The Canadian respondents in the 2024 KPMG Global Tech Survey demonstrated a shift in overall maturity but are worried about the future impacts of technology—and, in particular, AI.

This year’s study surveyed over 2,400 technology executives across the globe, including 150 Canadian leaders. And while Canadian organizations are still more risk-averse than our global counterparts, it isn’t impairing our willingness to embrace technology and extract value from our investments, including AI.

There is acknowledgement both globally and in Canada that AI can transform industry, enhance efficiency, and create new business models and opportunities. The opportunity—and the challenge—is the ‘how’ to make it happen. Many organizations are relying on XaaS vendors to incorporate AI into their platforms using standard use cases; others are focused on internal exploration with developing proof-of-concept (POC) to test specific ideas (or a combination of the two).

Overall, Canadian respondents indicated they have a high degree of confidence in their decision-making process for technology investments, but that cybersecurity isn’t treated as seriously as it should be, and that risk aversion from senior leadership was sometimes problematic in moving forward. Overall, they were more pessimistic about the impact of external (geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty) and internal factors (cybersecurity, tech overspend) than their global peers.

See below for an overview of the takeaways from the Canadian findings and a list of key considerations for Canadian tech leaders.