Report shows average spend per employee in Canada
Canadian businesses are spending roughly 12 times more on artificial intelligence than they were two years ago, according to financial platform Float.
It analyzed a cohort of 2,644 businesses active on the platform in both August 2024 and August 2026. Monthly AI spending among that cohort increased more than 12-fold, and adoption widened alongside it: 47% of those businesses now purchase at least one AI product, up from 27% two years earlier, with a median annual spend of $92 per employee.
"Companies aren't sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how AI plays out. They're trying tools, finding what works and, increasingly, spending more as they put those tools to work across their businesses,” said Rob Khazzam, CEO and co-founder of Float.
"To call the past two years uncertain for Canadian business would be an understatement, and in a climate like this, discretionary spending usually slows. AI has done the opposite, a sign of how essential these tools have already become."
Big leaps in spending on AI
More than 70 per cent of AI-buying businesses experienced at least one month in which spending increased by more than 50 per cent. AI spending was also approximately three times more volatile than Slack spending and roughly twice as volatile as Microsoft software spending.
The average AI buyer purchased from 2.71 AI vendors over the past year. Among businesses currently paying for either OpenAI or Anthropic, 51% now pay for both providers simultaneously, up from just 13% two years prior.
"The next chapter of the AI story will not only be about what the technology can do," said Khazzam. "It will be about how Canadian businesses put AI to work, how they manage it, and whether it starts to separate the companies that master it from the ones that don't."
The top 1% of Canadian business spending on AI invest roughly 38 times more per employee than the median pend, finds Float.
Technology companies remain Canada's largest users of AI, at roughly 79% adoption and the highest average spend of any industry, according to Float.
Adoption climbs nationally
The Float findings track with government data. Statistics Canada's Canadian Survey on Business Conditions found that in the second quarter of 2026, 19.2% of businesses reported using AI to produce goods or deliver services over the preceding 12 months, a proportion that has tripled since the second quarter of 2024, when it stood at 6.1%. Meanwhile, 40% of businesses said AI use is not relevant to their operations.
That same survey found workforce practices shifting alongside adoption. Of businesses that reported AI use in the last 12 months, 44.4% made changes to training or staffing practices, with 32% reporting AI-related training for existing employees and 21.6% for existing executives. Among businesses with 100 or more employees, that rose to 68.1% training existing staff and 32.8% hiring employees with AI-related skills.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, in its Alternative Federal Budget 2026-27 released Wednesday, urged the federal government to pass a modernized Artificial Intelligence and Data Act and create a $250-million Canadian AI and Data Commission over five years to oversee algorithmic systems in the public and private sectors.
The group's working paper said updated labour legislation should prohibit algorithmic management practices for high-impact decisions such as hiring and discipline, and that any new law should require employee consent or advance knowledge before AI-based monitoring or data collection occurs.
