Is your AI strategy an investment in people or cuts in disguise?

That gap is documented in Randstad’s 2026 Work Monitor, which surveyed more than 27,000 workers and 1,225 employers across 35 markets including Canada, and found that 98 per cent of Canadian employers are confident of growing in the next year, yet only 49 per cent of Canadian workers share that optimism. Nearly half of Canadian office workers – 46 per cent – believe AI adoption is designed mainly to benefit companies, not them.

The AI reality gap

The disconnect between organizational confidence and employee experience points to what Dul calls an AI reality gap. Globally, 62 per cent of workers acknowledge AI’s positive impact on their productivity, according to Randstad’s report. In Canada, that figure drops to 57 per cent – and among Canadian employers, only 44 per cent say AI has increased their company’s productivity, compared to 54 per cent globally. Both numbers sit noticeably below the international average, suggesting Canadian workplaces are navigating AI adoption with a trust deficit that their global peers aren’t facing to the same degree. The question of how the AI confidence gap is reshaping workforce strategy for Canadian HR leaders has become a key challenge of 2026.

Despite this, 62 per cent of Canadian talent say they feel confident using the latest technology – a figure Dul believes is encouraging, but he cautions against reading as confirmation that the upskilling work is done. “In order to build trust and secure buy-in for any sort of AI transformation, employers have to actively upskill their people and communicate that AI roadmap transparently,” he says. “Organizations that are doing it well are getting the buy-in and upskilling their talent at the same time as they’re implementing.”

The real price of AI-led headcount cuts

The instinct to use AI primarily as a mechanism to reduce headcount is both short-sighted and financially counterproductive, and the math rarely favours the shortcut, according to Dul.

“Cost efficiency is always going to be something that’s important for organizations, whether it’s driven through AI or any other initiatives, but using AI strictly as a headcount cutter is very short-sighted and, I think, financially counterproductive,” he says. “You’re going to see the short-term payroll cuts, but they’re going to be quickly erased by the immense cost of recruitment and losing institutional knowledge, and to a degree you’d see your productivity plummet.”