Federal government aims to increase AI use among Canadian businesses by 500 percent in five years

The federal government is aiming to increase the use of artificial intelligence among Canadian businesses and in the Canadian economy by 500 percent over the next five years. If it accomplishes this goal, it will be an unprecedented technological invasion of Canadian workplaces—but workers are deeply skeptical about the promised benefits.

Federal Innovation Minister Evan Solomon assures Canadian workers that the AI buildout "will be powered by workers" and that "over 250,000 new AI-relevant jobs will be created across the Canadian economy by 2031." Almost no one believes that. An Angus Reid survey in May of white collar, blue collar and retired Canadians found that only three percent believed AI will significantly increase jobs. A 45 percent plurality of those surveyed expected a significant loss of jobs.

Labour unions are playing catch-up to be informed, understand and cope with the impacts. The technology's primary purpose is to increase productivity by aggregating knowledge and performing unprecedented large-scale data tasks, which often means fewer workers when AI is deployed in a workplace or industry.

Large-scale job losses in Canada from AI have not yet materialized, but the trend is worsening. In 2024, six percent of Canadian firms that had implemented AI reduced employment as a consequence. By mid-2025, the number of AI-adopting firms that expect job losses had jumped to 12 percent. These are still relatively small numbers, but so too is the take-up of AI systems by Canadian businesses—less than 15 percent of all businesses in 2025.

However, a KPMG survey of Canada's biggest corporations reports that 93 percent have begun investing in and implementing AI. Only 31 percent of those companies have fully embedded generative AI into their operations, and 98 percent have not yet had net returns from their AI investments. That will change as business moves to "agentic AI" that operates independently and drives "operational efficiency."

At least one outlier report predicts much larger consequences. The Signal 49 report estimated in January 2026 that AI automation could leave employment as much as 555,000 jobs below what it otherwise would have been by 2030, with a sustained recovery taking almost a decade before the productivity gains of AI exceed projections without the AI build-out.