Georgian Partners lead investor Emily Walsh said the Toronto investment firm’s latest survey indicates Canadian business-to-business (B2B) software firms continue to lag their international peers in “some pretty foundational pieces of AI adoption,” including agentic AI.
The news: Last Wednesday, Georgian released its most recent AI adoption report, which it compiled with the help of market research firm NewtonX. It is based on feedback from just over 500 leaders at Canadian growth-stage and enterprise B2B software companies gathered in May. Walsh unpacked some of the survey’s findings on Thursday during an All In Talks panel moderated by BetaKit editor-in-chief Douglas Soltys as part of Toronto Tech Week.
From the source: Forty-four percent of executives at large, growing Canadian B2B software companies Georgian surveyed said that their firms had adopted agentic AI; contrast that with the 67 percent doing so across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel. In June 2025, as Georgian noted in a previous report, that gap was only 13 percentage points.
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Following the thread: Canadian businesses have been catching up to firms in other countries when it comes to AI maturity; the share of so-called “runners” that are making sophisticated and widespread use of AI has more than doubled year-over-year. However, Georgian data suggests they are falling behind on agentic AI. The survey identified B2B software firms’ struggles to integrate AI agents with their legacy systems as one of the leading barriers. Canadian companies are also shipping products more slowly, according to the survey.
Final thought: Walsh says there is an opportunity to “lean in and move faster and deploy more.” The market for AI agents could be huge. If agentic AI turns out to be as big of a deal as industry bulls think it will be, Canadian B2B software firms may need to up their adoption game or risk failing to capture the potential economic benefits.
BetaKit is the official media partner of Toronto Tech Week.
Feature image courtesy Sarah Rieger for BetaKit.