As Workday deepens its investment in Canada, the country’s new National AI Strategy charts an ambitious path on AI governance aligned with Workday’s Responsible AI program and advocacy for policies that build trust in AI, drive adoption, and empower the workforce.
Governments around the world are working to advance policy that harnesses the opportunities of AI while managing it responsibly. This month, Canada took a major step in shaping its AI future. With the release of Canada’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy: AI for All, the government has laid out a roadmap to unlock trustworthy AI.
At Workday, we see every day how our AI innovations help our customers make better decisions, modernize core systems, and create new opportunities. We also know none of this is possible without trust—because people will not use technology they don’t trust. Workday has been actively engaged in laying the groundwork for AI governance frameworks since 2019, leveraging our experience delivering enterprise AI for over a decade to advance policies that build trust and drive innovation. In Canada, we’re proud to have worked closely with the government on AI policy, advising on legislation and signing on to Canada’s Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems.
As Workday deepens its commitment to Canada through our CAD $1 billion investment in expanding Canadian talent and local customer support, the government’s AI strategy underlines the deep alignment between Canada’s AI objectives and Workday’s technology approach, governance program, and policy advocacy. Ultimately, the success of Canada’s AI strategy will be measured in outcomes: faster hiring into critical roles, quicker access to benefits and services, and more efficient stewardship of public funds, not just the number of AI tools deployed.
Canada’s National AI Strategy is clear‑eyed about the promise of AI and the need to manage it responsibly, recognizing that AI is becoming foundational for productivity and competitiveness and that Canada must move quickly to close its AI adoption gap. We are pleased to see a focus on several key themes:
At Workday, we believe that responsible AI is both an ethical obligation and a business imperative. Our Responsible AI program is built on core principles—amplifying human potential, promoting fairness and transparency, and delivering on privacy commitments—and is backed by robust, standards-based governance practices.
Canada’s AI strategy similarly places safety and accountability at the center, calling for modernizing Canada’s consumer privacy law, expanding investment in the Canadian AI Safety Institute, and increasing support for Canadian AI standards development.
We welcome this direction and strong alignment with Workday’s Responsible AI principles and policy advocacy. Workday’s AI systems operate inside enterprise‑grade guardrails: permissions, controls, and audit trails that already govern HR and finance decisions today, extended to every AI‑enabled workflow. We take that a step farther by advocating around the world for AI safeguards that are risk‑based, grounded in consensus standards, and leverage workable accountability tools.
The strategy recognizes that success is measured by AI adoption outcomes, which in turn require substantial investments in workforce development—and we agree. The strategy announced multiple new initiatives, including new nationwide employer-led training programs focused on AI skills, a National AI Literacy Initiative to reach millions of learners, and increased investment in tracking labor market data on AI-driven shifts.
Given Workday’s technology approach and workforce policy advocacy, we are pleased to see such a strong focus on workforce and skills. Workday provides industry-leading AI solutions that help our customers adopt skills-based approaches to talent and provide insights to help employers understand how roles and skills are changing in real time. Done right, AI becomes a people‑first technology: one that helps workers grow their skills, navigate transitions, and find new opportunities in a changing economy.
Workday’s long-standing workforce policy advocacy is focused on three core priorities: promoting skills-based talent policies, driving labor data modernization, and supporting employer incentives for reskilling. Workday’s capabilities in skills‑based talent management and real‑time workforce insights reinforce that we don’t just believe in these policies, we help make them real. In light of this experience, we look forward to contributing our expertise to the Canadian government’s work in this area.
The strategy calls on government itself to be a leader in adoption, using AI to improve service delivery, reduce administrative burdens, and model best practices in governance. Public sector organizations around the world use Workday to run modern, cloud-based core HR and finance, with deeply integrated AI capabilities that help departments gain a real-time view of their workforce and spend, and free public servants to focus on more strategic work.
We’re doing this through intuitive, conversational experiences that let public servants ask questions and complete tasks in plain language, while the system handles the complexity behind the scenes within existing rules and controls. We are designing AI delivery models that let organizations start small, prove value, and scale AI usage responsibly over time. A modern, AI‑enabled back office can be the foundation for more responsive, data‑driven Canadian public services.
In Canada, we are seeing increasing momentum in the public sector with new Workday customers leveraging AI to deliver better services and improve outcomes for Canadians, and we are pleased to see the strategy recognize the importance of AI as an enabler for modern public service delivery.
The experimentation phase of AI is giving way to an era of delivery and accountability. Governments are asking tougher questions: How do we translate pilots into measurable outcomes? How do we scale AI and grow trust? How do we ensure workers have the skills they need to succeed?
By focusing on trust, adoption, and the workforce, Canada’s National AI Strategy sets a clear direction for the decade ahead. Workday is proud to contribute to Canada’s vibrant AI ecosystem, and we look forward to continuing our work to implement this strategy and realize its vision of AI working for all Canadians.
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