Georgian Partners survey shows 44% of Canadian B2B software firms adopted agentic AI vs 67% in US, UK, and Israel. Legacy integration and slow shipping are the bottlenecks. The next two quarters will determine who closes the gap.
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Canadian business-to-business (B2B) software firms are losing ground on agentic AI adoption, according to a survey released last Wednesday by Toronto-based venture firm Georgian Partners. The report, compiled with market research firm NewtonX, surveyed just over 500 leaders at Canadian growth-stage and enterprise B2B software companies in May. The data shows a widening gap against international peers that has direct implications for the sector's competitiveness and the potential economic upside of autonomous AI agents.
Lead investor Emily Walsh unpacked the findings on Thursday during an All In Talks panel at Toronto Tech Week, moderated by BetaKit editor-in-chief Douglas Soltys. Walsh said the data indicates Canadian firms are falling behind in “some pretty foundational pieces of AI adoption.”
Forty-four percent of executives at large, growing Canadian B2B software firms said their companies had adopted agentic AI. That compares with 67% doing so across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel. The gap has expanded since June 2025, when Georgian's previous report pegged the difference at only 13 percentage points.
Canadian firms have been catching up on overall AI maturity. The share of so-called “runners” – companies making sophisticated and widespread use of AI – has more than doubled year-over-year. That progress has not translated into agentic AI, which refers to autonomous AI systems that can plan and execute tasks without human intervention.
Agentic AI is widely viewed as the next frontier in enterprise software. If the technology delivers on its promise, companies that adopt it early could capture significant productivity gains and revenue opportunities. The survey suggests Canadian B2B software firms risk missing that wave.
The survey identified integration with legacy systems as one of the leading barriers to agentic AI adoption. Canadian B2B software companies often serve established industries with older infrastructure, making it harder to deploy autonomous agents that need to interact with existing databases, APIs, and workflows.
The cost of retrofitting legacy systems for agentic AI can outweigh the short-term ROI for many firms. Companies that have already modernized their tech stack face a lower barrier. Investors should watch which Canadian B2B firms have invested in API-first architectures or cloud-native platforms – those are the ones most likely to close the gap.
Risk to watch: If a firm's product requires deep integration with on-premise enterprise systems, the agentic AI deployment timeline is likely longer. Companies that have moved to modular, microservices-based architectures face fewer friction points.
Canadian companies are also shipping products more slowly than their international peers, according to the survey. Slower release cycles mean fewer opportunities to iterate on AI agent features and gather real-world feedback.
Agentic AI requires continuous learning from user interactions. A slower shipping cadence delays that feedback loop, making it harder to improve agent reliability and accuracy. Over time, the gap compounds: faster-shipping competitors build better agents, attract more users, and generate more data to train on.
What this means: The speed differential is not just about features. It affects the quality of the AI product itself. Canadian firms that do not accelerate product velocity may lose market share in segments where agentic AI becomes a core differentiator.
The survey covers growth-stage and enterprise B2B software companies in Canada. The readthrough is most direct for firms that sell into industries with high legacy system penetration – financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics. Companies that target tech-native sectors (e.g., SaaS for startups) may face less friction.
The source does not name specific companies, the sector includes firms like:
Walsh framed the lag as an opportunity. Canadian firms have the talent and capital to catch up, they need to prioritize agentic AI deployment and product speed.
For broader context on AI-driven market shifts, see our stock market analysis. The market for AI agents could be huge. If agentic AI turns out to be as big a deal as industry bulls think, Canadian B2B software firms may need to up their adoption game or risk failing to capture the potential economic benefits. The next data point to watch is the pace of product releases and integration announcements over the next two quarters.
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