Thirty-seven percent of Canadian employees are unaware of controls imposed by their employers on generative AI use, KPMG Canada’s Generative AI Adoption Index Survey has revealed.
This statistic comes alongside the finding that 46 percent of the 2,183 employees surveyed have begun using generative AI in their work – a significant uptick from last year’s 22 percent. Fifty-one percent of employees reported that employers have urged them to use generative AI and that it has been incorporated into checklists and tasks for many projects.
However, among these users, 24 percent reported having inputted proprietary company information like human resources or supply chain data into such tools, while 19 percent have entered private financial information related to their companies. These percentages are up from last year’s 16 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
“It’s great to see such a surge in employee adoption because we know generative AI boosts productivity, but employers really need to get ahead of this to ensure their employees don’t unintentionally release private or confidential data,” said Lewis Curley, partner in the people and change practice at KPMG Canada, in a statement. “If organizations don’t implement guardrails and provide training around generative AI use, employees could inadvertently enter sensitive company data into generative AI tools, causing risks for their employers.”
According to KPMG’s Canada Generative AI Business Survey, 61 percent of Canadian organizations have adopted generative AI. The three most prevalent uses of generative AI in Canada are for idea generation (33 percent), research (30 percent), and the composition of emails to colleagues (26 percent).
However, less than 2 out of 10 employees reported that their employers had implemented comprehensive policies; most described employers’ policies in this regard as unclear or non-existent; in some cases, policies discouraged generative AI use.
“As part of implementing new technologies, business leaders have a responsibility to examine what type of work is going to exist at the organization in the future and start reskilling their people for it now,” said Megan Jones, a director in KPMG Canada’s people and change practice. “Taking a proactive approach not only puts organizations in the position to have more highly skilled people, but it also helps to ensure the work force is using generative AI tools properly and effectively.”
The KPMG Generative AI Adoption Index quantifies generative AI tool use by Canadian employees and is weighted on use frequency. The survey was conducted from August 6-21 via Sago’s Methodify online research platform.