The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that Microsoft Canada president Chris Barry says artificial intelligence could boost lagging productivity. A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post reports that when Mr. Barry needed to write a letter of interest as part of an application to join a not-for-profit board, he decided to put Microsoft's software to the test. He commanded Copilot, the firm's generative AI service, to craft a five-paragraph missive based on his Linkedin profile that was so good he only had to remove one word before sending it. Mr. Barry is urging workers of all ranks to get acquainted with generative AI because Canada's productivity is at stake. He says, "The truth is Canada has unfortunately a long history of not adopting new technologies as fast as others, in particular, the U.S., and some of that does show up in the labour productivity stats." In November, BMO Capital Markets economist Douglas Porter declared Canada "listless and lagging U.S. trends." Using AI should be on the minds of leaders too, says Mr. Barry, because it can boost productivity and even help automate business processes by reducing tasks that can be seen as "drudgery" because they are so monotonous, tedious or menial.