whether a business used AI in the last 12 months, and the summer survey asks whether it plans to use AI in the next 12 months. They are two surveys in two quarters, so the results are never added together or subtracted to give a single rate.

Neither survey measures how well AI works or what it returned. Statistics Canada says in the use release that the impact of AI on employment remains unclear. The figures describe adoption only.

How many businesses use AI

The three industries most likely to use AI are listed above. At the other end, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (4.5%), wholesale trade (7.9%) and construction (9.2%) were the lowest of the industries the release names. The same release adds that 40.0% of all businesses said AI is not relevant to them.

Size and location matter as well. Of businesses with 100 or more employees, 27.8% reported using AI, against 19.9% of those with 1 to 4 employees. By location, 21.0% of urban businesses and 9.9% of rural businesses reported use.

Among businesses that used AI, data analytics (36.6%), text analytics (34.5%) and virtual agents or chat bots (28.2%) were the most common applications. Each share is a share of the businesses that used AI. The release also reports that 44.4% of those businesses changed their training or staffing practices because of AI.

What businesses plan

Professional, scientific and technical services (54.8%) and information and cultural industries (48.0%) had the highest shares planning to use AI over the next 12 months. Finance and insurance (35.5%) and health care and social assistance (33.8%) also sat above the all-industry figure of 25.2%. Transportation and warehousing was lowest at 8.0%.

By our count from the release’s table, 15 of the 16 industries had a higher share planning to use AI than a year earlier. The exception was real estate and rental and leasing, which moved from 24.4% to 23.6%. Construction went from 3.2% in 2024 to 18.3% in 2026, and mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction went from 4.6% to 14.8% over the same two years.

Statistics Canada also compared the two surveys. It found that more businesses reported using AI than had planned to: 14.5% planned in the third quarter of 2025 and 19.2% reported use by the second quarter of 2026. This is a comparison of two separate surveys across all industries, and it says nothing about any single industry.

What the figures do not show

Plans are intentions. A business that plans to use AI has not yet used it, and the plans release also records that 22.1% of businesses were unsure while 52.7% did not plan to use it.

Each industry row is an estimate from a sample. Small gaps between neighbouring industries, such as manufacturing at 24.4% and real estate and rental and leasing at 23.6%, carry little meaning. Public administration, utilities and educational services do not appear in either industry table.

The surveys also say little about the quality of use, since they record whether a business used AI and not how much or how well. Statistics Canada states that new information on AI use, prevalence, benefits and challenges will come through its TechStat program from 2027, and we will review these figures then.

What this means for you

Start with your own industry’s row. Leaders in healthcare, banking and capital markets, real estate, oil and gas and transportation and logistics will find longer evidence on the industry pages.

Define what “use” means inside your own organization before you compare it with a survey figure. Keep plans and use as separate questions, and treat a sector average as a reference point and nothing more.

Our technology strategy service helps leaders place their organization against this evidence and decide what to do next. If you would like to start, request a briefing.