Here’s a number worth sitting with. According to the Business Development Bank of Canada, only 30% of Canadian SMEs used AI in 2025. The ones that did were 24% more productive than the ones that didn’t. That isn’t a marginal edge. That’s two different games.
BDC made this public on April 24, when it launched LIFT, a new $500m programme aimed at getting more than 1,000 Canadian small and medium businesses off the AI sidelines. The framing is unusually direct for a Crown corporation. CEO Isabelle Hudon put it simply: SMEs are stretched thin, but their competition isn’t waiting.
For franchise owners, the question isn’t whether AI matters. It’s whether you’re already losing ground without realising it.
Most owners I talk to hear “AI” and picture Silicon Valley, with robots in the kitchen and algorithms replacing humans. That isn’t what this is. In a franchise, AI looks like scheduling that takes 20 minutes instead of two hours, or customer service responses drafted before you get to your laptop. It looks like inventory forecasting that doesn’t depend on someone’s gut feel, and marketing copy that doesn’t kill your Saturday. None of this is futuristic. It’s already running in plenty of competing businesses right now.
Franchises actually have an advantage here. The thing AI needs most is structure: standardised processes, repeatable workflows, and clean data. Those are the exact things franchisors have spent decades building into your operating model. If you’re running multiple units, the leverage compounds faster.
So why the AI gap?
CFIB’s data from early 2026 helps explain it. About 45% of Canadian businesses report using generative AI for at least some tasks, but adoption skews sharply by size. Among businesses with fewer than five employees it sits at 39%, while at larger firms it’s over 60%. Most independent franchise units sit in the smaller bucket, and that’s where the gap opens.
The Bank of Canada laid out something even sharper. In a May 13 speech, External Deputy Governor Michelle Alexopoulos noted that only 1.5% of accommodation and food services businesses are using AI, compared with over 30% in finance and insurance. Hospitality and food service is a huge slice of Canadian franchising. If that’s your sector, your competitive set is barely moving on this, which means the early movers are about to look very different from everyone else.
Here’s what’s actually worth paying attention to in the BDC announcement. It isn’t the loan structure. It’s the signal. BDC is a conservative Crown corporation, and they don’t chase trends. When they put $500m behind getting Canadian businesses to do something they aren’t doing on their own, it’s because the evidence is past the point of debate. They’re not selling you on AI. They’re telling you that the cost of waiting is already higher than the cost of starting.
What you shouldn’t do is try to “implement AI” as a strategic initiative. That’s how this goes wrong. Pick one workflow in your business that bleeds time every single week, whether that’s scheduling, customer follow-up, or reporting. Just one. Fix it, measure it, and then move on to the next.
The macro picture won’t help you here either. The Bank of Canada held rates at 2.25% on April 29 and signalled that any further moves will be small. Cheap money isn’t coming back. The CFIB Business Barometer for April puts long-term confidence at 58.5, with more than half of small businesses still citing weak demand as their top growth constraint. You can’t borrow your way out of that environment. You have to work your way out, with better tools and tighter operations.
My AI gap take
The owners who’ll win the next five years aren’t the ones with the biggest AI strategy. They’re the ones who started. BDC just put $500m on the table because the gap between movers and watchers is widening fast. If you’re sitting on the sidelines because AI feels like someone else’s problem, the 24% productivity number is your reminder that someone else’s advantage is now your disadvantage. Pick one thing, and start there.
