Eight Canadian cities rank among the Top 50 North American tech employment markets – an unprecedented six of them in the Top 15 – in CBRE’s latest Scoring Tech Talent report.
Toronto held onto the No. 3 spot in this year’s ranking, followed by Vancouver (No. 9), Waterloo Region (No. 10), Montreal (No. 11), Ottawa (No. 14) and Calgary (No. 15). Quebec City (No. 37) and Edmonton (No. 42) also made the list. In a separate ranking of North America’s Next 25 emerging tech markets, Halifax was listed at No. 2, along with London, ON (No. 5) and Winnipeg (No. 11), said CBRE.
CBRE’s 13th annual Scoring Tech Talent report analyzes 75 markets in the U.S. and Canada, ranking the top 50 markets and 25 emerging markets to watch, and outlining tech labour market trends. This year’s report shows that the ranks of U.S. and Canadian tech talent skilled in artificial intelligence grew by 45% in the past year alone. The report highlights the clustering of AI jobs; 37% of AI jobs in the U.S. are found in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
In Canada, the concentration of AI jobs is even greater, with 60% of AI jobs based in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. AI companies across Canada occupy about 5 million sq. ft. of office space, 3 million of which is in Toronto. Montreal is the second largest AI market with nearly 1 million sq. ft., said the report.
“Canadian cities are at the forefront of AI adoption. Having six markets in the Top 15 and eight cities in the Top 50 is impressive for a country our size,” says CBRE Canada Research Managing Director Marc Meehan. “Canada has been the dominant growth story for tech talent over the past five years, with many U.S. and Canadian tech firms tapping into the high quality and comparatively affordable talent on offer here. Tech employment growth is resurgent, and Canadian markets are leading the way forward.”
Tech Talent Rankings
CBRE said it defines tech talent as highly skilled workers across more than 20 technology-oriented occupations in all industries, including computer and information systems managers, software developers and hardware engineers. CBRE ranks North American tech talent markets through a weighted analysis of 13 metrics such as tech talent concentration, tech talent pipeline and research and development investment.
The top six markets in CBRE’s 2026 indexed rankings held steady from last year: San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Toronto, New York Metro, Austin and Washington, D.C. Climbing one spot each were Boston to No. 7 and Vancouver to No. 9. The biggest risers outside of the top 10 are Nashville, up six spots to No. 33; Montreal, up four spots to No. 11; Jacksonville, up four spots to No. 39; and Pittsburgh, up three spots to No. 28.
CBRE
The Scoring Tech Report notes that AI expansion over the past year has bolstered top tech-talent markets. The San Francisco Bay Area and New York each added more than 20,000 AI jobs since mid-2025 through both new jobs and converting existing jobs to AI-skilled roles. Overall, there were 751,000 AI-related workers in the U.S. and Canada as of June 2026, it said.
“Job growth tied to AI will influence most commercial real estate sectors, from offices to data centers to multifamily,” said John Morris, CBRE Group President of Advisory Leasing in the U.S. and Canada. “Inevitably, some jobs will be eliminated over time as AI takes on more routine tasks. But CBRE’s view is that AI will change job composition more than it will overall job count.”
