Canada Needs More Robots

To recognize Small Business Week, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) released a comprehensive report examining the shifting demographics and digital disruptions that are impacting today’s labour force.

This report identifies six emerging trends affecting small and medium-sized enterprises in 2017, one of which is the automation of business activities.

The full study, Future-Proof Your Business: Adapting to technology and demographic trends, groups its six trends into two halves. Three are about people: the aging workforce, the rise of the millennial generation and a more culturally diverse population. The other three are about technology: the growth of virtual marketplaces, the automation of business activities and the rise of the data economy.

From chatbots to drone deliveries, it’s no secret that automation and artificial intelligence are drastically shaping the way business owners realize their potential. But as the demand for everyday robotics increases, are Canadian businesses keeping up with competitors around the world?

Automation in Asia

The BDC report pinpoints a key statistic: According to the International Federation of Robotics, in 2015, South Korea led the global manufacturing industry in deployment of multipurpose robots — which optimized everything from supply chain management to customer service notifications — at approximately 531 per 10000 workers. That number comes ahead of Singapore’s 398, Japan’s 305, and Germany’s 301 (Canada falls somewhere in the middle, with 136 multipurpose robots per 10,000 workers).

What Robot Density Measures

Those figures are what the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) calls robot density: the number of industrial robots in operation compared with the number of people employed in manufacturing. Because it divides by the size of the workforce, it lets a small country be compared fairly with a big one.

It’s a useful yardstick, but not a perfect one. A country like Singapore, with relatively few manufacturing workers, can post a high number without a huge fleet of robots. And a country’s industry mix matters: economies built on car making and electronics, two of the biggest buyers of industrial robots, tend to score higher than those built on other kinds of manufacturing.

Canada Can Catch Up

As the BDC report explains, while nearly every aspect of contemporary Canadian business can be automated, owners need not overhaul their enterprise to achieve optimization goals. In fact, automation only requires three simple ideas to keep in mind, including:

• Mapping out business processes
• Involving employees
• Shopping and asking around

By analyzing how a business runs, Canadian entrepreneurs can determine where automation can best optimize efficiency. And who better to ask how a business runs than its employees, who have invaluable experience at every level of the operation?

Shopping around matters too. Automation doesn’t have to mean a factory robot. For many small firms, it starts with software that handles routine work, like bookkeeping, scheduling, inventory or answering common customer questions. Comparing suppliers and talking to other business owners who’ve made the switch can save a company from buying more than it needs.

How the Numbers Have Changed

The numbers have climbed a long way since then. In April 2026, the IFR’s World Robotics 2025 figures, covering 2024, put South Korea at 1,220 robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees, the highest in the world. Singapore was second with 818, Germany third with 449 and Japan fourth with 446.

Canada’s figure is higher today too, though the IFR’s newer counts measure industrial robots across the whole manufacturing sector, so they aren’t a direct match for the 2015 figures in the BDC report. In the 2024 data, Canada had 241 robots per 10,000 employees, behind the United States at 307 but above the global average of 132.

The growth has been worldwide. In an earlier release in November 2024, the IFR said global robot density had more than doubled in seven years.

BDC has also kept pushing Canadian firms to automate. Its LIFT program (Lead with Innovation and Focus on Technology) combines consulting and preferential-rate financing for businesses investing in AI, digital tools, robotics and other automation. BDC says it’s aimed at Canadian companies with annual revenue of at least $1 million.

What It Means for Small Businesses

The BDC’s 2017 advice still holds up because it’s about process, not gadgets. Start by writing down how work actually gets done. Ask the people doing it where time is wasted. Then look for the simplest tool that removes that waste.

Small businesses don’t need to match South Korea’s robot count. What matters is whether the repetitive parts of the job are taking time that could go to customers, quality or growth. Automating one painful process well is worth more than buying technology nobody uses.