The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has launched a nationwide initiative to educate small and medium-sized businesses on using artificial intelligence.
The chamber has partnered with Google.org on the two-year program, which mobilizes over 400 chambers of commerce and boards of trade in delivering AI training and support to businesses. Google.org has injected over $2.7 million into the program, which opens to participants in January 2027.
“AI holds enormous potential for Canadian businesses, but that opportunity needs to be accessible to businesses of every size. Small business owners have heard plenty of hype about AI. What they need now is trusted advice, practical tools and the confidence to determine where AI can make a meaningful difference,” said Candace Laing, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s president and CEO, in a statement.
The chamber cited Statistics Canada research showing that this year, the percentage of Canadian businesses using AI in goods production and service delivery was just 19.2 percent. Only 24 percent of small businesses (1-4 employees) that used AI trained staff on the technology.
Per the “Prompting Productivity: Generative AI Adoption by Canadian Businesses” study conducted by the Canadian Chamber’s Business Data Lab, 69 percent of businesses using or intending to adopt generative AI sought 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. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce indicated that this would help small businesses generate marketing materials, streamline administrative tasks, organize customer information, and determine sales trends.
The AI initiative will also tackle concerns about accuracy, data privacy, security, and employee impact. Non-profit organization Nrth, which guides founders and industry leaders through technological shifts, is preparing the workshop curriculum, training local facilitators, and spearheading the program’s AI implementation cohorts. Nrth CEO Lisa Zarzeczny said that helping SMEs learn to use AI in enhancing operations, developing products, and breaking into new markets “could be transformational for our productivity and competitiveness.”
“In small businesses, the owner is often the bookkeeper, the marketing department and customer service. Learning how 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. Local chambers are well placed to make this program land, because they know which businesses in their community are ready for it and can help them take part,” said Jen Riley, the BC Chamber of Commerce’s president and CEO.