Canada is investing in AI but trailing the US on returns

Canadian firms are investing heavily in AI, but their U.S. competitors are getting more for it, according to the RSM Middle Market AI Survey 2026, released July 21.

Across 203 Canadian respondents at firms with $30 million to $1 billion in revenue, 43% said their AI investments had exceeded expectations. Among U.S. respondents, 57% said the same. 

The spending gap is even wider. 41% of Canadian firms plan to put $1 million or more into AI this fiscal year, against 62% in the US. 

Canada isn’t short on raw capability. Analysis from hiring, payroll, and compliance firm Teamed put the country third in the world for AI talent while spending a fraction of what the US does.

The RSM survey’s read on why has little to do with ambition. 69% of Canadian organizations have partly or fully integrated AI, roughly 20 points behind U.S. firms, and just 15% describe their approach as transformational across the enterprise. Most are aiming narrower, with 43% focused on putting AI where it delivers clear value today.

“Canadian companies are taking a pragmatic approach to AI, and that can be a strength if it is paired with clear strategy and strong governance,” says Sonya King, management consulting director at RSM Canada. “The risk is that a focus on incremental gains alone may leave organizations behind as competitors begin using AI to reshape entire functions and business models.”

Digital Journal reported last week that Canadian firms have moved past the technology question and are now stuck on data quality, governance, and proving ROI. RSM’s survey brought numbers to back that finding up. 

Among the Canadian firms surveyed that reported limited pilot success, data quality was the top barrier to scaling at 53%, integration at 47%, with unclear ROI and security concerns tied at 33%.

For a Canadian technology leader, the caution that kept AI spending disciplined is the same caution showing up in the returns. RSM’s survey points to data quality and governance as the work that turns spending into a return.

Final Shots

• Just 15% of Canadian firms call their AI approach transformational, and most are targeting narrow, near-term wins. The caution is built into how they’re adopting.
• 85% of leaders say their executives are keener on AI than their own workforce, which makes readiness an internal problem first, a technological one second.
• The firms pulling ahead are the ones that fixed data quality and governance first.