Canada's Top 100 Employers (2026) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 16
16
( 2026 )
M.TENAGLIA/BCG
SPONSOR CONTENT
BCG Canada employees Reid, Cam and Jackson connecting at an internal conference on AI hosted for the firm’s Canadian staff in Toronto, October 2024.
Embracing AI
A threat or a tool to enhance human work?
W
ith the rapid evolution
of AI in the workplace,
people are feeling a
bit rattled. So how are
Canada’s Top 100
Employers (2026) using AI to benefit employees rather than replace them?
Many winning organizations, such as
EY, are focused on cultivating AI literacy across all levels, equipping employees
with the tools and policies they need to
integrate AI into their workday and preparing them for tomorrow. As such, EY
invests heavily in upskilling, with $12 million spent on learning and development in
Canada last year.
“We’re investing in the human potential
to complement AI, not replace it,” says Biren Agnihotri, chief technology officer at
EY Canada. “Our emphasis is on responsible AI, including ethical usage, bias awareness, explainability — the human has to
be at the centre.”
The company envisions AI transformation as a continuous journey requiring curiosity, adaptability and lifelong learning.
“Our learning programs are integrated
with technical, non-technical skills, coaching, mentoring and performance feedback,” says Agnihotri. “We want to make
sure we’re part of this whole revolution —
and it is absolutely a revolution the way we
had the industrial revolution.
“AI fluency is not just about using tools
— it’s about transforming how we think,
work and create value. Jobs will move
from what we’re doing today to something
else. What we need to figure out is where
we can have the best usage of human
creativity.”
At Boston Consulting Group Canada
ULC (BCG), AI adoption is a present reality, with 70 per cent of staff already habitual AI tool users. Like EY, the organization
approaches AI through a human-centred
lens, emphasizing responsible integration
and maintaining critical human oversight.
“Tools do not have ethical principles —
humans need to instill that in the work,”
says Trap Yates, managing director and
partner in consumer and retail for BCG
Canada. “You need a human decision maker in anything that activates in the market
or in the world.”
Rather than being fearful, BCG found
that 90 per cent of employees who use AI
reported increased job satisfaction. The AI
tools help eliminate menial tasks, freeing
employees for more complex business.
“The increase in efficiency is a bit like
using Excel versus a manual calculator,”
says Yates. “With the deployment of AI,
you still have to think critically, structure
problems, communicate well and do analysis. You still have to interact with humans.
The core of the job remains intact — it’s
more about shifting how you do the work.”
So is a four-day work week in our future? Yates says that’s a political choice
rather than a technological one.
“Used well, AI should make work more
efficient, more satisfying and accessible to
more people. If society chooses to translate
that into a four-day work week, that would
be our societal decision.”
– Diane Jermyn
