Canadian HR leaders should overhaul how they hire and train for artificial intelligence, treating AI as a technology that redesigns jobs and building fluency across the entire workforce rather than acquiring a handful of technical specialists, according to experts. That's because the people side of AI adoption - not the technology itself - has become the main obstacle to turning AI investments into business value, according to skills experts at the Future Skills Centre, the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) and CPHR Canada.
"AI-skilled workers won't be able to add value if AI is simply an add-on or a response to market hype," said CPHR Canada board chair Erin Polcyn Sailer. "Too often, organizations focus only on hiring technical specialists. Technology alone doesn't create value - people do." Adopting a skills-first approach to AI for Human Resources means looking beyond degrees and job titles, Sailer added, urging employers to "use practical assessments and work samples" to test whether candidates can apply AI in meaningful ways. Todd Legere, Research and Policy Analyst at ICTC, confirmed that competitive pressure is accelerating the shift. "Many employers are shifting toward skills-based hiring that values demonstrable capabilities over traditional credentials or job titles," he said.
Leading employers are widening their talent pools, Legere added, "seeking adaptable candidates with adjacent skills and strong learning mindsets, rather than relying solely on experienced AI specialists." He also pointed to the value of "domain experts with deep knowledge in specific sectors." Organisations are deploying AI into core operations faster than they can recruit and reskill the workers needed to run it, reframing the AI conversation as a hiring and retention problem before it is a technology problem, according to a recent report from CGI.
Build AI fluency through hands-on training
"The starting point should be building baseline AI fluency across the organization," Sailer said, calling it "a core workplace capability, not just for technical teams, but for leaders, managers, HR professionals, and frontline employees." For HR professionals and managers leading this shift, programs like the AI Learning Path for HR Managers offer structured courses in recruitment automation, workforce analytics, and talent management.
"The objective isn't to turn every employee into a data scientist. It's to ensure every employee can be an informed, ethical, and effective user of AI in their role," Sailer said. Legere said literacy must reach executives and managers, who need to be "AI-literate enough to identify meaningful opportunities for adoption." Both said training works best as practice, not theory. "The most effective training tends to be experiential rather than theoretical," Sailer added. The Future Skills Centre points to "AI-plus" skill sets that pair technical competency with critical thinking, communication and empathy - attributes that "cannot be developed through curriculum alone."
Keep human oversight at the centre
Employees must grasp "both the potential and the limits of AI, and how to use it responsibly with appropriate human oversight," Legere said, calling it essential to building trust. The Future Skills Centre frames oversight as a business case, not just an ethical one: "Humans need to be centred in AI processes as an economic necessity." The centre also warns HR that training must be designed so technological shifts "do not disproportionately impact vulnerable populations" or reinforce existing labour-market inequities. Its research with the Diversity Institute into small and medium-sized firms suggests AI can also improve recruitment itself, through bias-aware tools that help employers compete for diverse talent.
Recently, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted that AI adoption will lead to a "labour shortage," rejecting assumptions that the technology will cost humans jobs.
Why this matters for HR professionals
The message from experts is blunt: HR leaders can no longer treat AI as a niche technical concern. As companies pour AI into core operations, the gap between investment and workforce readiness is widening. HR departments that shift to skills-based hiring, build organisation-wide AI fluency through hands-on training, and embed human oversight from the start will be better positioned to turn AI into a competitive advantage. The alternative is a talent bottleneck that stalls AI initiatives before they deliver value.
Your membership also unlocks:
