KPMG in Canada’s new survey revealed 88 percent of business leaders believed the adoption of agentic AI would make their organizations more competitive, while 86 percent considered these AI systems a top investment priority for their organizations.
“Almost nine in 10 Canadian business leaders see agentic AI as a top investment priority that will help their organizations gain a competitive edge – that’s a strong sign that this technology will fundamentally change the business landscape in Canada,” said Stephanie Terrill, Canadian managing partner for digital and transformation at KPMG in Canada, in a press release.
According to the poll results, most business leaders plan to make near-term investments in AI agents to be more competitive, modernize operations, decrease costs, increase efficiency, boost productivity, and address skill gaps.
KPMG’s press release explained that agentic AI systems use tools like large language models to operate with little or no human intervention. AI agents can independently make decisions and perform tasks such as answering customer queries, placing and tracking orders, and managing refunds.
The poll results found that customer service (38 percent), cybersecurity (30 percent), compliance and regulatory management (29 percent), communications (24 percent), and accounting (23 percent) were the top uses of agentic AI.
The survey showed the top anticipated benefits of implementing agentic AI were faster/better access to information (52 percent), better decision-making (51 percent), and increased productivity (45 percent). It also discovered cybersecurity/privacy concerns (47 percent), data quality (38 percent), and implementation cost (38 percent) were the biggest anticipated barriers to implementation.
In terms of the anticipated profit increase, 36 percent of poll respondents expected a five to 10 percent increase, 27 percent expected an 11–15 percent increase, 14 percent expected a 16–20 percent increase, and 10 percent expected an over 20 percent increase.
As for the anticipated reduction in operating costs, 13 percent of survey respondents expected a less than five percent reduction, 36 percent expected a five to 10 percent reduction, 22 percent expected an 11–15 percent reduction, and 8 percent expected a 16–20 percent reduction.
Survey results
Among the 252 business leaders surveyed on behalf of their organizations:
- 35 percent are actively experimenting with agentic AI and have pilot projects and test use cases
- 29 percent are exploring agentic AI and potential use cases
- 27 percent have adopted or deployed agentic AI and have active use cases
- Eight percent seek to plan or explore use cases with agentic AI
- Just one percent are not exploring agentic AI and have no plans to
Regarding plans to invest in or adopt agentic AI, among the poll respondents:
- 57 percent have plans in the next six months
- 34 percent have plans in the next 12 months
- Six percent have plans in the next two years
In terms of familiarity, among the survey respondents:
- 72 percent are very familiar with the concept of agentic AI, while 25 percent are somewhat familiar
- 66 percent are very familiar with agentic AI’s potential applications in the organization or industry, while 31 percent are somewhat familiar
The survey also looked into agentic AI in relation to its potential to shift the workforce:
- For 55 percent, the workforce is not prepared to work with AI agents
- For 89 percent, the organization will need to invest in education, upskilling, and workforce training to understand agentic AI’s capabilities before adoption
- For 92 percent, agentic AI will help save costs by making human-led processes and workflows faster and more efficient
- For 89 percent, agentic AI will enable the organization to fill a labour or skills gap
- For 82 percent, agentic AI will assist the organization in reducing headcount
- For 72 percent, employees in the organization are concerned agentic AI will replace them or other business teams
“There’s a knowledge gap between business leaders’ understanding of agentic AI and how they can use it to their advantage,” Terrill said in KPMG’s press release. “Awareness, education and real-life experimentation can help close that gap.”
“While it may be tempting for some organizations to use agentic AI to reduce labour costs, there are other more significant costs associated with reducing headcount – including loss of institutional knowledge, reputational damage, and employee morale and loyalty,” said Gary Filan, KPMG’s AI lead in Canada, in the press release.
“There are ways to strategically reorganize the workforce around AI to optimize headcount and create a flexible, technology-enabled workforce for the future,” he added in KPMG’s press release.