Update · October 21, 2026
How Canadians are using AI, and what it means for Middlesex Centre
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI assistant, publishes an open dataset called the Economic Index that shows how people actually use its tool. I spent some time with the latest numbers, from May 2026, and a few things stood out.
Canada ranks 6th out of 121 countries for Claude use compared to the size of its working-age population, at about four times what population alone would predict. And it is less about the office than you might think. Half of Canadian conversations are about personal life, compared with 40 percent worldwide; 42 percent are about work and 8 percent are schoolwork. The most common requests are everyday ones: help writing something, looking something up, hobbies and life at home.
One more number I like: in 53 percent of Canadian conversations the person stays hands-on, working through the task with the tool instead of handing it off. A fair caution, too. This is one company's tool, and the data describes what people ask for, not who they are or what it means for anyone's job.
What I take from it is simple. A lot of Canadians, and I'd guess plenty of our neighbours, are already comfortable asking a plain question at the kitchen table at nine at night and getting a plain answer. Middlesex Centre is already a leader in online permitting, and that is because of our staff. As mayor I would back them with training and modern tools, using AI where it genuinely saves time, while people stay accountable for every decision and a phone number still works for everyone who would rather call.
I've spent thirty years building software, so I know what technology can do and, just as important, what it can't. There is more in my modern, efficient government priority, and I'd love to hear how you use these tools, or why you don't.
— Sean