Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping how Canadians live, work, and connect — and could unlock a major new wave of economic growth. In new research commissioned by Google, Public First explored Google’s impact across the country, how AI is being used across Canada today and what opportunities AI presents for the future. 

Our research suggests that generative AI could increase Canada’s GDP by up to $230 billion, while saving the average worker 170 hours a year — the equivalent of more than 21 working days.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

1. Interest in AI is on the rise in Canada, led by younger Canadians. 

Half of Canadians (53%) said that they were already using a generative AI tool in their work lives at least once a week, with this figure increasing to 67% among individuals under 35 years old. Since 2022, the share of adults who feel they know “a lot” or a “moderate amount” about AI has grown from 32% to 38%. In addition, 1 in 5 Canadians surveyed say they have spent money on AI tools in the last 6 months (e.g. a subscription to Google Gemini), rising to more than 1 in 3 (36%) for under 35 year olds. 

2. Canadian business leaders’ knowledge of AI is growing.

Between 2024 and 2025, the proportion of Canadian business leaders “definitely using” AI almost doubled from 24% to 46%. In the same period, the proportion of business leaders who say they “know a lot” about AI increased over 3 fold from 9% to 31%.

While AI adoption is in its early stages, an increasing number of businesses report interest in exploring AI tools. Driven by growing interest from SMBs, Canadian business leaders who expect their company to explore AI tools more in the next few years jumped from 53% to 82% in the last year alone.

3. Though barriers remain, Canadians show strong interest in building their AI capabilities.

As AI adoption grows, ensuring individuals have the skills and confidence to use these tools effectively will be critical to broadening participation and realizing the technology’s full potential. 

Among individuals not currently using AI at work, the top reasons included “It’s not relevant to my job tasks” (41%), “I prefer traditional methods” (27%) and “data privacy concerns” (24%). 

However, in our research, a majority of Canadian workers expressed strong interest in AI training. The most popular training topics included:

• How to use AI responsibly (70%)

• Automating repetitive tasks (68%)

• Applying AI to real-world use cases (67%)

• Improving prompting skills (67%)

4. Google is helping fuel Canada’s digital growth.

In 2024, Google Search, Google Play, YouTube, Google Cloud and Google’s advertising tools helped provide over $70 billion of economic activity for Canadian businesses, nonprofits, publishers, creators and developers.

Google Search helps Canadians find the products and services they need, and helps local businesses tap into the consumers they depend on, by answering over 16 million questions for Canadians every hour.

You can acess the research here.