Canadian companies are leading the way in using AI to manage finances

AI leaders versus laggards

Among Canadian respondents, 25% were classified by KPMG as leaders, 60% were implementers and 15% were beginners in AI usage.

Canadian leaders are investing nearly twice as much as others in enterprise-wide AI activities as a proportion of their IT budgets at 13% for leaders vs. 7% for non-leaders.

Nearly nine in 10 (88%) leaders are using AI to a moderate or large degree (versus 39% for others) and leaders have an average of six active use cases for AI, which is almost double what non-leaders reported.

As a result, Canadian leaders are experiencing higher returns on their investment than others, with 92% of leaders saying the ROI on their AI investments are meeting or exceeding expectations, versus 61% for non-leaders.

Leaders are also addressing and overcoming the barriers to AI adoption more successfully than others. The most common barriers that all companies encountered include data security vulnerabilities (56%), limited AI skills and talent (56%) and gathering relevant and consistent data (51%).

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AI assurances

More than half (53%) of respondents said they expect their auditors to conduct a detailed review of their control environment to ensure the responsible use of AI for financial reporting. Almost half (47%) want their auditors to conduct assessments of their AI governance maturity, and 41% want their auditor to perform third-party attestation over their use of AI technology.

"We've long believed in harnessing the power of AI to enhance quality. AI's potential to drive real-time auditing will help companies manage their risks more proactively throughout the year," says Bryant Ramdoo, partner and audit innovation leader at KPMG in Canada.

"To best support the growing needs of Canadian organizations and investors will require all parties in the reporting ecosystem – auditors, organizations, standard setters, regulators and educators – to work together to manage the associated risks of AI and advance the future of assurance and attestation with confidence."

Survey methodology

The research was conducted between April and September 2024. Of the 100 Canadian respondents, 16% identified as chief financial officers; 11% were chief accounting officers; and the remaining distribution of respondents was split evenly across chief audit executives, chief technology officers, chief digital officers and heads of accounting or audit.

As well, 20% of respondents reported annual revenues of $20 billion or more; 22% reported revenues of $5 billion up to $10 billion; 22% reported revenues of $10 billion up to $25 billion; 22% reported revenues of $1 billion up to $5 billlion; and 14% reported revenues between $500 million up to $1 billion. 82% identified as public companies.