In From Hype to Output, How AI Investment Translates to Real Productivity Gains, C.D. Howe’s Rosalie Wyonch addresses a central question to Canada’s AI trajectory: if AI is dominating headlines and reshaping daily life, why hasn’t it moved the needle on productivity? The paper finds that while Canadian firms are beginning to experiment, adoption remains concentrated among a small share of larger companies and sectors, and that overall business use is still limited.

It outlines Canada’s AI strengths into economic results, it requires a sharper focus on adoption and diffusion: expanding access to data and compute, building AI literacy and complementary skills, and reducing the practical barriers that firms face when integrating AI into day-to-day operations.

AIAI looks forward to continuing to work with partners across policy, industry, and civil society to ensure Canada and the world’s AI moment translates into broad-based productivity gains.

AIAI’s report AI, Everywhere, All At Once authored by Marc-Etienne Ouimette, Ed Teather, and Kevin Allison, partners of the AI Adoption Initiative, was developed as part of AIAI’s work in helping organizations turn AI investment into productivity gains.

The C.D. Howe Institute is an independent, non-partisan public policy think tank based in Toronto that focuses on economic and social policy issues in Canada. Its research is national in scope, and it is widely regarded as a leading source of evidence-based analysis for governments, businesses, and civil society.

Find the full report here.