McKenna Institute Blog

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There is no shortage of conversation about artificial intelligence (AI) right now. But for business owners in New Brunswick, keeping up with the headlines about its inevitable impact is not the challenge. Instead, it’s figuring out where AI can transform their operations, without breaking the bank.

At the Wallace McCain Institute, we work closely with business owners and entrepreneurial leaders across Atlantic Canada. In recent days, we surveyed our network to better understand where they are at on AI adoption.

In that survey, we’ve learned interest is high, experimentation is happening, but confidence is uneven, and many leaders feel under-resourced and unsure of the practical steps needed to unlock the real value advanced technologies promise.

AI can deliver gains in productivity, operational efficiency, customer experience, product or service delivery, and growth. Even so, most businesses are still using these tools at the surface level for meeting summaries, document drafting, email support, marketing content, report writing, and research.

In our survey, two-thirds of businesses said the most meaningful results they are seeing from AI so far are in time savings for staff to improve internal productivity or insights that help decision making.

Only 19 per cent of owner-operator companies in our data – fewer than one in five businesses – have AI embedded into their core systems or operations. Fewer still, just 13 per cent, are using AI in the delivery of their product or service.

In other words, businesses are trying, but most are not yet transforming with confidence.

What’s holding them back? To answer that question, you must understand the realities of business ownership. As a business owner, your days are already full of decisions about people, processes, customers, partnerships, and cashflow, while you try to plan for growth in an economy that feels increasingly uncertain.

When you add AI into the mix, and you don’t feel altogether confident or clear in understanding these rapidly evolving tools, taking decisive action is hard.

Identifying the right use case, finding a credible tool and provider in a sea of software solutions and consultants claiming to be experts, making a significant investment when money is tight, and leading your team when you are still learning yourself make AI adoption incredibly difficult and risky.

There is a desire to move quickly, paired with a fear of making an expensive misstep. That tension is real, and I think we need to say it out loud.

The public conversation around AI adoption makes business owners feel like they are already late, have already missed the boat, and are already on the wrong side of change. That framing is not helpful. It creates shame where what we need right now is honesty.

Because when we asked businesses about the barriers standing in their way, their answers reflected what so many leaders are feeling: lack of time, lack of expertise, concerns around data privacy and security, and overwhelm about where to start.

And there’s a deeper truth here that matters as we consider how to help: this is not just a skills problem; it is a confidence problem.

Business owners want to lead their teams well and, model curiosity. They want their people to experiment, apply what they learn, and keep growing with the tools available. But that gets more challenging when leaders themselves are sorting through limited internal capacity, a flood of outside voices claiming to have the answer, and the very real pressure to spend carefully.

For cash-strapped, short-staffed businesses, that feeling can become paralyzing.

So, what do owner-operator businesses need?

They do not need another keynote telling them AI is the future and they are already behind. They need practical, ongoing support; trusted peers; and safe environments where they can say, “We know this matters, but we don’t yet know the right use case, investment, or roadmap,” without feeling judged.

They need to build confidence alongside competence.

And they need help bringing their teams along – not only with the tactical know-how, but with the human side of change. This is so their staff understand the why, not just the how, and so they see themselves in the work ahead and can engage with it, rather than feel threatened by it.

That is why peer-learning environments matter so much. Business owners often learn best alongside other leaders working through similar questions in real time. Not for one afternoon, but over time in community and conversation with each other. They need spaces where there is enough trust to ask questions without fear of sounding uninformed, enough practical guidance to test what works, and with enough continuity to move from curiosity to implementation.

New Brunswick’s entrepreneurs are resourceful, open, and trying, but they should not be asked to navigate something this significant alone, in the margins of already overloaded workdays, hoping they choose the right tool, the right provider, and the right moment to act.

If we want businesses to adopt AI in ways that strengthen their company and our economy, we need to create the conditions for that adoption to succeed – with practical help, trusted networks, and spaces where leaders can learn honestly and build confidence together.

That is how progress happens.

Tracy Bell is executive director of the Wallace McCain Institute at the University of New Brunswick.