Canadian Small Businesses Increasingly Using AI: Report

By Sierra Campbell, Managing Editor for small.news

(small.news) — Small business owners in Canada are turning to AI more this year than previous years to help grow their business, according to a report from Statistics Canada.

That report shows that 12.2% of the small businesses surveyed in the second quarter of 2025 (April through June) used AI to create goods or services in the past year. This was an increase of 6.1% when comparing it to the second quarter of 2024.

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) also released a study that showed 97% of small- and medium-sized businesses that used AI reported several benefits, including:

– Increased efficiency
– Lower costs
– Higher sales
– Better customer service
– Improved sales, production, and inventory management

AI For Small Business Survival?

The associate dean of research at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School of Management, Ozgur Turetken, told The Globe and Mail, “AI adoption is not going to be much of a competitive advantage, but a condition for survival.”

He went on to say, “And the reason being, AI can scale information processing at a level that you cannot keep up with. You know the proverbial idea of bringing a knife to a gunfight? This is bringing a knife to a nuclear assault.”

Turetken also said that he believes AI will stop being optional, but there are ways to use it and ways not to use it. A partner at accounting and business advisory firm MNP, Colin Wenngatz, told The Globe and Mail, “Clients will come to use and say, ‘I want to reimagine the way I do business with AI.’ And that is a great vision. But what is your strategy? Our suggestion is to go narrow and go deep. So, find that one definitive use-case and start there.”

He also explained that you want to build momentum and gain confidence before trying to build something immediately. “If you start small and look for an opportunity where you can build a very definitive proof of concept, oftentimes that only takes six or eight weeks,” he explained. “Define the business problem, come up with a process map to reimagine that workflow with AI and then test it.”

Wenngatz also suggests that policies be written on how to use AI and how and when employees can use AI. He said, “We always say, before you do anything around AI, understand where your data is going and how it’s being used.”

Benefits of Using AI

Using AI can be helpful to your small business if used correctly. According to the United States Small Business Administration, some of the ways AI can be used include:

– Protecting your data: You should consider using security software that has built in AI technology. This can help automate safety functions and help you react to a potential cyberattack quickly.
– Brainstorming: You can use ChatGPT, for example, to help you come up with company colors or a marketing plan your current budget.
– Helping with repeated tasks: You can set calendar reminders to remind your employees (or yourself) of work deadlines. You can also get help with sorting your inboxes or updating your inventory.
– Improving customer service: You can add a chatbot to your website to help with common questions. You can also automate your phone services.

Risks of Using AI

Despite there being some benefits to using AI, there are risks as well. AI, for example, gets all its information from across the internet. So, you want to make sure that anything you produce isn’t plagiarized and doesn’t infringe on trademarks, copyrights, or patents.

There are some tools that recognize content that has been generated by AI and will mark it as spam. It could also inform the reader that the content wasn’t written by a human. This could lead your customers to stop buying from you.

There are also ethical concerns to consider. Even though there aren’t any laws that require you to disclose your use of AI, it helps with transparency and your business’ reputation if you have a public statement on how you use it.