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AI skills

AI Growth Raises Job Seekers’ Concerns About Skills and Entry-Level Work, Study Finds

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A 2026 Canadian report based on a survey of 502 job seekers found concern that growing workplace use of AI could encourage overdependence on technology, weaken creativity and problem-solving, and shrink entry-level opportunities. The findings describe respondents’ views—not evidence that AI has already eroded workers’ skills.

What the Canadian survey found

Express Employment Professionals’ Spring 2026 report, AI and the Lasting Value of Human Judgment, draws on an online Harris Poll conducted in Canada from November 7 to 21, 2025. It surveyed 502 adults who were either employed and looking for a new job or not employed and looking for work. The report says results were weighted on listed demographic variables; full weighting details and subgroup sample sizes are available by contacting Express, rather than in the report itself. Read the report.

Respondents identified several possible downsides of greater workplace AI use:

  • 49% feared overdependence on technology.
  • 49% worried employee creativity would decline.
  • 42% worried employees would lose problem-solving skills.
  • 40% said there would be fewer entry-level opportunities to gain initial experience.

These percentages represent concerns among the surveyed Canadian job seekers. The poll did not test workers’ skills over time or establish that AI caused any decline. Its respondents were job seekers, not a representative sample of all employees.

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What respondents said about hiring and workforce size

The report also found that 42% of job seekers feared companies would not need to hire as much because of AI. A separate figure applies to a narrower group: among employed job seekers whose company uses AI, 36% worried that using AI could reduce their company’s workforce. These are reported fears, not counts of jobs actually lost.

Training and self-taught skills

Concern about AI coexists with interest in learning. The report says 40% of job seekers were likely to seek more training given AI developments. It also reports that:

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  • 66% considered learning job skills using AI appropriate.
  • 52% considered skills taught through informal online platforms credible.
  • 31% had taught themselves skills through informal online platforms and included them on a resume.

Those figures describe attitudes and reported experiences. They do not measure whether a particular course or AI-assisted learning method produces better job performance. Express says its ExpressLearn platform has more than 100 mobile-friendly courses, but access is limited to people registered to work with an Express office as associates. The report and its training information provide that context.

Why the report emphasizes human judgment

Respondents placed value on human decision-making, communication and empathy. The report highlights crisis or emergency management, employee disputes or grievances, performance reviews and feedback, and ethical or compliance decisions as situations where they value human involvement. It does not establish that AI cannot assist with these tasks; its point is that job seekers see human judgment and interpersonal ability as important alongside technology.

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The report’s conclusion is that “workers who are skilled in AI and excel at working with people will distinguish themselves.” That is the report’s interpretation of the survey, not a measured prediction of hiring outcomes.

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Employer evidence offers a different perspective

A May 2025 Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas survey provides a limited employer-side comparison. Among combined responding Texas firms that were using or planning to use generative AI, 62.2% said it did not or would not affect their need for workers; 17.6% said it changed the type of workers needed but not the number; and 8.1% said it decreased their need for workers. The Dallas Fed results concern Texas businesses, not Canadian job seekers, and measure employers’ reported or expected effects. They cannot be combined with the Express/Harris Poll percentages as if both surveys measured the same population or outcome. The Fed’s skill-level results included 39 responses, and individual subgroups were small.

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How to read the findings

  • Concern is not causation. The Canadian survey asked what job seekers worry about; it did not show that AI has weakened creativity or problem-solving.
  • The sample matters. Results apply to the surveyed Canadian job seekers, not automatically to all workers or employers.
  • Different percentages describe different things. Fears about hiring, workforce reduction, training intentions and learning attitudes are not observed job losses or measured learning outcomes.
  • Employer results are context, not a direct comparison. The Dallas Fed survey covers Texas firms and uses a different population and method.

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