Canadian biz doubled AI use in last year but 'we could be moving faster,' says expert

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A Statistics Canada report released Monday shows the number of Canadian businesses using AI has doubled to 12.2% in the second quarter of 2025, up from 6.1% at the same time last year.

And while that is promising news, Toronto-based AI expert Peter Palarchio, whose NAV43 company advises Canadian and American companies on how to streamline and expand their businesses using AI, thinks Canada can do better.

“It’s good to see the trend move that way but I feel with how fast it’s moving, we could moving faster,” Palarchio said. “It’s starting to feel like (the U.S.) is a lot further ahead of us. So while it’s promising that we doubled, the uses and kind of how they’re using it, is starting to outpace Canadians for sure.”

According to Statistics Canada, use of AI for producing goods and delivering services is the most evident in the information and cultural industries (up to 35.6% in 2025 from 20.9% in 2024), but has increased most significantly in finance and insurance industries (up to 30.6% in 2025 versus 10.9% in 2024).

“I think overall, you’re seeing industries that were already tech-evolved implementing it faster because it’s less of a jump,” Palarchio said.

“There was kind of a huge leap with some of the large language models like AI’s been commonly associated with the ChatGPT, because you can talk to it. You don’t have to tech-enabled as you were before. Like ChatGPT 3 got 200-million users faster than anything previously. That was around 2023.”

Meanwhile, Canadian industries with small AI usage in 2024 remained so a year later, the report found.

For example, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (up to 1.8% in 2025 from 0.7% in 2024); accommodation and food services (up to 1.5% in 2025 from 0.9% the year before); and mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (up to 5.6% in 2025 from 1.6% in 2024).

“And that’s kind of a concern because we are a resource-rich economy and there could be big opportunities for more productivity, more savings, and greater economic growth should they implement them,” Palarchio said.

“Maybe they’re just not necessarily sure where to use it in their business. How does a farmer use AI? Is someone letting them know that you can have greater predictability in weather patterns and what your growing season is going to be like and how to forecast how much seed you need to buy this year? Is that message out there? Probably not.”

Palarchio also sees an opportunity for Canadian companies, particularly those in the health care and education sectors for which Canada is known, to lead in the AI sector.

“There could be unique advantages for maybe the way we run healthcare, the way we diagnose faster by leveraging big data. You could have the knowledge of 10,000 doctors by looking at you through AI and collaborating on what a diagnosis might be,” he said. “And then having doctors work faster to clear the backlog that sometimes they experience in this country as well, right? I feel in education, it’d be better to adopt early rather than late because it’s going to be here and it’s very real. So how do we look at our curriculums and integrate AI? And the (idea) of having your AI co-pilot grow with you from elementary school onwards.”

The StatCan report examined 21,357 Canadian businesses’ use of machine learning, virtual agents, and voice recognition in their business operations.

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