Canadian companies are turning HR into a technology strategy

Artificial intelligence is changing the Canadian workplace, but the more significant innovation may be organisational rather than technical. TD Bank and TELUS Digital provide two contrasting examples of companies connecting technology with skills, learning and the redesign of work.

For Canadian companies, possessing sophisticated technology is only one part of the equation. Organisations also need employees who understand how to work with artificial intelligence (AI), managers capable of redesigning processes around it, and governance that enables experimentation without surrendering human judgement.

That challenge is becoming increasingly visible across Canada. Statistics Canada research found that 35.9 percent of Canadian workers aged 15 to 69 had used generative AI at work during the previous 12 months, based on data collected in March 2026. Yet adoption varied substantially between occupations and industries. For HR departments, this makes AI less a question of installing another application and more one of developing workforce capability.

Two Canadian businesses illustrate different sides of this transition: TD Bank is examining AI skills and investing in pathways to improve digital capability, while TELUS Digital is exploring how AI can be embedded directly into employees’ working environments.

TD Bank: Finding the human skills gap

An important starting point for effective innovation is understanding where employees actually are, rather than where management assumes them to be. Research highlighted in TD Bank’s 2026 AI Insights Report exposes a striking gap between expectations and confidence. Among Canadians surveyed, 78 percent regarded workplace AI adoption as inevitable. At the same time, only 37 percent said they were receiving adequate AI training from their employer, while three-quarters rated their own AI abilities at a C grade or lower.

There is an additional, somewhat uncomfortable, HR issue. Almost one-third of those surveyed, 32 percent, said they had overstated their AI capabilities in the workplace. The finding suggests an organisation cannot build an effective skills strategy if employees feel under pressure to exaggerate what they know.

Melanie Burns, senior executive vice-president and chief human resources officer at TD Bank, consequently connects technological change directly with workforce development, arguing that organisations need to help people acquire new skills as technology evolves. The bank’s broader activities provide another example of supporting digital skills. In September 2026, TD Bank made a second three-year commitment of C$375,000 to Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT)’s My Career Pathways programme. The self-service platform allows people to assess existing capabilities, identify skills gaps and explore relevant training opportunities. TD Bank’s total investment in the programme since 2021 is C$750,000.

For HR leaders, the principle is important: Digital transformation requires organisations to understand the capabilities people already possess as well as the capabilities they lack. Technology can itself contribute to that mapping process.

TELUS Digital: Putting AI alongside the worker

A different model is emerging at Canadian technology company TELUS Digital. Here, the focus includes embedding AI into working processes rather than treating it primarily as a separate productivity application. The company’s Fuel iX platform is designed for enterprises to manage, monitor and maintain generative AI. Within contact centres, TELUS Digital describes an approach connecting AI-based agent assistance, quality monitoring, coaching and operational insights.

The HR implications are considerable. In a conventional contact-centre model, an employee may need to search different systems for information while simultaneously maintaining a conversation with a customer. AI-based assistance offers an alternative in which relevant information can be surfaced during the interaction. TELUS Digital describes its technology as bringing together sources such as customer relationship management systems and knowledge bases and providing guidance during interactions.

The company is also connecting technology with employee development. Its October 2026 description of its contact-centre AI model explains how automated quality monitoring can analyse interactions and how the resulting information can feed into targeted coaching and training. This represents an interesting evolution for HR technology. Instead of training being episodic, separated from the employee’s normal work, data generated through work can potentially help identify areas for subsequent coaching.

There is also a valuable leadership lesson in how the technology is framed. Erin Walker, global vice-president of CX AI, Business & Delivery at TELUS Digital, argues that technology should remove friction and provide accurate information when employees need it, rather than leave agents managing yet another system. That represents a useful test for workplace AI generally: does the technology make the employee’s job easier, or merely give the employee another machine to supervise?

Research from CPA Canada, based on responses from 5,000 Canadian CPAs, found that reported organisational AI use increased from 5 percent in 2023 to 43 percent in 2026. Among respondents who used AI frequently, 90 percent reported productivity improvements and 79 percent said it improved their ability to concentrate on higher-value work.

Yet the same research identified weaknesses in organisational preparedness. Although 67 percent of respondents reported access to approved AI tools, only 45 percent reported having a formal AI policy and 34 percent said their organisation had introduced either employee training or a formal AI strategy. Significantly for HR departments, organisations in the survey were much more likely to report upskilling or reskilling employees than reducing headcount, at 64 percent compared with 22 percent. This complicates the familiar idea that AI innovation is primarily about substituting machines for people.

Human resources becomes part of technology leadership

What TD Bank and TELUS Digital demonstrate is that leadership in workplace technology involves more than purchasing powerful systems. At TD Bank, research into workers’ AI confidence exposes the human capability problem accompanying technological adoption, while investment in SAIT’s skills platform demonstrates another route for helping people navigate digital change. At TELUS Digital, AI is being positioned inside workflows where assistance, quality information and coaching can operate as connected elements.

Neither approach makes the human factor disappear. Instead, technology makes workforce capability more important. This indicates that business is not simply by how much technology deployed, but by how successfully technological investment is connected with with people. For HR leaders, this means moving closer to the centre of digital strategy: identifying skills, creating credible opportunities to learn, redesigning work and ensuring that employees remain capable of questioning and improving the technologies placed alongside them.