Google Canada is marking 25 years in the country by expanding its AI training programs, with up to 100,000 free scholarships for workers and more than $2.7 million CAD to help small businesses adopt AI.
The initiatives were announced Thursday alongside Google Canada’s 2025 Economic Impact Report.
Through a new partnership with YMCA Canada, Grow with Google will distribute scholarships for the Google AI Essentials and Google AI Professional Certificate courses. Google says it is its largest Canadian partnership to date and a 10x expansion of its previously committed no-cost AI training in Canada.
Google.org is also providing more than $2.7 million CAD to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce for a national AI adoption program targeting more than 10,000 small businesses.
The program will run through more than 400 local chambers of commerce and boards of trade, with three levels of support for businesses at different stages of adopting AI.
The Public First report estimates Google’s products and innovations have contributed more than $550 billion in economic activity and $410 billion in productivity improvements in Canada since 2001, along with more than $1.3 billion in philanthropic funding and social impact support since 2009.
It also estimates generative AI could add $230 billion to the Canadian economy, although it says those gains are not guaranteed.
Google’s ATLAS analysis found Canada ranks in the top 20% globally for conversational AI adoption per capita, but almost 90% of current use is tied to personal and household tasks rather than work.
The YMCA scholarships are aimed at workers building job-ready AI skills, while the Chamber program is focused on small business owners.
Google says more than 64,500 Canadians have graduated from its Career Certificate program, with more than 75% reporting a positive career outcome, including a new job, promotion or salary increase, within six months. Enrollment details are expected through local YMCAs and chambers of commerce.
As for other contributions by Google? The company is paying out $100 million annually to Canadian news publishers, under the Online News Act set up by the former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Meta never agreed to deal which is why you can’t share news links on its properties such as Facebook.
Google has been expanding its Canadian AI training efforts throughout the year. It launched the AI Professional Certificate in Canada earlier this year and previously committed $2 million to train Canadian job seekers. Yesterday, it launched Gemini 4 Argon, its newest frontier model that is slowly being tested ahead of its wide release.
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