On October 2, 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney launched the Prime Minister's National Council on Artificial Intelligence: a 13-member advisory body that will provide "independent, practical, and timely expert advice" on Canada's AI transformation. The council does not pass laws, spend money, or create new rules for your workplace today. What it does is steer the conversation, advising how the federal government's AI for All strategy evolves, with targets including 250,000 new AI-related jobs over five years and AI adoption rising from just over 12% to 60% by 2034.
Key takeaways
- The council launched October 2, 2026, in Ottawa, with 13 members drawn from AI research, venture capital, finance, cybersecurity, and public service, including Yoshua Bengio, Ajay Agrawal, Michelle Zatlyn, and Jody Thomas.
- It advises on the AI for All national strategy (launched June 2026), which targets $200 billion in added economic growth, 250,000 new AI-related jobs over five years, and 60% AI adoption by 2034.
- The strategy also promises up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work placements for young Canadians.
- A $700 million Compute Access Fund for small and medium-sized businesses is part of the strategy, eligibility details are not yet public.
- The council itself creates no new obligations for workers or businesses; the concrete changes to watch are privacy legislation updates, online safety laws, and program funding.
What is the National Council on Artificial Intelligence?
The council is an advisory body, not a regulator. Its job is to advise the federal government on how the AI for All strategy should evolve, covering AI adoption, "national champions" (homegrown Canadian AI companies), sovereign AI infrastructure (computing capacity under Canadian control), AI safety, protection of democracy, and making sure economic benefits are broadly shared.
It will be supported by a small team within the Privy Council Office, but the announcement stresses that responsible ministers and departments remain accountable for policy decisions. In practice, this looks like a standing channel for outside expertise rather than a one-off consultation, whether it produces public reports or keeps its advice private is not yet known.
The council's members, as announced:
- Ajay Agrawal (Creative Destruction Lab co-founder)
- Yoshua Bengio (AI researcher, Turing Award laureate)
- Sanja Fidler (former Nvidia research lab leader)
- John Graham
- Gillian Hadfield
- Jordan Jacobs (Radical Ventures co-founder)
- Eric Lamarre
- Valérie Pisano (Mila president and CEO)
- Senator Thomas Pitfield
- Jody Thomas (former senior public servant)
- Louis Vachon
- Michelle Zatlyn (Cloudflare co-founder)
- Patrick Pichette (ex officio)
The mix is heavy on research, venture capital, finance, and infrastructure, an adoption- and investment-leaning group, with safety and democracy in the mandate as well. Notably, Bengio himself has publicly warned that "we're losing control" of AI and has pushed for global guardrails, so the council contains real range of opinion, not just cheerleading.
The targets: 250,000 jobs and 60% adoption
The numbers that matter most to workers and business owners come from the AI for All strategy itself, not the council. According to the Prime Minister's Office:
- $200 billion in additional economic growth and 250,000 new AI-related jobs over the next five years.
- AI adoption rising from just over 12% to 60% by 2034, a fivefold increase in the share of Canadian organizations using AI.
- Up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work placements for young Canadians.
Those adoption figures are the real story. If AI use goes from roughly one in eight organizations to three in five within eight years, the question for most Canadians won't be whether AI affects their job, it will be whether they can work alongside it. That transition is the reason a jobs-focused reading of this announcement matters more than the membership list.
What it means for workers
Nothing changes in law this month. But the direction is clear: the government is pushing adoption hard, and workers who can use AI tools competently, and, more importantly, check their output, will be better positioned than workers who avoid them entirely.
Practical steps that make sense now, regardless of what the council eventually recommends:
- Find out your workplace's AI policy. Ask whether your employer has written rules on which AI tools are approved. A written rule protects you if a tool produces a wrong result that carries your name.
- Don't paste confidential material into public AI tools. Client names, health details, and unreleased financial figures should stay out of consumer chatbots unless your employer has approved the tool in writing.
- Build "verify" skills, not just prompt skills. Pick one routine task, drafting emails, summarizing meeting notes, cleaning up a spreadsheet, and learn to do it well with an approved tool, keeping a short log of what you checked before using the output. Being able to catch AI errors is likely more durable than being able to generate text quickly.
