Canadian SMEs Slow Digital Adoption Amid Rising Cyber Threats Why Smart, Secure Transformation Matters Now

Canadian manufacturers are pressing forward with digital transformation but with far more caution than before. The 2026 Advanced Manufacturing Outlook Report shows that while most businesses recognize the potential of Industry 4.0 technologies, many are taking a selective, ROI-driven approach due to ongoing economic volatility, U.S. tariffs, inflation, and cybersecurity risks.

According to the survey, 79% of Canadian manufacturers have already implemented Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions, while 95% reported at least one tangible benefit from digital transformation, including improved efficiency, quality, and security. However, despite the progress, challenges remain. Smaller firms, in particular, are struggling to fully integrate digital tools due to high costs, legacy systems, and limited internal expertise. Integration hurdles (40%) have now overtaken cost (33%) as the top barrier, while cybersecurity concerns continue to grow up by 10 points from last year.

This shift toward caution highlights a deeper issue: the more connected systems become, the more exposed they are to evolving cyber risks. Nearly three in four manufacturers reported experiencing a cyberattack, yet only one in five believe they’ve taken all possible precautions. It’s a stark reminder that as organizations digitize their infrastructure, their threat surface expands just as quickly.

Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is a bright spot in this year’s findings. Investment in AI rose 6%, with nearly two-thirds of respondents using it in some form. From predictive maintenance and supply chain optimization to sales and financial automation, manufacturers are beginning to see AI as a strategic tool rather than a distant innovation. Yet, experts caution that successful AI integration demands robust cloud infrastructure, secure connectivity, and data protection frameworks areas that many SMEs still find challenging to navigate.

This is where Directpath Global Technologies (DGT) can make a difference. As a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), DGT offers proactive and adaptive solutions including Mobile Threat Defense (MTD), Extended Detection and Response (XDR), Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT), System Organization Controls Type 2 (SOC2), Vulnerability Risk Management as a Service (VRMaaS), Web Application Firewall (WAF), and vCISO support. With an advanced Artificial Intelligence Division, DGT helps organizations tailor their cybersecurity and operational strategies to strengthen both resilience and efficiency ensuring that digital transformation stays secure, scalable, and sustainable.

For Canadian SMEs, the message is clear: slowing down investment doesn’t mean slowing down innovation. In an era of AI-driven opportunity and heightened cyber risk, strategic digital transformation backed by intelligent security is not just a competitive edge, it’s a necessity for survival. Source: Plant CA