‘Canadian organizations are still figuring out how to scale AI responsibly’
HR professionals overseeing workforce planning and organisational change face a rapidly narrowing window to act, as new research from IBM reveals that Canadian organisations are scaling artificial intelligence (AI) at an aggressive pace while governance, oversight and workforce readiness are struggling to keep pace.
The findings, released by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), draw on two global studies — one surveying 2,000 CEOs and another surveying 2,000 C-suite technology leaders — and document a widening “control gap” between the ambition to deploy AI across the enterprise and the organisational foundations needed to support it.
The study found that nine in 10 (90%) Canadian CEOs say they are embedding AI across multiple workflows, and 80% say they are deploying AI at the pace required to achieve their business objectives. Yet IBM found that only 43% of AI initiatives have delivered their expected return on investment over the past two years.
“Canadian organizations are still figuring out how to scale AI responsibly,” sayas Manav Gupta, Vice President and CTO, IBM Canada. “What we’re seeing is a growing gap between the speed of adoption and the governance, operating models and workforce readiness needed to support it. Closing that gap will be critical to realizing AI’s full value and staying competitive.”
Big increase in AI agents
IBM’s research projects that Canadian organisations will deploy an average of 1,189 AI agents by 2027 — a 36% increase from current levels — yet only 9% of Canadian tech leaders say they feel fully prepared for that wave.
“Your company bought AI, but nobody changed. At some level, we’ve seen this with every major technology shift over the years, but in the case of AI, these results are quite disappointing,” says Kristian Kabashi in a statement accompanying his report titled The State of AI at Work. The report found that while AI adoption is widespread, 87% of workers use AI at the beginner level. Just 13% use AI for meaningful work.
“The technology has such vast promise, but, in my view, it’s not being used the right way.”
Nearly one in four professionals who feel their employer is failing to deliver on AI are prepared to resign within two years, according to a previous report.
Governance gap deepens
More than two-thirds of Canadian tech leaders — 68% — report being accountable for AI systems they do not fully control, according to IBM’s research. Nearly three-quarters, or 73%, say AI adoption is already outpacing their IT governance capabilities.
Half of Canadian CIOs and CTOs identify security and compliance concerns as their primary barrier to scaling AI.
Four in 5 (80%) of Canadian CEOs agree that AI success depends more on employee adoption than on the technology itself — a finding that places change management and learning and development strategy at the heart of any AI transformation programme.
The scale of reskilling required is substantial. By 2028, Canadian CEOs project that 53% of their workforces will require upskilling for current roles, while 29% will need to be entirely reskilled for new ones. IBM’s data indicates that HR professionals who have not yet embedded AI readiness into their talent development frameworks risk falling behind a pace of change their own C-suites say is already accelerating.
Boris Alexandre, CIO North America, Airbus Canada, shares an insight into how they adapt new technologies.
“We design modular architectures so components can evolve as technology advances, without breaking the overall system. That approach allows us to absorb rapid innovation while supporting products with decades-long lifecycles,” he says.
AI is also reshaping performance management for HR leaders, according to a previous report.
