With AI at the core of the federal government’s strategy to future-proof the national economy, and with industry adoption ticking upward, Canada’s AI competitiveness has become a matter of national concern. And on the increasingly pressing matter of how to bolster it, ideas abound. Most industry players want sovereignty to lead the way. Many experts are calling for new approaches to commercialization. Others have ideas about improving talent mobilization, enhancing research prowess, building greener solutions, and modernizing the policy landscape. 

New research suggests there’s a more immediate opportunity for Canadian organizations to better harness AI, and the call is coming from within the house.  Microsoft’s recent 2026 Work Trend Index Canada Report (which synthesized trillions of anonymized productivity signals and the Canadian results of a global survey of 20,000 knowledge workers) points to a “transformation paradox”: A notable disconnect between what individuals want to do with the technology and what their organizations are able to support. Consider that 66 per cent of Canadian AI users are worried about falling behind if they don’t adapt to the pace of technology. Yet, 49 per cent say it feels safer to stick to the status quo in their workplaces than to redesign processes and solutions with AI, and only eight per cent say boundary-pushing is rewarded within their organizations. At the same time, the Microsoft report shows that organizational factors that support AI use (such as managerial support, talent practices, and culture) carry more than twice the impact of individual attitudes and actions.

Technology and workplace experts say this creates an imperative for leaders to reevaluate whether organizational strategies and operations are set up to support so-called “frontier professionals”: That is, the growing ranks of adopters integrating AI into how they work, create, and think.

What might that look like? Late last month, The Logic and Microsoft convened a roundtable discussion in Toronto, wherein a select group of industry and policy executives discussed ways in which Canadian leaders can inspire and equip teams to thrive at the vanguard of the AI era. “What we’re learning is that it’s not enough to just put the technology in peoples’ hands,” said Matt Milton, President of Microsoft Canada. “We have to build leadership and organizational structures around it.”

Here are some ideas for how to do just that.

Understand frontier professionals

The ways in which Canadian knowledge workers are using AI is changing, and fast. While the high share of professionals who say they need to use the AI to stay relevant might suggest an element of fear is at play, the data points to a sunnier motivation. According to the Microsoft report, 54 per cent of AI users say they are leveraging the technology to do things that weren’t possible a year ago. Among the 13 per cent of Canadians that classify as frontier professionals, that number grows to 81 per cent. (It’s important to note that these Canadian super-users are not blind enthusiasts: 51 per cent pause before starting any project to decide which elements should be done by AI, and 45 per cent deliberately undertake some tasks without the technology to keep their skills sharp. Both numbers are well above the norm.)

This signals an important shift away from utility and into inspiration, according to Milton. “This is the first we’ve started to see this trend,” he noted. “It’s becoming a discussion about solving problems people couldn’t solve before, not about simply doing the work more efficiently.” 

Other delegates rounded out his perspective, citing groundbreaking AI-enabled developments in such sectors as healthcare, retail, and finance that weren’t possible 12 months ago. 

These tangible gains are stoking heightened levels of motivation about AI use among practitioners, Milton explained. That’s where many of them are running into frustrations: “We’re starting to see that people are able to move faster than their organizations,” he said. 

Develop frontier strategies

While many Canadian organizations have professed a commitment to AI, and many CEOs have touted its potential, the messaging about whether, how, and when people should use it is often muddled. Indeed, Just 22 per cent of Canadian AI users say leaders in their organization are clearly and consistently aligned on the technology, and only 59 per cent say their bosses use AI openly. Among frontier professionals, the latter number is 85 per cent.

Several roundtable attendees agreed that leaders have an increasingly important role to play in scaling AI impact beyond predictions and promises. But none were under any illusion that the job is straightforward. 

“I think we have to be really careful how we deal with AI adoption as we try to accelerate it,” pointed out Stephen Burt, Associate Deputy Minister and Chief Strategy, Artificial Intelligence and Data Officer with the Government of Ontario. “We need to ask ourselves: ‘What if we are wrong?’ I think it’s a dialogue we need to have. We need to figure out the areas where we’re going to move forward to create speed.”

Many organizations, especially large enterprises in traditional industries, have longstanding risk-mitigation practices in place for good reason, Burt added. The fact that the stakes tend to rise up the org chart might help explain the reticence of some leaders to take a chance on new technologies. “Most people in senior-level positions wear the risk personally,” he said. “Whereas in more junior levels, there’s a lot less at stake, personally, in being unafraid.”

Setting a strategy to safely scale AI amid such rapidly shifting sands is tricky work, but according to lawyer Sam Ip, it’s not without upside: “There is a real opportunity for leaders to ask: ‘How do we rethink processes? How do we redefine how we do business?’” Ip sees it every day as a Partner at Osler, where his role as a member of the firm’s technology group puts him in direct contact with both AI companies and organizations using the technology. In his experience, effective organization-wide adoption only happens when there is support at the top: “The common denominator I see for success is CEO buy-in.”

Moreover, in Milton’s view, it’s on forward-looking leaders to show their work, by communicating clear standards about responsible use, by understanding (and dispelling) common fears, and, importantly, by demonstrating applications that light people up. “We owe inspiration,” he said. “What gets people inspired is when we talk about how doctors are using AI to prevent burnout and healthcare crises, not when we talk about summarizing emails.”

Adopt frontier cultures

The challenge for leaders is not only in positioning and rallying. According to the Microsoft report, barely half (52 per cent) of leaders in Canada create space for employees to experiment with AI, and only a slightly larger share (55 per cent) encourage people to use it to redesign work in ambitious ways. (Notably, among frontier professionals, leader support for employee experimentation soars to 80 per cent, and boss encouragement of using AI to redesign work climbs to 82 per cent.)

This points to a reason behind many of Canada’s AI adoption issues, according to Jeff Shiner, Executive Chair of the Board of Directors at 1Password. Amid all the talk about risk, impact, and fear of failure, in his view, something important is lost. “There’s a word I haven’t heard yet, and I think it gets to the heart of what Canada doesn’t do well: That word is ‘play,’” he said. Leaders have to establish and enforce guidelines and safeguards, he continued, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of encouraging experimentation. “We have to get to a point where, at a company level and at a leadership level, we can allow our folks to play with AI,” Shiner reasoned. “We have to set expectations so that people don’t feel that they’re failing when they’re just learning… The only failure is if you fail to try it.”

Sudha Dwivedi, Chief People and Culture Officer at Interac Corp., shared that organizations often explicitly or implicitly reinforce barriers to adoption, pointing to the fear many employees feel about being regarded differently for using it. “People need to feel safe to use AI,” she said. For leaders, that means building trust in the technology, and ensuring no one is made to feel insecure about learning how to use it. “The message should be: ‘It may not work, you’re going to make mistakes, we will learn from them, and we will move forward,’ Dwivedi said. “It has to be OK for people to do that, and we as leaders have to create those environments. Because right now, we are all building a car, learning how to drive it, and teaching others how to drive at the same time.”

Set a foundation for the future

Leading through a change as transformative as AI can feel both unfamiliar and uncomfortable. But the research suggests that leaders who develop strategies and create cultures that support the efforts of frontier professionals stand to achieve not only faster AI adoption rates, but also entirely new designs for workflows, teams, and operations. And this can translate to real business results: Early evidence from Canadian “frontier firms” that have made AI a foundational part of how they operate indicate positive outcomes in such critical areas as risk management, productivity, and innovation. And when that happens, the effects extend far beyond any one organization. “This is fundamentally a story of Canada’s competitiveness,” Milton said. “And building a future that we can be proud of.”

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