Trust – not technology – will determine AI success: report

Workforce trust – not access to artificial intelligence (AI) tools – will determine whether AI delivers the productivity and retention outcomes they need, based on the findings of a recent study from The Adecco Group.

Right now, only 36% of business leaders say their talent strategy clearly demonstrates AI will create opportunities for workers rather than replace them, according to the 2026 Business Leaders report The human premium: Leadership beyond the algorithm. 

Trust, the report concludes, "will be critical for creating confidence in future changes."

Denis Machuel, CEO of The Adecco Group, said "AI may move at software speed, but organizational trust moves at human speed. Companies that ignore that gap will struggle to turn pilots into performance."

Trust at work is under increasing strain as artificial intelligence reshapes jobs and burnout reaches record levels, posing new challenges to HR professionals, according to a previous report.

The trust-building agenda

Executives ranked modelling ethical leadership as the most important way to build workforce trust, followed by improving decision-making transparency, based on The Adecco Group’s survey of 2,000 C-suite executives across 13 countries with responsibility for more than 8.6 million workers. 

Tied for third: tools for employees to measure their impact, role-impact education, and cross-functional collaboration.

But organizations are not yet delivering on those principles. Only 40% of leaders said they have clearly communicated how AI affects employees' roles, and only 44% believe employees understand how their work contributes to the organization's purpose.

Machuel writes that "AI can inform decisions, but it's human leadership that creates meaning and impact."

Trust measurement and talent outcomes

Organizations that measure workforce trust outperform those that do not across HR's core indicators, The Adecco Group found. 

Over half (51%) report success on staff well-being and mental health, against 33% of organizations that do not measure trust.

The gap widens on AI and talent outcomes: 48% versus 29% on implementation of AI tools and policies; 48% versus 33% on sourcing and recruiting; and 47% versus 34% on attracting and retaining talent.

About half (49%) of trust-measuring organizations say leaders are held accountable for how AI decisions affect people, against 33% of those that do not.

AI adoption outpaces worker readiness

Currently, 45% of business leaders expect AI agents integrated into workflows within 12 months, while only 30% of non-line managers agree. Inadequate in-house technology talent was the top barrier to digital transformation for a second year.

But only 31% of leaders said their leadership team has sufficient AI skills to understand the risks and opportunities, and only 22% are highly confident their organizations are developing the necessary digital and future-ready capabilities.

Over 2 in 5 (42%) organizations are piloting upskilling measures, and 39% involve employees in job redesign.

Canadians continue to express concern about AI yet a growing share are allowing AI systems to act on their behalf — which poses a challenge to HR professionals, according to a previous EY report.

Future-ready organizations distinguished by trust focus

The share of organizations classified as future-ready has fallen 4 percentage points to 6%, reports The Adecco Group. Nearly half (49%) of that group take a mature approach to measuring trust, against 19% of other organizations.

About three-quarters (76%) describe their workforce as highly adaptable, against 42%, and 78% use AI or analytics to identify which tasks are best suited to humans versus machines.

Leadership roles in those organizations, The Adecco Group report, "are being redesigned to balance human and AI decision-making."

"Organizations that embed trust as a measurable leadership priority are better positioned to translate AI adoption into sustained productivity, agility and workforce confidence," the report concludes.

How can employers promote workforce trust?

Here are six evidence-based ways employers can promote workforce trust, each drawn from research by a Canadian think tank or research partnership.

1. Invest in senior leadership credibility and communication. The Conference Board of Canada's Employee Engagement Model identifies confidence in senior organizational leadership as the most influential driver of employee engagement, with the Board noting that approximately seven in 10 Canadian employees are disengaged and that the alignment of middle managers with senior leaders is essential to closing the gap.

2. Close the formal training gap. Over 2 in 5 (43%) of Canadian workers report receiving no skills training in the past year — a finding the Future Skills Centre cites as a central barrier to workforce adaptability.

3. Pair AI deployment with employer-led training and guidance. According to the Future Skills Centre, only 34% of Canadians using AI at work have received training from their employer to learn how to use the tools, and only 27% have received a lot of guidance — both well below the pace at which AI adoption itself is rising.

4. Move on workplace technology rather than letting workers feel left behind. Nearly half (47%) of Canadian workers say their workplace has been too slow to adapt to new information or computer technologies, up from 39% in 2023, and 50% say they have not received enough training to take advantage of these tools, up from 33% in 2023, notes the Diversity Institute at the Toronto Metropolitan University.

5. Build formal mental health and well-being programs. The Conference Board of Canada estimates that effective treatment of depression and anxiety among employed Canadians could add up to $49.6 billion to the economy annually, and reports that 45% of Canadian organizations have put a formal mental-health strategy in place in the past three years (up from 27% pre-pandemic).

6. Commit to lifelong learning pathways, particularly for lower-skilled workers. The C.D. Howe Institute finds that Canada stands below top-performing countries in skills development and has no comprehensive approach to lifelong learning, with long-term unemployed and low-income, low-educated workers slipping between the cracks of federal and provincial programs — a gap employers can help close by extending training to roles where the private return is lower but the social and retention return is high.