KPMG report says AI adoption by businesses up, but few seeing returns so far

Signage at the KPMG offices in Ottawa on Friday, June 28, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

TORONTO — Most Canadian companies have begun to roll out artificial intelligence in some form, but only a small fraction have seen any return on their investments so far, according to a new report.

KPMG in Canada found in its online poll of more than 750 business leaders across the country that 93 per cent said their organizations are using AI, significantly up from 61 per cent last year.

However, a mere two per cent of respondents said their companies are seeing a return on their generative AI investments, the audit and consulting firm found.

“Only a small sliver of Canadian businesses are generating growth from their AI investments today, and that’s understandable -- new technologies take time to be adopted and demonstrate identifiable return on investment,” said Stephanie Terrill, managing partner of digital and transformation at KPMG in Canada, in a release.

However, the country’s slowing productivity means that waiting years for AI investments to create value is “downright risky,” she said.

“Canadian organizations need to accelerate AI implementation into core operations to start achieving near- to medium-term productivity gains if we hope to become more economically competitive as a country,” Terrill said.

Brookfield Corp. seemed to anticipate her advice. On Wednesday, its subsidiary Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. announced the launch of a US$100-billion global AI infrastructure program in partnership with chipmaker Nvidia and the Kuwait Investment Authority.

The move follows a recent pledge from Brookfield president Nick Goodman to put the bulk of its time and money toward feeding voracious demand for the energy and infrastructure required for AI growth across the globe.

“Most of the capital deployment, and the focus that we have today, is around building the backbone infrastructure to support the build-out of AI,” he told analysts on a conference call last Thursday.

The report stated that 31 per cent of businesses have fully integrated generative AI across their core operations, while another 32 per cent have partially adopted generative AI.

About 20 per cent are in the early adoption phase and 17 per cent are in an “experimentation” or pilot project phase.

Three in 10 of those surveyed said they expect their AI investments to start generating a return within the year, while six in 10 said between one to five years.

KPMG in Canada surveyed 753 business leaders online between Aug. 15 and Sept. 3, 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2025.