Technology Adoption Strategy Is Key To Making An Impact
tl;dr
AI Innovation Gap: Canada leads in AI research but trails in adoption, especially among SMEs, risking missed opportunities for growth and innovation.
Skill Development: AI literacy, technical skills, and innovation competencies are essential to bridge the digital divide and drive responsible technology adoption.
Responsible Adoption: Policies must support SMEs, aligning AI use with corporate goals to unlock potential and mitigate risks.
Wendy Cukier, professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Toronto Metropolitan’s Ted Rogers School of Management and academic research director of the Future Skills Centre.
A vision without implementation is a daydream and implementation without vision is a nightmare, a lesson perhaps for Canada’s all important artificial intelligence (AI) strategy. Canada leads in the research and development of AI products and services and has become one of the world’s largest AI talent hubs. The “Godfather of AI,” the University of Toronto’s Geoffrey Hinton, just won the Nobel Prize. Yet, we're laggards in the use of AI. A recent survey by KPMG shows 35 per cent of Canadian companies use AI compared to 72 per cent of U.S. businesses. The new Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute is an important step towards ensuring we have the ethical frameworks to manage the risks but we also have to grapple with the barriers to adoption, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) if we want to reap the rewards. Invention is not the same as innovation. Innovation requires using the technology to do things differently. The potential for AI to solve grand challenges, drive productivity improvements, and fuel innovation is immense but creating disruptive technologies does not produce innovation. Using them does.
This is an issue that we have to address and fast. And it's not just an issue with AI. We see this as we play catch up in cybersecurity, clean tech and other technologies and tech-based innovations. We have to bridge the digital divide. The UN has declared 2025 the year of quantum science and technology. Additionally, now that the U.S. election is settled, a shift to “America First” may leave Canada further behind.
According to our recent AI at Work report based on the Survey on Employment and Skills, with the Environics Institute and supported by the Future Skills Centre, nearly three in ten employed Canadians are using AI tools in the workplace. However, the majority are doing so independently, with little or no formal training or guidance from their employers. The commitment to self-directed learning is a good thing as employees recognize the importance of reskilling and upskilling to remain competitive in a technology-driven economy. A recent Microsoft report indicates that 66 per cent of business leaders are hesitant to hire candidates without AI skills. But, it also creates massive risks if employees are using AI without policies or support from their employers to align with corporate goals and to provide guard rails.
“Invention is not the same as innovation. Innovation requires using the technology to do things differently.” Wendy Cukier, Diversity Institute
The Diversity Institute has developed an evidence-based set of AI competencies recognizing that we need three levels of skills: deep technical skills, the skills for innovating with AI including technical skills but also those needed to drive change and, finally, basic AI literacy, which all jobs now require. The skills for innovating with AI are especially in demand and hold a lot of promise to create new pathways to great jobs while also reducing the digital divide. While we need science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professionals, we also need people who understand policy, regulation, law, organizational development, consumer behaviour, human resources and other business functions. Unlike other technologies, AI’s low-code, no-code applications are “the English major’s revenge” because prompt engineering requires a really good command of language and reasoning. This is why our newest survey shows a significant narrowing of the gender gap with women nearly as likely as men to be using AI in the workplace.
The bad news is a lot of our policies and programs overlook the fact that SMEs are the engine of growth in Canada. They're 90 per cent of private sector jobs in Canada, compared to only about 50 per cent in the U.S. SMEs also often lack skills and technology training resources. Improving access to skills and talent is critical. We need to match our AI vision with a laser focus on implementation and responsible adoption of technologies if we want to achieve the promise and avoid the risks of AI.
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