- Keep your own work samples. If your duties change as AI tools spread, documented results are the easiest way to demonstrate your value.
A note on AI and careers more broadly: our separate guide to AI skills and jobs in Canada in 2026 goes deeper into which capabilities employers are actually hiring for.
What it means for small businesses
The strategy's headline business measure is a $700 million Compute Access Fund aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises, according to the law firm Torys' analysis of the June strategy. Computing capacity, the expensive chips and cloud infrastructure that AI models run on, is one of the biggest barriers for smaller companies trying to build with AI.
But the fine print matters: it is not yet known which businesses will qualify, and businesses should check program pages on Canada.ca rather than relying on summaries. Beyond that fund, the federal government also launched Digital Transformation Canada in September 2026, a new organization meant to modernize government services and use federal purchasing power to help Canadian digital and AI companies scale. For a Canadian AI startup, a government contract can be the difference between surviving and not.
Sensible moves for a small business owner this month:
- Map where customer data enters your business, website forms, email, payment tools, booking software. That list is the starting point for any AI or privacy decision.
- Before connecting any AI tool to customer data, read its privacy terms for two things: where the data is stored, and whether your inputs are used to train the tool.
- Run small, time-limited trials. Choose one task with a measurable goal, for example, "reply to routine quote requests within one hour", and review the result after 60 days before committing further.
Privacy and online safety: what's actually coming
The June 2026 strategy committed the government to updating Canada's public and private sector privacy legislation and introducing online safety laws. Council advice may influence how that work is shaped, but the council doesn't write bills.
What to watch for: actual legislation. A bill would be the first concrete change that directly affects individuals. In the meantime, two moves cost nothing:
- Review the privacy settings on the AI tools you already use, including any setting that controls whether your conversations are kept or used to train models.
- If you believe an organization has mishandled your personal information, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca) is the federal body that handles privacy complaints.
One scam worth naming: AI is making voice and video impersonation cheaper and more convincing. Treat unexpected calls or videos from relatives asking for money as possible scams, and call the person back on a number you already have.
What to watch next
Three things will show whether this council matters:
- Whether it publishes anything. Public reports or summaries of its advice would show what's actually being recommended, silence would suggest a purely internal channel.
- Privacy and online safety legislation. The first bill would be the first concrete policy change flowing from this agenda.
- How program funding is delivered. Details on who qualifies for the Compute Access Fund and similar programs will matter more to small businesses than the council itself.
The announcement specified no meeting dates, deliverables, budget, or timeline for the council, so its influence, if any, will become visible over months, not days.
The bottom line
A 13-person advisory council doesn't change your job or your business this week. What changes the calculus is the strategy it advises: 60% AI adoption by 2034 and a quarter-million new AI-related jobs are not numbers that leave most workplaces untouched. Workers should build the habit of verifying AI output; businesses should run small measured trials and mind their customer data; everyone should watch for the privacy legislation the government has promised. The council is the signal. The adoption wave is the event.
Sources
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
01
What is Canada's National Council on Artificial Intelligence?
An advisory body launched by Prime Minister Mark Carney on October 2, 2026, to provide independent expert advice on Canada's AI for All national strategy. It has 13 members and is supported by a small team in the Privy Council Office.
02
Does the AI council create new rules for my workplace?
No. The council advises the government; it does not pass laws or regulations. No workplace rule changes flow from the announcement itself.
03
What is the AI for All strategy?
Canada's national AI strategy, launched in June 2026, built around three objectives: building trust in AI, expanding opportunity, and strengthening sovereign control over critical AI capabilities. It targets $200 billion in economic growth, 250,000 new AI-related jobs over five years, and 60% AI adoption by 2034.
04
What is the $700 million Compute Access Fund?
A fund in the AI for All strategy intended to help small and medium-sized Canadian companies access the computing infrastructure needed to build with AI. Eligibility details have not been published; check Canada.ca program pages.
05
Who is on the council?
The 13 members are Ajay Agrawal, Yoshua Bengio, Sanja Fidler, John Graham, Gillian Hadfield, Jordan Jacobs, Eric Lamarre, Valérie Pisano, Senator Thomas Pitfield, Jody Thomas, Louis Vachon, Michelle Zatlyn, and Patrick Pichette (ex officio).
