- A pair of new studies from IBM (NYSE:IBM) show Canadian industry to be taking confident strides into an AI-powered future, leveraging investments today towards greater organizational strength into 2030 and beyond
- IBM is a global hybrid cloud, AI and consulting company with clients in more than 175 countries
- IBM stock has added 17.63 per cent year-over-year and 163.65 per cent since 2021
A pair of new studies from IBM (NYSE:IBM) show that businesses in Canada are taking confident strides into an AI-powered future, leveraging investments today towards greater organizational strength into 2030 and beyond.
The first study, from IBM’s Institute of Business Value (IBV), delineates five trends that encapsulate the current state of AI in Canada, as told by 1,028 C-suite executives from large enterprises across 20 industries, complemented by perspectives from 8,500 full-time employed consumers with AI knowledge from basic to expert. Here’s a breakdown:
- Canada’s industrial complex is planning for the future, despite present geopolitical concerns, with 42 per cent of executives optimistic about the global economy, 84 per cent confident in their organization’s potential to post a solid 2026 and 84 per cent seeing economic and geopolitical volatility as an incubator for new deals.
- With virtual unanimous assent, 92 per cent of executives plan to build AI into their business plans, contrasted to 50 per cent expressing concern about overreliance on compute resources in certain regions across the world, emphasizing the need for technological security.
- Real-time service, now table stakes across industries, had 72 per cent of responders cautioning that companies who fail to meet this standard will be left behind. This trend is evidenced by 86 per cent of Canadian executives deploying agentic AI in their organizations and 68 per cent expecting AI agents to make independent decisions in 2026.
- A majority of Canadian employees now acknowledge the benefits of AI, with 57 per cent seeing it as transformative for corporate culture and 54 per cent willing to collaborate with it, though only 36 per cent of Canadians are willing to be managed by AI, below the global average of 48 per cent.
- In the end, it all comes down to trust, with 82 per cent of executives noting that they would lose trust in an organization that intentionally concealed AI use, and 96 per cent seeing consumer trust as critical to the success of new products and services.
The second study, also from the IBV, entitled Enterprise in 2030, predicts a concerted rise in AI-first business models by the end of the decade, supported by 75 per cent of the Canadian C-Suite expecting AI to be a major revenue contributor, driven by an expected 147 per cent increase in AI investments over the next four years.
These investments led 76 per cent of respondents to postulate a professional environment where mindset matters more than skills and 59 per cent to expect a significant number of employee skills to become obsolete by 2030, suggesting that we are only at the start of a long-term shift in how Canadians do business.
Management commentary
“Canadian organizations are entering 2026 with confidence – not because the economy is predictable, but because leaders are betting on AI as a long-term growth engine,” Rob Wilmot, general manager at IBM Consulting Canada, said in Monday’s news release. “The priority now is to move beyond experimentation and embed AI into core decision-making, operations and client engagement in a way that strengthens trust and transparency. What we are seeing this year is the early arc of a broader shift. The choices leaders make in 2026 will shape how competitive they are through the end of the decade.”
About IBM
IBM is a global hybrid cloud, AI and consulting company with clients in more than 175 countries.
IBM stock (NYSE:IBM) last traded at US$306.70, adding 17.63 per cent year-over-year and 163.65 per cent since 2021.
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