AI Is Everywhere in Daily Life – That Doesn’t Mean Canadians Trust It

In our latest wave of the Canadians and AI tracker, 70% of Canadians say they have used AI tools in the past three months.

That number has held steady since late 2025, but the behaviour underneath it is shifting. More Canadians now report using AI daily, including a growing segment who say they rely on it several times throughout the day. Many say their usage has increased compared to just a few months ago, and more than a third of current users expect to use AI even more in the months ahead. At the same time, a meaningful share of non-users say they are open to trying AI, suggesting there is still room for growth.

So, while adoption has levelled off, engagement is still deepening and broadening.

Much of that usage is happening in ordinary, personal contexts. Among Canadians who use AI for personal reasons including:

      • 50% say they turn to it for personal growth or relationships

      • 48% use it for home and lifestyle tasks

      • 41% use it to help plan purchases

About one in three also say they use AI to support learning or education-related needs, and a similar share use it for entertainment or content discovery. This is practical, everyday decision-making-the kind that tends to stick because it is immediately useful.

At the same time, most Canadians would not describe themselves as highly confident users. Only 12% say they feel very skilled using AI, while nearly two-thirds (63%) say their understanding is general rather than deep. A smaller group say they have little to no understanding at all, even if they have tried AI tools. That shows up in behaviour where interactions are typically simple and task-based, with limited experimentation beyond basic prompts or one-step outputs.

While it’s still early, people are building familiarity through repetition, and that repeated use is likely what will drive greater confidence over time.

Which brings the bigger question into focus: How do Canadians reconcile using AI more often in their own lives while believing it may have negative consequences for society?

Concern about AI’s broader impact is widespread and consistent. 95% of Canadians believe AI-generated misinformation will become a major societal challenge. Another 88% think it will make people too dependent on technology, and 86% worry that advanced AI could act against human values. Beyond that, large majorities also express concern about job displacement and the pace of AI development outstripping regulation.

These are not niche concerns. They reflect broad, deeply held skepticism about where AI could lead.

What we are seeing is not a resolution to that contradiction, but a way of living with it. At a personal level, AI is useful. It saves time, simplifies decisions, and fits easily into daily routines. At a societal level, it introduces risks that feel harder to control and less predictable in their consequences. Both of those perspectives can exist at the same time – and for many Canadians, they do.

This shows up as an underlying tension in the data. Usage continues to grow, particularly in frequency and personal applications, while concern about long-term impact remains high and largely unchanged. Even among frequent users, concern levels remain elevated, suggesting that familiarity alone is not reducing skepticism. It also suggests that increased usage should not be interpreted as increased trust. For organizations building or deploying AI, this distinction matters.

The next phase is not about convincing people to try AI – most already have.

It is about helping them feel more capable using it, and more comfortable with how it works and what it produces. Clearer outputs, greater transparency, and better guidance will likely matter more than new features.

Because right now, Canadians are building habits first. Confidence and trust may follow, but they are developing more slowly, and not necessarily in a straight line.