Canadian businesses need to adopt AI more widely, but risks remain, Bank of Canada governor says

Canada is a global leader in artificial intelligence innovation, but businesses are still struggling to adopt the technology, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem told an audience in Thailand this week.

Speaking at an Institute of International Finance event in Bangkok on Wednesday, Macklem said the central bank is already seeing larger investments into AI in the second quarter of 2026, mostly in software for everyday tasks such as drafting documents, analyzing data and generating content.

But data from a recent Bank of Canada survey showed that AI adoption and use by business remains at an early stage. Only eight per cent of businesses surveyed said they use AI significantly in their core operations, while 50 per cent said they use AI to a low or moderate degree in core operations. A further 11 per cent reported that they plan to start using AI this year, while 28 per cent said they are not using AI and are not planning to adopt the technology.

“Canada has been a leader in developing the technologies. Where we haven’t done as good a job is turning that innovation into commercial scaled businesses, but I do think there is an opportunity for Canada going forward,” Macklem said.

“Businesses are increasingly recognizing that AI is not going away. It’s only getting bigger, and you can see that in their investment numbers and import numbers in a big way.”

Macklem added that there is a broader opportunity in diffusing AI across Canadian businesses, not just developing the technology. This includes reducing costs and risks, creating new products and reaching new customers.

“You’ve got trade fragmentation weighing on economic growth and ongoing war in the Middle East weighing on growth. The AI boom is mitigating a lot of that and carrying global growth,” the central bank governor said.

“You see it in investment. You see it in the stock market. You see in the debt market. You see it in trade flows.”

Macklem’s comments were part of the Bank of Canada’s ongoing message to encourage Canadian businesses to adopt AI as a way to increase the country’s productivity, which has been lagging for decades.

In February, Macklem urged businesses to ramp up trade diversification and AI adoption to avoid a scenario where economic growth doesn’t recover and Canada becomes a less attractive place to invest.

Bank of Canada external deputy governor Michelle Alexopoulos said in a speech in May that while the use of AI is currently concentrated to a few sectors such as finance and insurance, the central bank is starting to see evidence of small productivity gains from the technology.

Other countries and regions have already experienced productivity gains from AI. A recent report by Oxford Economics suggests the AI boom will add 0.4 percentage points to economic growth in the U.S. next year. A recent report by the International Monetary Fund suggests that AI could boost economic growth in Asia by 0.5 to one percentage point and help boost growth in ageing economies like those of Japan and South Korea.

But Macklem acknowledged that AI still comes with significant risks. Cybersecurity issues remains a top concern, especially since Anthropic, PBC has raised concerns that AI could self-replicate and could wreak havoc on the internet.

He said a close private-public partnership to create a global system of governance regarding AI use is the best way forward to develop cyber resiliency and address financial stability concerns.

“We want to see financial institutions use AI…. We don’t want to stop this or even slow it down, but you know we’re not going to reap the benefits if we don’t understand the risks.” he said on Wednesday.

“People can be can be subject to outsized emotional responses. We’ve all seen markets move rapidly to fear, and the consequences of that. AI could actually provide more rational responses.”