Only 3.1% of companies in Canada have begun using artificial intelligence last year, according to a report by Statistics Canada. Other headline-grabbing advanced technologies also received relatively little adoption. For example, just 2.1% of Canadian businesses adopted robotics, and 0.7% adopted blockchain.

On the other hand, the most widely adopted advanced new technologies were “advanced design and information control technologies,” adopted by 35.0%, and “clean technologies,” adopted by 33.4%.

Statistics Canada’s report, “Survey of Advanced Technology, 2022,” included survey data from 13,300 enterprises and focused on 15 distinct technology domains.

Recruiting skilled staff was one of the top obstacles in adopting advanced technologies, with 36.7% of firms reporting that to be a problem. Other obstacles included low returns on investment or long payback periods from such investment at 40.6% and integrating new advanced with existing systems at 34.7%.

Difficulties in recruiting skilled staff were more prevalent among enterprises that adopted advanced technologies than those that did not. Statistics Canada mentioned that is presumably because they needed more highly skilled staff.

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Chart note: The bars represent the percentage of enterprises that have used the technology for three years or less and those that have used the technology for more than three years. It also includes enterprises that developed the technology in house for three years or less and for more than three years.