Canadian businesses are rapidly increasing their investment in artificial intelligence, according to new transaction data from Canadian fintech Float.
Float’s inaugural Canada’s AI Spending Snapshot 2026 found that a consistent group of 2,644 businesses spent more than 12 times as much on AI in August 2026 as they did two years earlier.
Adoption expanded alongside that spending. Among the businesses active on Float in both August 2024 and August 2026, 47% now purchase at least one AI product, compared with 27% two years ago. Median annual AI spending has reached $92 per employee.
The report draws on anonymized transaction data from more than 10,000 Canadian businesses using Float, offering a measure of what companies are buying rather than what they plan to adopt.
“Companies aren’t sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how AI plays out,” said Float CEO and co-founder Rob Khazzam. “They’re trying tools, finding what works and, increasingly, spending more as they put those tools to work across their businesses.”
The growth is creating a new challenge for finance teams because AI costs tend to be less predictable than conventional software expenses.
More than 70% of businesses purchasing AI experienced at least one month when spending rose by over 50%. Float found that AI spending was approximately three times more volatile than spending on Slack and twice as volatile as Microsoft software costs.
Companies are also assembling portfolios of AI products rather than consolidating around a single provider. The average AI buyer purchased services from 2.71 vendors over the past year, while the proportion buying from four or more vendors more than doubled.
OpenAI and Anthropic are increasingly being used side by side. Among businesses paying for at least one of the two providers, approximately 51% now pay for both, up from 13% two years ago.
The location of AI vendors adds another layer of cost. Float found that roughly 77% of AI spending among businesses on its platform is billed in U.S. dollars, leaving Canadian companies exposed to exchange-rate fluctuations and currency conversion fees.
“AI can be adopted by an individual employee or team almost overnight, but the financial implications quickly become much broader,” Khazzam said. “As businesses scale their use of AI, finance teams need visibility into what they’re buying, how costs are changing and who is accountable for managing that spend.”
Although software companies remain the heaviest users, Float observed meaningful AI adoption across education, finance, manufacturing, retail and construction. AI purchasing also increased in every province measured over the past year.
Float plans to publish the snapshot annually, creating a benchmark for how Canadian businesses invest in AI and manage its evolving financial implications.
“The next chapter of the AI story will not only be about what the technology can do,” Khazzam said. “It will be about how Canadian businesses put AI to work, how they manage it, and whether it starts to separate the companies that master it from the ones that don’t.”
Leave a Reply