Only 19% of Canadian businesses use AI. Free training is coming

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce launched a nationwide AI initiative for small and medium-sized businesses on 12 November 2026. It is a two-year program run with Google.org, which has put more than $2.7 million into it. Over 400 chambers of commerce and boards of trade across Canada will deliver the training and support. The program opens to participants in January 2027.

The gap it answers

The chamber cited Statistics Canada research showing that only 19.2 percent of Canadian businesses use AI in producing goods and delivering services this year. Among small businesses with one to four employees that do use AI, only 24 percent trained staff on the technology.

The chamber's own study, 'Prompting Productivity: Generative AI Adoption by Canadian Businesses', found that 69 percent of businesses using or intending to adopt generative AI wanted to accelerate content creation. Forty-six percent aimed to automate tasks without cutting employees, and 30 percent intended to use the tool to support data-driven decisions.

Candace Laing, the chamber's president and CEO, said small business owners have heard plenty of hype about AI, and what they need now is trusted advice, practical tools and the confidence to decide where AI can make a meaningful difference.

What businesses will learn

The program is built for owners who do everything themselves. Jen Riley, president and CEO of the BC Chamber of Commerce, put it plainly: in small businesses, the owner is often the bookkeeper, the marketing department and customer service. Learning to put AI to work on that load can change what a small business is able to take on and how far it can grow.

The training covers the jobs owners actually do: generating marketing materials, streamlining administrative tasks, organizing customer information and determining sales trends. It also tackles the worries that hold owners back: accuracy, data privacy, security and the effect on employees.

Non-profit organization Nrth, which guides founders and industry leaders through technological shifts, is preparing the workshop curriculum, training local facilitators and leading the program's AI implementation cohorts. The initiative has support from the chambers of commerce in Manitoba, Ontario and British Columbia.

How to join

The program opens to participants in January 2027. It runs through local chambers of commerce and boards of trade, which know the businesses in their community and can help them take part. If your business is in Canada, the practical step is to contact your local chamber now and ask to be put on the list for the January intake.

What to do before January

Three steps cost nothing and make the training far more useful when it starts.

First, write down the five tasks that eat the most hours in your week. Be specific: answering the same five customer questions, chasing invoices, writing social posts. Those are the tasks to bring to the first workshop.

Second, try one tool on one task. Pick the task from your list that repeats most often, and test a free AI tool on it for two weeks. Keep notes on where it helped and where it got things wrong. That record is more valuable than any demo.

Third, decide who learns with you. Only 24 percent of the smallest businesses that use AI trained staff on it. If you are the only person who knows how the tool works, the business stops when you are away. Train one other person, even for an hour a week.

If you want help finding those tasks inside your own workflows, our AI content engine and workflow automation services are a good place to start.

Takeaway

Canada's AI gap is not a lack of tools. It is a lack of training, and it is widest in the smallest businesses. A national program with local delivery is the right shape for the problem, and January 2027 is close. Put your name on your local chamber's list, and use the weeks before it starts to find the five tasks AI should take over first.