AI at work has reached a tipping point in Canada. New research shows broad adoption, but hesitancy to delegate.
Ankit Deo
Head of Marketing (Canada & Mexico)
Workday
TL;DR Three out of four Canadian employees (76%) use AI at work, according to a September 2026 survey of 1,000 Canadian employees. But most aren’t going deep: only 17% are heavy users relying on AI for most or almost all of their work, and nearly four in 10 (39%) still conceal their AI use.
These findings are from Workday’s AI@Work Pulse, a monthly, global study of nearly 6,000 employees across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the U.S.
The new research reveals Canadian employees are feeling better than the global average about AI, even if they're not power users. Canada's AI + Work Experience Sentiment score rose to +48 in September, up from +46 in August, and sits above the global average of +43—in the same range as standout markets like Australia (+52) and the UK (+51).
But depth hasn't followed sentiment. Heavy AI use in Canada is slightly below (17%) the global average of 21% in September. And 38% of Canadian employees say they've never delegated a whole task to AI, compared with 31% globally. This suggests Canadian employees feel good about AI, but remain cautious about leaning on it for real work.
So what might be holding Canadian employees back from going deeper with AI? Let's dig further into the findings:
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Globally, most employees are at least somewhat familiar with agentic AI in practice: 69% say they've let AI complete a whole task on its own at least once, even though just 38% say they understand the term "AI agent" well enough to confidently explain it.
But in Canada, AI delegation is trailing behind. Just 62% have delegated a whole task to AI at least once, down four points from August and nearly seven points below the global rate of 69%—one of the largest country-level gaps in this month's data.
These gaps suggest Canadian employees are moving more cautiously with AI, not because they use it less often, but because they have less reason, so far, to lean on it for substantive work.
The shift: Canadian organizations can act on this research by pairing AI access with active enablement. Regular manager conversations about AI's role, hands-on training, and low-risk opportunities to build trust in AI output can help close the gap between Canadian AI use and AI confidence.
Trust tells a similar story. Just 38% of Canadian employees say they can rely on AI outputs without close checking, compared with 44% globally, a gap of nearly six points.
Canadian employees are also a little less likely to have received AI training from their employer (76% versus 80% globally) and far less likely to have had a manager discuss AI's role impact with them in the past month: 48% versus 56% globally, one of the widest country-level gaps Workday tracks this month.
The shift: To close this gap, Canadian leaders should invest in educating employees on what agentic AI actually does, and make agent use practical, safe, and repeatable for everyday tasks. Identify high-value tasks that can be delegated with clear review steps, give employees simple guidance on acceptable use, and equip managers to coach their teams through adoption, especially given how few Canadian employees say a manager has discussed AI's role with them recently.
Last month, 40% of Canadian employees reported hiding their AI use at work. The trend continues this month, with 39% of employees saying they deliberately conceal their AI use, comparable to the 41% global rate.
Clarity is where Canada stands out, for the wrong reasons. Only 30% of Canadian employees say their employer's expectations for disclosing AI use are very or extremely clear, the lowest share of any country surveyed (compared with 43% in the U.S., the highest). And 22% say their employer has no disclosure expectations at all, the highest share of any country surveyed, ahead of Australia's 17%, the lowest.
This is the concealment conundrum, and it is especially acute in Canada: employees are using AI broadly and hiding it slightly less, but they have the least clarity of any surveyed market on what their employer actually expects.
The shift: Canadian employers should move first on practical, role-based AI guidance, concrete examples of approved uses, disclosure expectations, data boundaries, and human-review requirements, given how far Canada trails other surveyed markets on policy clarity.
Here's what else we're tracking month-over-month for Canada. Come back in November for new insights and trends.
| KPI | What it measures | August (Canada) | September (Canada) | MoM change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Adoption Rate | % of employees using AI for any part of their work, excluding “none of it” and “I don’t use AI at work” | 75% | 76% | up +1 pt |
| Power-User / Heavy-Use Rate | % using AI for “most” or “almost all” of their work | 18% | 17% | down -1 pt |
| Agentic Task Delegation Rate | % of AI users who have let an AI tool complete a task fully autonomously with little or no input at least once | 66% | 62% | down -4 pts |
| Average Weekly Time Savings | Mean hours per week employees say AI saves them, using bucket midpoints | ~3 hours/week | ~3 hours/week | No change |
| AI “Rework Tax” | % of AI users who say 50%+ of their time savings is eaten up fixing or reworking low-quality AI output | 32% | 29% | down -3 pts |
| Trust in AI Output Accuracy | % who agree or strongly agree they can rely on AI outputs without close checking | 40% | 38% | down -2 pts |
| Shadow AI / Concealment Rate | % of AI users who deliberately hid their AI use on a work task | 40% | 39% | down -1 pt |
| AI + Work Experience Sentiment | Net score: % saying AI made day-to-day work better minus % saying it made it worse | +46 pts | +48 pts | up +2 pts |
| Employer AI-Trust Score | % who somewhat or strongly trust their employer to use AI in a way that benefits employees, not just the organization | 43% | 44% | up +1 pt |
| Career Confidence Gap | Net career optimism: % agreeing AI will create new opportunities minus % agreeing AI will make current skills less valuable | +4 pts | +6 pts | up +2 pts |
| Training | % of employees who have received AI training from their employer | 77% | 76% | down -1 pt |
| Manager AI Conversation Rate | Share with a manager who discussed AI role impact in past month | n/a | 48% | n/a |
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