More than half (55 per cent) of employees say artificial intelligence would be positive for their organizations, up from 46 per cent in 2024, while just 22 per cent are feeling the same way about AI’s impact on their own roles, down from 27 per cent in 2024. according to Benefits Canada’s 2025 Future of Work Survey.
Among employer respondents, the use of AI has almost tripled, with 34 per cent indicating they’re using AI in some way and 49 per cent exploring how it might be used in their organization. The majority (83 per cent) of this group said they’re using or exploring AI for text- and data-heavy processes, up from 63 per cent last year. Notably, 30 per cent of employers reported AI will allow them to reduce staff and cut costs.
Given its quickly changing nature, Niagara Casinos’ use of AI is still evolving, said Bryan Crisp, the company’s human resources operations manager, during a panel discussion of the survey results at Benefits Canada’s 2025 Future of Work Summit.
Read: Editorial: Looking at the good, bad and ugly of artificial intelligence
“For us it frees up talent to do other things, not necessarily reduce it. [In terms of HR], we’re using [Microsoft’s] Copilot, but there’s always the debate about putting the rails around confidential data and how it’s leveraged within the business. So we’re even keel in terms of making sure we provide a decent amount of communication around expectation and policy.”
In the coming months, the organization hopes to explore the best ways to teach employees how to use AI so they can get more comfortable and properly harness its potential, he added.
Corus Entertainment has a clear AI policy available to all of its employees, but the company has also created a governance council that reviews each use case, said Aastha Juneja, the company’s head of compensation and benefits.
“If you want to use AI in your work or there’s a new tool to help you, you [fill out] a form and this council will review it [to ensure it’s used properly]. That way we can have [a comprehensive] review done from a technological and legal [standpoint]. Copyright and intellectual property are extremely important to us, so we want to make sure our people are doing it right.”
The 2025 Future of Work Survey also found employers see AI boosting efficiency across workflows (74 per cent compared to 50 per cent in 2024), recruitment screening (59 per cent compared to 67 per cent) and HR/benefits communications (50 per cent compared to 44 per cent).
Read: Expert panel: Technology, legislation shaping total rewards decisions in 2026
However, there are a few gaps between workers and employers when it comes to AI, said David Drewery, associate director at the University of Waterloo’s Work-Learn Institute. “The first gap is on transparent use of AI. The key thing students are telling us is they want employers to be very clear about how AI is to be used. For instance, ‘Is it tracking my behaviour?’ ‘Is this factoring into my performance evaluations?’”
The institute found 63 per cent of students said this kind of transparency would have a large influence on making an employer more attractive, but only 30 per cent of employers said they’re providing this kind of information today.
The second gap highlighted by Drewery is around the strategic importance of AI, with 66 per cent of employers saying AI is strategically important to them, according to a survey by the institute, and only a third of students thinking it matters to the employer.
“So you have employers saying AI is important, but they don’t really know how it should be used and you have people entering the workforce saying [they] need to know how it’s being used, but [they] don’t really know if it’s important yet. This is an issue we’re going to explore over the next year . . . so employers and new employees can leverage AI to work better.”
Read: AI threatening to push young workers out of entry-level jobs
Download a copy of the 2025 Future of Work Survey report here.