About half of Canada’s heavy-industry workers use artificial intelligence on the job, but most of those who do have never received formal training from their employers, according to a survey by Edmonton-based Punchcard Systems.
The survey of 1,100 workers, conducted with Angus Reid, found 49 per cent of heavy industrial workers use AI, BetaKit reported on Oct. 6. Respondents worked in manufacturing, construction, natural resources, energy, automotive and agriculture.
Among industrial workers who use AI, 70 per cent said they received no formal training. The gap was widest in construction, where 87 per cent of workers reported no formal training, according to the report as described by BetaKit.
The survey also found that more than 50 per cent of all Canadian workers use AI daily, which puts heavy industry slightly behind the wider workforce.
Sam Jenkins, co-founder and managing partner of Punchcard Systems, said adoption is being driven from the bottom up. “In heavy industry, adoption is being driven by workers using a chatbot or general-purpose AI tools on their own, well before most companies have implemented formal AI tools,” Jenkins said.
Workers said they trust AI most for paperwork, interpreting technical documents and producing instructional content. They said they avoid relying on it for safety-critical decisions, the report found.
The findings matter for employers because workers in these sectors handle equipment, hazardous materials and regulated processes. When staff use general-purpose chatbots without guidance, companies have little control over what information is entered into the tools or how the answers are used. The survey does not say whether any workplace incidents have been linked to AI use.
The results come as Ottawa builds out its AI policy. The federal government named a 13-member national AI council on Oct. 2, a body that includes researchers Yoshua Bengio and Sanja Fidler. The council’s mandate focuses on advising government, and the Punchcard survey points to a separate question: how much of the workforce is learning to use AI tools on its own.
The survey figures come from a single report, and Canada News Media has not reviewed the full methodology, including the margin of error. The numbers should be treated as one company’s findings rather than an official labour statistic.
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Via BetaKit, “Half of heavy industrial workers use AI, but workplace training is lacking” (Oct. 6, 2026): betakit.com
