The past year was a wild one for workers in tech. Job postings in the industry dropped nearly 20 percent from pandemic highs this summer. Companies began forcing employees out of their homes and back to the office. Both recruiters and applicants joined an escalating battle in the use of AI. Some entrepreneurs fled to the US, while others fled America for Canada. There are so many outstanding questions about what workers in the industry will face this year, from job prospects to the role of AI in the workforce.
So, we reached out to some of the smartest Canadians across the tech industry to ask what they’re watching this year when it comes to working in tech, or, conversely, tech in the workplace. Are they excited, worried, or just plain curious about what this upcoming year holds? Here’s what they told us.
BetaKit does not endorse any of the predictions we have solicited. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Workers will want remote, not RTO
“As many large enterprise companies implement return-to-office policies, my prediction is that startups that are fully remote will have a huge edge. In 2026, there will be fewer companies that support fully virtual environments, which in turn support team members (and founders like me) who don’t want to live in large urban centres, or who value flexibility. As a parent of two young kids, I’ve seen first-hand how remote-first policies also make the workplace more flexible and accessible.”
—Erin Bury, co-founder and CEO of online will platform Willful
“Companies forcing people back to the office will pay for it in higher churn and weaker performance.”
—Sam Jenkins, managing partner of digital innovation consultancy Punchcard Systems
“In 2025, our data showed that candidates were roughly three times more likely to consider new roles if they could work remotely. Looking ahead, companies that are too rigid about returning to the office risk losing talent. Remote isn’t a throwback to the pandemic—it’s a baseline expectation.”
—Sarah Doughty, VP of talent operations for talent acquisition firm Talentlab
Real connections will still hold value
“In 2026 … the real magic will come from tight-knit, curated spaces where you can skip the small talk and build meaningful relationships that create real momentum and growth. When you strip out the noise and only bring in people who build, the entire group accelerates.”
—Tate Hackert, co-founder of financial platform ZayZoon
Companies will have to balance workers and AI
“I hope to see startups take full advantage of AI in their operations so that they can drive growth faster and for longer. AI will expose weak business models quickly, and companies built on manual effort or unclear differentiation may struggle. Those designed for a human-led, AI-embedded operating model will scale faster and last longer.”
—Bill Syrros, national AI leader with accounting and advisory firm BDO Canada
“AI agents will become coworkers in 2026, joining both tech and non-tech teams as onboarded, trained, and collaborative contributors in a human-AI workplace.”
—Qaiser Habib, head of engineering for data cloud company Snowflake Canada
“2025 showed us that automated hiring and agentic AI tools are often more sizzle than substance. In 2026, I expect the gap between how corporate leaders value these tools and how candidates actually experience them to keep growing. Automated interviewers are still pretty limited, and spammy email or text campaigns are losing impact as candidates get worn out by high-volume, irrelevant reach-outs. These tools are not replicating a human touch point and have even spawned viral memes online.
“Part of the reason these tools are popular right now is simple: it’s still an employers’ market in tech … but markets swing, and when it shifts toward a candidate-driven market, poor experiences will get noticed. Regardless, expect the social media mockery to continue into 2026.
—Sarah Doughty, VP of talent operations for talent acquisition firm Talentlab
We’ll all need to get better at hard conversations
“[There are] two things I would love to see us learn how to practice tackling as a community in 2026.
First, how do we practice refusal together? Opting out is a muscle we need to exercise when we see bad tech deals, bad public funding investments, and bad proposals that will harm our colleagues, communities, and our planet. It can feel really scary when the dominant narrative makes it feel like you would be a Luddite to say no and not try to settle or negotiate with companies that are not stewards of our well-being.
Second, how do we challenge, disagree, and support each other in changing our minds on complicated issues in public without staying dug into beliefs that no longer serve us? This is a practice of both humility and community trust that we are going to need a lot of in the coming days if we are to be good ancestors to the generations after us.”
—Saadia Muzaffar, founder of non-profit TGC.co and co-founder of Tech Reset Canada
Canada’s biggest resource will be the talent it can recruit (and, hopefully, retain)
“With the US leaning further into domestic industry, global tech talent will continue to look for North American roots, and Canada is becoming an increasingly appealing destination.”
—Dan Davidow, CMO of health booking management software Jane
“Talent remains a critical bottleneck. Canada continues to face a shortage of senior engineers with hands‑on, DeFi experience. We’re working partners to encourage faster progress on talent development and immigration pathways.”
—Abbas Abou Daya, founder and CEO of fintech Gearlay
“With the recent changes to the country’s immigration policy, we are concerned about how that will impact recruitment efforts for new talent. Talent recruitment is an ongoing issue for the tech sector in the north.”
—Ziad Sahid, executive director of Tech Yukon
“Canada’s biggest export will be teams and talent. I truly believe that Canada’s greatest export isn’t our lumber or uranium, it’s the talent and technical teams of students and new grads out of places like Waterloo and U of T. More and more of them are leaving straight after graduation or just dropping out after second year and jumping straight into frontier labs like xAI or YCombinator-style company building outside of Canada.”
—Moe Sabbaghi, founder of search and data software, The Intelligent Search Company
“I’m watching for companies that don’t just ship features, but also build workforce strategies that upskill, reskill, and include underrepresented groups. In my opinion, the next decade will belong to organizations that treat talent like a renewable resource and that understand you can’t have a future-of-work strategy without a gender-equity strategy.”
—April Hicke, founder and CEO of Toast, a recruiting firm supporting women in tech
“Globally, the appetite for Canadian tech and talent is stronger than it’s ever been, but maintaining competitiveness will require intentional ecosystem-building and a lot of founder support.”
—Danielle Graham, co-founder of the Firehood, an angel-stage network for women in tech
“2026 will be a pivotal year for Canada’s talent landscape as uncertainty in the US continues to push skilled workers north. Employers will press for lower barriers to bring top talent into the tech sector and lean more heavily into their values to recruit like-minded thinkers from around the world. At the same time, as part-time and entry-level roles continue to shrink, young people entering the workforce won’t have the luxury of traditional paths. More young Canadians will turn to entrepreneurship as a practical way to build experience and income.
—Nora Jenkins Townson, founder of HR consultancy Bright + Early
Illustration courtesy Madison McLauchlan for BetaKit.