Innovating with intention: The path to tech transformation

Fortunately, there is a fair level of optimism around meeting business goals with existing technology. In fact, 60% of Canadian respondents indicated their current technology stack can power their organization’s growth. This is positive, though less so than the global sentiment, at 73%. In contrast, Canadians seem more confident than their global peers in relation to investing in new technologies (43% vs 35%).

In last year’s survey, 44% of global respondents cited a lack of capable technology talent to carry out key roles as their top challenge in the adoption of digital technologies. While labour shortages and skills gaps remain a challenge, they’ve dropped below other concerns, such as lack of governance and coordination for transformation initiatives, cybersecurity and privacy concerns, as well as spiralling costs.

When it comes to transformation objectives, customer satisfaction remains a priority, but is no longer the primary driver of transformation initiatives as it emerged in last year’s survey. Rather, Canadian businesses are driven to invest where their market-leading peers are investing.

In the current economic climate, with inflationary pressures and looming risk of recession, more attention is being paid to creating efficiencies and optimizing existing operations. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), which was not a factor in last year’s results, has emerged as a new technology with significant potential to change how businesses operate, yet posing certain risks.

We’re also seeing Canadian businesses explore how enabling technology could help them achieve goals in specific areas of focus, especially those related to increasing environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments. However, there appears to be an overall lack of technological maturity in many Canadian organizations and a risk-averse approach to implementing and utilizing those new technologies.