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New IBM research finds Canadian organizations are accelerating AI adoption, but governance, workforce readiness and accountability are struggling to keep pace.
As Canadian CEOs accelerate AI adoption to drive productivity and growth, C-suite leaders across Canada warn that governance, oversight and workforce readiness are struggling to keep pace, creating a widening 'control gap.'
New findings from two IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) global studies – one surveying 2,000 CEOs and the other 2,000 C-suite technology leaders – reveal a shared challenge: Canadian executives face a growing disconnect between the ambition to scale AI across the enterprise and the organizational and governance foundations keeping pace to support it.
While 90% of Canadian CEOs say they are embedding AI across multiple workflows and 80% believe they are deploying AI at the pace needed to achieve business objectives, 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," said Manav Gupta, Vice President and CTO of 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."
AI Ambition Outpacing Oversight
Canadian C-suite technology leaders surveyed expect an average of 1,189 AI agents to be deployed by 2027, a 36% increase from today. This underscores how quickly AI is moving from experimentation into day-to-day operations.
Yet only 9% of Canadian tech leaders feel fully prepared for this coming wave of AI deployment.
At the same time, more than two-thirds (68%) say they are accountable for AI systems they do not fully control, while nearly three-quarters (73%) report that AI adoption is outpacing their IT governance capabilities. In fact, half (50%) of Canadian CIOs and CTOs now cite security and compliance concerns as their primary barriers to scaling AI effectively.
The Workforce is a Critical, Underestimated Dimension
The CEO research also points to a more immediate human challenge as AI use expands.
80% of Canadian CEOs agree that the success of AI hinges more on employee adoption than the technology itself.
By 2028, Canadian CEOs anticipate that over half (53%) of their workforce will require upskilling for their current roles, and nearly a third (29%) will need to be entirely reskilled for new roles.
Scaling AI Responsibly
Some Canadian organizations are already adapting their technology foundations to support the rapid pace of AI innovation.
"We design modular architectures so components can evolve as technology advances, without breaking the overall system," said Boris Alexandre, CIO North America, Airbus, Canada. "That approach allows us to absorb rapid innovation while supporting products with decades-long lifecycles."
For additional findings from IBM's 2026 CEO Study and Tech Leaders Study, download the full Canadian Stats Brief.
Study Methodology
The IBM (NYSE: IBM) Institute for Business Value, in cooperation with Oxford Economics, conducted a survey of 2,000 CEOs and equivalent senior leaders across 33 geographies and 21 industries from February to April 2026. The survey explored how leaders are redesigning business models, operating structures and execution capabilities in an AI-driven economy, with additional analysis examining how organizations translate AI ambition into enterprise-wide execution and business value.
The IBM Institute for Business Value, in cooperation with Oxford Economics, surveyed 2,000 senior executives responsible for their organization's IT, technology, or AI-related decision-making across 33 geographies and 19 industries from January to April 2026. The survey was designed to gather insights on how organizations are managing the financial, operational, and governance challenges associated with scaling AI. Additional analysis was conducted to identify organizations that have built the structural capabilities to scale AI effectively by segmenting organizations based on preparedness and efficiency and assessing governance maturity.
Media Contact:
Lorraine Baldwin
IBM Canada Communications
lorraine@ca.ibm.com
SOURCE IBM
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