What We Heard at VFC’s AI & the Future of Work Roundtable
In June, Venture for Canada convened leaders from across AI, venture capital, education, workforce development, law, and public policy for an AI & the Future of Work Roundtable hosted at The Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Coming just two days after the release of Canada’s new National AI Strategy, the discussion provided a timely opportunity to examine what workforce readiness means in an economy increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. The roundtable brought together members of Venture for Canada’s newly established AI Advisory Council, VFC Board members, and staff to explore a question that is becoming increasingly urgent:
What will it take to prepare young Canadians for an AI-shaped economy?
For Venture for Canada, that question is part of a larger shift in how we think about talent development. Entrepreneurship is not only about starting a business. It is also about building transferable skills that help people navigate change, solve problems, recognize opportunities, and work effectively alongside new technologies. That lens matters because many of Canada’s biggest workforce challenges — from youth employment and AI disruption to business succession and labour market transitions — point to the same need: people who can adapt with confidence.
AI Fluency Is About Judgment, Not Just Technology
One of the strongest areas of consensus was that AI fluency goes far beyond knowing how to use a tool.
Participants emphasized that the most valuable skill is judgment: understanding when to use AI, when to question its outputs, and when human expertise is still required. Technical familiarity is becoming increasingly important, but it is only one piece of the puzzle.
The group also discussed concerns about how unstructured AI use may affect the development of foundational skills. Critical thinking, communication, problem-solving, and self-awareness remain essential, particularly for young people early in their careers. As AI takes on more routine tasks, these human capabilities become even more valuable.
The future of work will require more than AI users. It will require people who can apply technology thoughtfully in real-world contexts and understand the business, organizational, and human considerations that surround it.
The implication is straightforward: AI fluency is not about replacing foundational skills. It depends on them.
Preparing Employers Is as Important as Preparing Talent
One of the clearest insights from the discussion was that workforce readiness does not sit solely with talent.
Many small and medium-sized businesses are still in the early stages of their AI journey. But the challenge is often more fundamental than implementation. It is not just about deploying tools, it is about being able to recognize where AI meaningfully fits in the first place, and how to turn that recognition into well-defined, usable work.
AI adoption across Canadian workplaces — including within SMEs — is rising, but it is largely informal, ungoverned, and untrained. A 2025 KPMG Canada study found that 51% of employees already use generative AI at work, while 83% report needing better skills and only 48% have access to any training at all.
What emerges in practice is a consistent pattern: organizations may be experimenting with AI in isolated pockets, but they often lack the internal clarity to consistently identify use cases, structure work around them, or integrate AI safely into day-to-day operations. As a result, even strong early-career talent can struggle to create meaningful impact — not because of a skills gap alone, but because the environment itself is not yet set up to receive and shape that work effectively.
Several voices at the roundtable emphasized that preparing employers to receive and support talent is just as important as preparing talent itself. The challenge is therefore not simply adoption, but building the capacity to see opportunity, translate it into clear problems, and create the conditions where AI-enabled work can be executed with consistency and confidence.
This perspective is reinforced by Venture for Canada’s own recent discovery work. Across our Intrapreneurship program, 30% of student projects already involved some form of AI-enabled work, and only one of the 12 SMEs interviewed was not using AI at all. The signal is not that AI is absent from SMEs, it is that its use is uneven and rarely supported by shared frameworks or guidance. Students and employers are operating in the same environment, but without a common playbook.
Entrepreneurial Mindset and Skills Remain the Constant
While AI is changing how work gets done, participants agreed that many of the most important skills remain unchanged.
Curiosity, adaptability, resilience, relationship-building, and initiative were repeatedly identified as capabilities that will continue to matter regardless of how technology evolves. Several participants emphasized that the focus should be on cultivating these durable skills rather than chasing every new technology trend, both in entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, and for building the resilience needed to navigate a rapidly changing labour market.
The group also explored how AI is lowering barriers to entrepreneurship. Tasks that once required a full team can increasingly be accomplished by a single individual using AI tools. For some young people, this opens new pathways to entrepreneurship and solopreneurship that were previously out of reach.
Taken together, these shifts reinforced a broader point: AI should be seen as a context in which these capabilities are developed and applied. The tools will continue to evolve, but the ability to identify opportunities, solve problems, build relationships, and create value will remain essential.
Looking Ahead
The roundtable reinforced a consistent message: Canada’s AI transition is not just about access to tools or advances in technology. It is about readiness on both sides of the labour market — young people who can apply AI with judgment, and employers who can recognize where it fits and structure work accordingly.
Neither side can move effectively in isolation. When employers lack clarity on use cases and students lack context for how their work will be applied, even strong skills do not fully translate into impact. The gap is not only technical; it sits in how work is defined, understood, and supported.
Preparing young Canadians for an AI-shaped economy means creating opportunities to build judgment, adaptability, and confidence through real work, while also helping employers better define and support that work. At Venture for Canada, these are the questions shaping how we design and evolve our programs — how to connect talent development with real business needs, and how to ensure students and employers are learning to navigate AI in practice, not just in theory.
As Canada moves further into its AI adoption phase, collaboration across education, industry, and policy will matter more than ever in turning capability into meaningful opportunity.
We are grateful to the roundtable participants who contributed their perspectives across sectors. Their insights continue to shape how we prepare Canadians to turn AI from a shift they experience into a shift they help lead.
