Artificial intelligence has become popular fast by the best available measures: in Canada, 19.2 percent of businesses reported using AI to produce goods or deliver services in the 12 months before spring 2026, up from 6.1 percent two years earlier, and in the United States 49 percent of adults reported using AI chatbots in a February 2026 Pew Research Center survey. Most of the growth followed the public release of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, though conversational programs were already being built in the 1960s. The figures count use, not trust or benefit, and survey wording changed along the way.
Key takeaways
- Statistics Canada found AI use among businesses rose from 6.1 percent (spring 2024) to 12.2 percent (spring 2025) to 19.2 percent (spring 2026).
- In March 2026, 35.9 percent of Canadian workers reported using generative AI tools at work in the past 12 months.
- Pew found 44 percent of U.S. adults use ChatGPT in 2026, compared with 18 percent in 2023, but the question was reworded, so the comparison is approximate.
- Adoption varies sharply by industry and age, and most businesses that do not use AI say it is not relevant to what they sell.
What "popular" can mean, and who measures it
Popularity is a loose word, so each study picks a narrower one. The table lists the measures used in this article. Organizations and individuals are counted separately, which is why the numbers differ without contradicting each other.
| Measure | Who counted | Result | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Businesses in Canada using AI in the past 12 months | Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Business Conditions | 19.2 percent | April 1 to May 6, 2026 |
| Businesses in Canada planning to use AI in the next 12 months | Statistics Canada | 25.2 percent | July 2 to August 6, 2026 |
| Canadian workers who used generative AI tools at work | Statistics Canada, supplement to its monthly employment survey | 35.9 percent | March 2026 |
| U.S. adults who use AI chatbots | Pew Research Center, 5,119 adults | 49 percent | February 17 to 23, 2026 |
| U.S. adults who use ChatGPT | Pew Research Center | 44 percent | February 17 to 23, 2026 |
Canadian businesses: three years of the same question
Statistics Canada asks businesses whether they used AI to produce goods or deliver services during the previous 12 months. The answers were 6.1 percent in the second quarter of 2024, 12.2 percent in 2025, and 19.2 percent in 2026, according to its analysis released June 11, 2026. Use is concentrated: information and cultural industries reported 42.3 percent, finance and insurance 40.4 percent, and professional, scientific, and technical services 32.4 percent, while agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting reported 4.5 percent.
Among businesses that use AI, the most common applications were data analytics (36.6 percent), text analytics (34.5 percent), and virtual agents or chatbots (28.2 percent). Chatbots are one use among several, and much of the activity is analysis that customers never see. The most common reason for not using AI was that it is not relevant to the business, cited by 40.0 percent of businesses. Cybersecurity or privacy concerns (13.4 percent) and cost (10.6 percent) were the leading barriers among those listed.
Looking forward, a separate release dated October 1, 2026 reports that 25.2 percent of businesses plan to use AI over the next 12 months, up from 14.5 percent in 2025 and 10.6 percent in 2024. Another 22.1 percent said they were unsure, so intentions remain unsettled for a large share of employers.
Canadian workers: a higher number, a different question
A Statistics Canada release of July 30, 2026 reports that 35.9 percent of workers aged 15 to 69 used generative AI tools at work in the past 12 months, and 93.4 percent were aware of such tools. The data come from supplementary questions added to its monthly employment survey in March 2026. Among users, 63.5 percent used the tools for some but not most of their tasks, and 11.6 percent used them for most or nearly all tasks.
The worker figure is higher than the business figure because the units differ. One business counts once whether one employee or a thousand use a tool, and the worker survey asks about generative AI tools specifically. The two numbers should not be subtracted or averaged.
United States: the Pew series
Pew's report published June 17, 2026 found that 44 percent of U.S. adults use ChatGPT, compared with 34 percent in 2025, 23 percent in 2024, and 18 percent in 2023. About half (49 percent) use AI chatbots of any kind, and 24 percent use them daily. Adults under 50 are about twice as likely as those 50 and older to use ChatGPT (57 percent versus 28 percent).
Pew flags a break in the series. The earlier ChatGPT questions went to people who had heard of it, and the 2026 version also asked about other chatbots, so the jump from 34 to 44 percent is partly a change in method. The 2025 survey, published June 25, 2025, found that 28 percent of employed adults had used ChatGPT for work, up from 8 percent in March 2023.
What the numbers leave out
Use is not the same as approval. In the same Pew survey, 40 percent of adults expected AI to have a negative effect on society over the next 20 years and 16 percent expected a positive one; for their own lives, 31 percent expected a negative effect and 23 percent a positive one. Statistics Canada, for its part, wrote in 2026 that the effect of AI on employment remains unclear, so adoption figures cannot be turned into job forecasts.
Long history also matters for the word "rise." Researchers were building language programs in the 1960s, and what changed in late 2022 was that a general-purpose chat tool became free to try. The jump in use reflects access and ease of use as much as new ideas.
A checklist for reading an AI adoption statistic
- Who is counted: businesses, workers, or the general public?
- What counts as AI: any machine learning, generative tools only, or one named product?
- What period does the question cover, and has the wording changed since the last release?
- Does the number describe use, plans, or results?
- Is the sample national, and how many respondents does it include?
FAQ
How many Canadian businesses use AI?
Statistics Canada reported 19.2 percent for the 12 months before the spring 2026 survey, up from 12.2 percent in 2025. The share is much higher in information and cultural industries (42.3 percent) than in agriculture and related industries (4.5 percent).
Why did AI become popular so quickly after 2022?
OpenAI released ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, as a free research preview, which let anyone try a general-purpose chat tool at no cost. Survey data from Pew and Statistics Canada show use rising in each year since.
Does higher AI use mean more job losses?
The surveys do not say. In 2025, Statistics Canada reported that 89.4 percent of AI-using businesses saw no change in employment levels, and in 2026 it described the employment effect as unclear.
Are the Pew and Statistics Canada figures comparable?
Not directly. They cover different countries, populations, and questions, and Pew changed its ChatGPT question wording in 2026.
Related reading
- Whether AI makes people vulnerable and lazy
- A beginner's AI learning path
- How Canada regulates AI
- AI in Canadian health care
More in AI Basics.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Analysis on artificial intelligence use by businesses in Canada, second quarter of 2026, Statistics Canada, June 11, 2026
- Analysis on planned use of artificial intelligence by businesses in Canada, third quarter of 2026, Statistics Canada, October 1, 2026
- Analysis on artificial intelligence use by businesses in Canada, second quarter of 2025, Statistics Canada, June 16, 2025
- Use of generative artificial intelligence tools among Canadian workers, March 2026, The Daily, Statistics Canada, July 30, 2026
- Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices, and Views on Impact, Pew Research Center, June 17, 2026
- 34% of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT, about double the share in 2023, Pew Research Center, June 25, 2025
- Introducing ChatGPT, OpenAI, November 30, 2022