Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has launched Canada’s new national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, called “AI for All,” in a bid to boost the country’s lagging AI adoption and reframe the technology as critical infrastructure on par with energy and defense.
The strategy will involve introducing, over the next five years, new legislation, investments, and programs designed to “responsibly” grow Canada’s adoption of AI, while remaining anchored in three guiding principles: building trust, creating opportunities, and reinforcing Canadian sovereignty.
The full “AI for All” strategy includes detailed actions across six areas, namely protecting Canadians, building skills, driving AI adoption, strengthening sovereign infrastructure, scaling Canadian companies, and working with trusted partners.
Specifically, it targets an additional CAD$200 billion (USD$144.16 million) of economic growth to create 250,000 new AI-related jobs over the next five years and to increase AI adoption from just over 12% to 60% by 2034. Additionally, the strategy aims to provide up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work placement opportunities for young citizens and make Canadian industries more competitive in the global economy.
“AI can shorten our emergency room wait times and make a small business more competitive, if it is governed by Canadian values with a clear goal of improving the lives of all Canadians,” said Carney. “That’s why we need an ambitious new strategy…We will build trust so that all Canadians are empowered to use this technology safely and with confidence.”
Canada has one of the fastest-growing digital sectors in the G7 but is among the slowest countries to adopt AI at scale, a gap the government said risks undermining public trust, driving Canadian talent and startups abroad, and leaving critical parts of the country’s AI ecosystem under foreign control.
“With the global AI market projected to reach U.S.$4.8 trillion by 2033, Canada has a limited but real opportunity to ensure AI works for all Canadians – to harness this technology to create jobs, protect Canadians, and strengthen our prosperity,” said the announcement.
According to the Prime Minister’s office, AI is already being used across Canada to improve health care diagnostics and patient care, help farmers increase crop yields and reduce costs through precision agriculture, and strengthen transportation networks through smarter traffic management, logistics, and infrastructure maintenance.
Since March 2025, Canada’s new government has also signed agreements and joint statements with numerous other countries to collaborate on AI growth and innovation, including in national security and data centers. This includes Australia, the European Union, Germany, India, Qatar, and the United Kingdom.
“These partnerships provide the foundation for the safe and responsible development and deployment of AI technologies, strengthen access to compute capacity, foster AI and technology adoption, and deepen connections across government, industry, and other stakeholders,” said the Prime Minister’s office.
When it comes to building on this and creating new opportunities, the new AI strategy commits the government to establishing a National AI Literacy Initiative that will offer entry-level AI training for all Canadians. It also set ambitious targets to increase AI literacy among 1 million entry-level post-secondary students, provide access to trusted AI agents for every post-secondary student, and train more than 3,000 educators with AI learning kits in their classrooms over the next five years.
“Canada’s AI future is powered by workers. As AI is changing the future of work, we are supporting workers to adapt with it,” said Patty Hajdu, Minister of Jobs and Families and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario. “Through this new AI strategy, we’re equipping workers with the tools they need to strengthen their skills and helping them seize new opportunities in an AI-enabled economy.”
However, on Thursday, Prime Minister Carney sought to temper the optimism around these growth targets by emphasizing that the development and deployment of AI must be done safely and transparently, and that it must build on extensive national consultations with workers, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, industry, and community leaders.
To achieve this trust, as well as protect Canadians from the risks and harms of AI, the strategy proposes modernizing legislative frameworks for the digital age, including strengthening protections for Canadians’ personal information, introducing an online safety regime to better protect social media and chatbot users, and expanding the capabilities of the Canadian AI Safety Institute to conduct transparent evaluations of AI models.
“By protecting our privacy and our data, harnessing Canadian talent, and working with trusted partners, we will build a stronger, safer, and more sovereign economy,” said the strategy announcement. “With AI for All, we will turn Canadian innovation into stronger companies, better public services, high-paying careers, and greater economic security and sovereignty.”
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