Canada has been a leader in developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and nearly 140,000 professionals in Canada worked in AI in 2023. However, the country is beginning to lag in AI adoption due to a range of barriers. Finding employees with the necessary skills is the top barrier identified by businesses in Canada. How does this view square with the data showing that Canada has plenty of AI professionals?  

The Environics Institute for Survey Research partnered with the Diversity Institute at the Toronto Metropolitan University and the Future Skills Centre to find out. For this research, 5,855 individuals were surveyed about their perceptions and use of AI, training they’ve received related to AI, and their overall familiarity with it.  

Nearly a third of the surveyed Canadian workers reported using AI at work. The same proportion noted that AI improves their productivity and creativity at work. However, most of those who said they use AI at work reported doing so without any formal training or guidance and said that their adoption of AI tools was largely self-driven.  

The surveyed employees were generally positive about the use of AI at work, with most saying they were not concerned about their job being automated.  

Thanks to the large sample size, the survey also revealed interesting insights about particular demographic groups:  

• Young Canadians were most likely to be familiar with using AI tools in the workplace.

• Racialized and Indigenous Canadians were somewhat more likely to be familiar with and use AI at work.

• Men and women in Canada were familiar with and used AI at relatively similar rates.

Overall, this study revealed wide uptake of AI use, largely driven by employees themselves. The authors suggest there is a growing need for employers to provide work-specific training on the use of AI tools. Further, more policies and guidelines for using AI at work need to be developed.