'The technology is ready. The challenge is getting the business ready for the technology’
HR professionals should press their organizations now to close AI governance gaps, because new research shows employers are deploying autonomous AI agents faster than they can control them – exposing workforce decisions, data privacy and compliance to unmanaged risk.
Two-thirds (66%) of Canadian organizations are already piloting agentic AI — software agents that execute complex business tasks without constant human direction — yet 97% of the 200 Canadian leaders surveyed admit they are not fully prepared to deploy and govern it, according to a study from SAP.
The average Canadian organization expects to spend $39.4 million on AI this year, projecting a 20% return on investment that nearly doubles to 38% within two years, SAP reported. Nearly 2 in 3 (64%) Canadian firms using agentic AI cited higher-than-expected integration effort, and 46% have no human-in-the-loop review process at all.
"The technology is ready. The challenge is getting the business ready for the technology," said Cathy Tough, Country Manager, SAP Canada, adding that AI without business context "creates activity without outcomes, and at worst introduces risk."
Thanks to Agentic AI, HR and IT teams will likely become blended by the end of this decade, according to a new forecast from Gartner.
Canada and the U.S. compared with the world
The broader SAP Value of AI report, produced with Oxford Economics from a survey of 2,600 leaders across 13 countries, found American employers posting the strongest AI returns of any market studied. U.S. respondents project US$9.9 million in ROI this year, rising to US$26.5 million in two years — both above the 13-country average.
Canada sits closer to that global average, with US$5.8 million in ROI expected this year climbing to US$15.5 million in two years, on AI spending of US$28.4 million, the SAP and Oxford Economics report found. Canadian units of U.S.-headquartered employers may face pressure to match American targets without matching workforce-planning maturity.
Worldwide, agentic AI ROI expectations jumped from 10% to 17% this year and are set to quadruple in dollar terms within two years, yet only 3% of businesses globally call themselves fully prepared to deploy and scale AI agents, the report said.
Workforce transformation struggles
AI is reshaping how organizations manage their workforce, and many are struggling to keep up with the speed and intensity of the change, the SAP and Oxford Economics report found. Globally, 78% of businesses are unconvinced company-driven upskilling is keeping pace with AI's evolution.
A further 78% are unconvinced existing roles are changing fast enough to take advantage of AI-enabled workflows, leaving HR managing job descriptions that may already lag how AI is being used.
Still, 79% agree maximizing AI's value requires transformation beyond technical upskilling, and 66% agree soft skills are becoming core job requirements — a shift HR leaders must build into hiring and training.
Governance and workforce stakes for HR
Data readiness underlies much of the gap: 73% of Canadian organizations struggle with incomplete data despite 65% believing themselves data-ready, SAP reported — often the same employee records and workforce analytics agentic systems act on.
Uneven AI literacy and weakened critical judgment rank as the top two workforce risks cited worldwide. More than half (56%) of Canadian organizations say staff use unapproved AI tools at least occasionally, tied globally to data leakage or IP exposure.
To close that gap, SAP executives say governance must be built into how AI agents operate, not bolted on afterward.
"This ensures that humans set the strategy while AI handles the orchestration and execution, all within a governed, auditable environment with humans in the loop at key moments," said Anthony Robinson, Chief Technology Officer, SAP Canada. Sean Kask, Chief AI Strategy Officer at SAP, said organizations "face two challenges at once: risk that moves faster than most governance frameworks can keep up with, and value that is harder to measure than expected."
Canadian business leaders had better step up if they hope to reap the benefits of agentic AI. That’s because 21% of HR professionals report that AI agents are already being used today, and 78% expect their organisation to use at least one AI agent by the end of 2026, according to a report from People Managing People.
