AI on the Horizon: September 18, 2025 

AI Adoption and Skills

Canada’s latest AI news on the economy, society, and policy. In this issue, we examine AI adoption and its implications for changing skill needs. While all AI-exposed roles are seeing a greater need for AI literacy, we foresee challenges for youth, especially in entry-level positions.

Canadian Businesses are Adopting AI at Record Rates

Canadian businesses are using a variety of different AI applications, most commonly Generative AI, AI virtual assistants, and AI-driven analytics to help boost workplace productivity.

In Q2 2025, Statistics Canada reported that 12.2 per cent of Canadian firms are using AI for producing goods or delivering services over the last 12 months, doubling from 6.1 per cent year over year. 14.5 per cent of firms also reported they plan to use AI in the next 12 months in Q3 2025, and up from 13 per cent in Q3 2024.

Business AI Adoption is Transforming Skill and Training Needs

AI adoption in the workplace is growing substantially yet plans to adopt remain steady. Have we hit a saturation point? AI literacy experts suggest that gaps in timely and practical training remain the largest barrier to adoption. Half of Canadian businesses are investing in training existing employees to use artificial intelligence to help successfully roll out their adoption of AI, up 10.9 per cent from last quarter. Our survey on Canadian AI adoption reports investing in job retraining and upskilling as the top priority in the near and long term.

Job postings requiring AI skills have nearly doubled since 2023 and the release of ChatGPT across the Canadian economy. Our insights reveal elevated AI skills demand in roles typically considered more susceptible to automation. It could be that these roles are best situated to interface with the technology, rather than being replaced completely.

On the Horizon: The Kids may not be Alright

Recent research out of Harvard and Stanford suggests a new paradigm is emerging, coined as seniority-based technological change. Researchers find that junior roles in AI-exposed positions are more likely to see employment declines than more senior or non-AI-exposed junior workers. Our insights report that executives are more likely to reduce entry-level roles due to AI.

Technology-based job displacement is not a new concept and tends to create more roles than it replaces. With the release of the July 2025 Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada reported a youth unemployment rate of 14.6 per cent, the highest since September 2010 (as well as 2020 & 2021 due to COVID-19). With fewer early-career workers and AI-fuelled workforce reductions, will firms have enough talent to cultivate when senior talent moves on?

To learn more about Canada’s AI workforce and skills demand, please visit The Conference Board of Canada’s reports on Developing Roles and Skills in the Age of AI—September 2025 and How AI Is Shaping the Future of Work—September 2025.