Workplace artificial intelligence use: A profile of sociodemographic and job characteristics, September 2024 to July 2025
Released: 2026-06-17
From September 2024 to July 2025, more than one in five Canadian workers (22%) reported having used generative artificial intelligence (AI)—such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini—at work in the previous 12 months. Generative AI use was higher among workers in certain occupations and industries, namely in natural and applied science occupations and in the professional, scientific and technical services industry.
A new study released today in Insights on Canadian Society, entitled "Workplace artificial intelligence use: A profile of sociodemographic and job characteristics," provides a profile of workers aged 15 to 69 years who used AI and automation technologies at work during the previous year, when surveyed from the fall of 2024 to the summer of 2025.
Generative artificial intelligence is the most common automation technology used by workers
From September 2024 to July 2025, generative AI was the most common automation technology used by Canadians at work (22%), followed by natural language processing (11%), voice recognition software (6%) and machine learning (5%).
Generative AI use among Canadian workers nearly doubled over the study period, increasing from 17% in September 2024 to 30% in July 2025. The use of other AI and automation technologies also increased during this period, but at a more moderate pace. For example, the use of natural language processing increased by roughly 2 percentage points to 12%, while the use of machine learning rose by about 2 percentage points to 6%.
Workers in professional, scientific and technical services are more likely to use generative artificial intelligence
From September 2024 to July 2025, Canadian workers working in professional, scientific and technical services (52%), educational services (42%) and finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (38%) were most likely to report using generative AI over the past 12 months. Conversely, its use was lowest in industries characterized by manual and customer-facing tasks, such as accommodation and food services (5%), agriculture (6%) and retail trade (9%).
Generative AI use was also concentrated in certain occupational groups. Notably, half (49%) of workers in natural and applied science occupations (which includes computer and information systems professionals, architects and engineers) had used it in the previous 12 months. This was followed by workers in management occupations, 38% of whom had used generative AI.
Furthermore, workers in occupations that typically require a bachelor's degree or higher (44%) were more likely to have used generative AI in the previous 12 months than workers in jobs that usually require a high school diploma or less (10%) or that do not have formal educational requirements (3%).
Note to readers
This release uses data from the Canadian Survey on Working Conditions (CSWC), which contains questions on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies at work during the previous year. The data from this survey capture whether workers used these technologies at work, rather than their intensity or frequency of use.
The CSWC is a new survey that measures the core dimensions of quality of employment—including working time and work-life balance, skills development and training, and security of employment—to better understand how different job characteristics are distributed across the employed population.
The CSWC was collected from September 2024 to July 2025 over the course of four collection periods. Data from the CSWC reflect the average of the collection periods and are representative of the employed population aged 15 to 69 years living in the provinces. Persons living in the three territories, on Indigenous reserves and other settlements, full-time members of the armed forces and unpaid family workers are excluded.
Generative AI is defined as a type of AI that learns from large amounts of existing data and uses that knowledge to create new content, such as text, images or code. Generative AI differs from other technologies in that they focus on identifying patterns, interpreting information or performing specific tasks such as speech or image recognition, whereas generative AI is designed to produce new content.
Natural language processing is defined as a type of AI that allows computers to analyze and interpret human language in text form (e.g., supports autocomplete, language checking, translation).
Voice recognition software is defined as a type of AI that converts spoken language into text so it can be used as input by computers (e.g., Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, Cortana).
Machine learning is defined as a type of AI that uses tools and algorithms which are refined on large training datasets to automate the prediction or classification of data by learning patterns from data rather than being explicitly programmed (e.g., fraud detection in banking).
Products
The article titled "Workplace artificial intelligence use: A profile of sociodemographic and job characteristics" is now available in Insights on Canadian Society (75-006-X).
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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