The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that high-profile companies such as Shopify and Open Text are announcing plans to shift investment into artificial intelligence, and are drawing scrutiny: Fewer employees will be needed to perform tasks, and at a much lower cost. A Globe editorial says the change is hitting junior-level jobs as AI carries out an increasing amount of menial and repetitive tasks. While high-tech companies are the ones drawing attention, the impact of AI is unfolding across the economy -- in banks rebuilding underwriting models, in retailers automating inventory planning, in farms deploying predictive tools. No sector will be untouched. Canada, of all countries, should see these moves as a way to solve its long-simmering productivity crisis and to restoring economic competitiveness. Since the early 2000s, when commercial uses of the Internet began remaking global markets, corporate Canada has consistently underinvested in machinery, software and intellectual property. Looking back to the 15th century, the printing press indisputably upended the lives of writers and illustrators; but from that rupture came the birth of entirely new industries -- publishing, advertising and mass education.