Businesses around the world are navigating a period defined by geopolitical tensions, trade uncertainty, persistent inflation, workforce pressures and rapidly advancing artificial intelligence. Yet the story is not simply one of uncertainty. It is also one of adaptation.

The International Chamber of Commerce World Chambers Federation's 2026 Chamber Pulse: Navigating uncertainty, embracing AI draws on responses from 352 chambers (including the Southeast Alberta Chambers input) and spans 113 countries and territories, representing economies accounting for approximately 90% of global GDP. Its findings provide an important window into how businesses are responding to economic disruption and where policy needs to evolve.

For Southeast Alberta, several findings stand out.

Trade uncertainty is becoming a business reality: Geopolitical tensions were identified by 70% of surveyed chambers as a major constraint on business, increasing 14 percentage points from 2025. Tariffs and inflation followed, each identified by 59% of respondents. In North America specifically, tariffs ranked as the leading concern. 

Trade conditions are also becoming more difficult. The report found that 61% of countries surveyed experienced negative impacts from the global trade environment, up seven percentage points from the previous year. In North America, the results are particularly striking: surveyed countries reported a negative trade impact, while 66% of North American respondents identified the renegotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement as a key trade issue. 

Our Southeast Alberta regional economy is deeply connected to trade through agriculture, agri-food processing, energy, manufacturing, transportation and logistics. Changes in tariffs, border policies, trade agreements or international demand can quickly translate into increased costs and uncertainty for local businesses.

This reinforces the importance of advocating for predictable trade policy, reducing internal Canadian trade barriers and ensuring businesses can efficiently reach domestic and international markets. 

The answer is diversification, not retreat: Perhaps one of the most important findings is how businesses are responding. Rather than simply relocating operations, businesses are increasingly diversifying. Seventy-three per cent of chambers report businesses pursuing new export markets, while 64% report businesses seeking alternative suppliers. The share reporting relocation of operations, meanwhile, dropped 15 percentage points from 2025. 

The lesson is important: economic resilience increasingly depends on having options. For Southeast Alberta, that means strengthening our ability to:

• access new domestic and international markets;
• move agricultural, energy and manufactured products efficiently;
• develop new processing and value-added opportunities closer to home;
• attract investment that diversifies the regional economy;
• strengthen east-west and north-south trade corridors; and
• ensure businesses can access reliable transportation, energy and digital infrastructure.

Economic development and infrastructure policy cannot be separated from trade policy. If governments want Canadian businesses to diversify their markets, businesses must have the infrastructure required to reach them.

Our workforce challenge is part of a global problem: Seven in 10 chambers identified shortages of skilled workers as their leading labour-market challenge. In North America, 89% identified skilled labour shortages or brain drain as a challenge, while immigration and work-permit restrictions were also significant. 

That finding will sound familiar to many Southeast Alberta employers. Agriculture, transportation, construction, skilled trades, health care, manufacturing and other industries continue to compete for workers with the right skills. The challenge is increasingly about skills alignment, not simply the number of available workers. That requires stronger connections between employers, post-secondary institutions, immigration and credential-recognition systems, apprenticeship programs and workforce-development initiatives. Training must increasingly respond to the skills businesses need today while anticipating the technology-driven skills they will need tomorrow.

AI is moving from emerging technology to economic infrastructure: Artificial intelligence represents one of the most significant changes identified in the report. The share of surveyed chambers reporting widespread AI adoption across industries increased from just 12% in 2024 to 32% in 2026. Another 48% said adoption remains concentrated in highly innovative sectors. More than 93% believe the AI boom will continue, and approximately 90% expect AI to increase productivity. 

For Southeast Alberta, the question should no longer be whether AI will affect our economy. The question is whether our businesses will be positioned to use it. For small and medium-sized businesses, AI can potentially improve productivity in administration, customer service, marketing, logistics, inventory management, data analysis and other functions. In agriculture and manufacturing, artificial intelligence can also support automation, monitoring, precision technologies and operational decision-making.

But access alone does not create adoption. SMEs need practical knowledge, digital skills, reliable connectivity and confidence about privacy, cybersecurity and responsible use. That creates an important role for chambers, governments, post-secondary institutions and economic-development organizations in helping businesses move from AI awareness to AI adoption.

AI will change jobs, not simply eliminate them: The workforce implications are more complicated. Half of surveyed chambers believe AI will reduce white-collar employment, compared with 32% that expect reductions in blue-collar employment. North American chambers were comparatively cautious about AI's overall employment impact, with only one-third anticipating a positive effect on jobs. 

For Southeast Alberta, that strengthens the case for focusing workforce policy on adaptation and productivity rather than simply job displacement. Businesses will need employees who can work alongside new technologies. Education and training systems will need to respond faster as occupational requirements evolve. And smaller businesses will need support to adopt technologies that large companies may have the resources to implement on their own. 

Inflation remains part of the equation: The report also offers little indication that cost pressures are disappearing. Nearly nine in 10 chambers reported increasing prices, while eight in 10 expect inflationary pressures to continue. In North America, approximately 90% anticipate further price increases. 

This adds another dimension to competitiveness for regional businesses. Investment decisions are increasingly influenced not only by taxes and regulation, but by energy costs, transportation costs, labour availability, financing, access to markets and the productivity of the business itself.

Government policy needs to consider those pressures collectively.

What this means for Southeast Alberta

Taken together, the findings point toward a clear economic strategy. Southeast Alberta cannot control geopolitical events, international tariffs or the pace of global technological change. But we can strengthen our capacity to respond. That means focusing on the fundamentals that make a region resilient:

1.  Infrastructure that enables growth. Reliable transportation, regional air access, highways, rail, natural gas transmission, electricity and broadband are economic infrastructure, not simply community amenities.
2. More pathways to markets. Businesses need support to diversify export destinations while Canada continues working to reduce interprovincial trade barriers and strengthen international market access.
3. A workforce strategy tied directly to employer demand. Immigration, credential recognition, apprenticeship, post-secondary education and workforce development need to align more closely with the occupations and skills required by regional employers.
4. Faster technology adoption by SMEs. AI and automation should become part of Canada's productivity agenda, with practical programs that help small and medium-sized businesses implement these technologies rather than simply learn about them.
5. A competitive environment for investment. Southeast Alberta has significant opportunities in agriculture and agri-food, energy, defence and aerospace, manufacturing, logistics, data infrastructure and other emerging industries. Realizing those opportunities will require infrastructure and regulatory systems capable of supporting investment at the speed businesses require.

From local intelligence to stronger advocacy

There is another message in the 2026_ICC_WCF_Chamber_Pulse that is particularly relevant to the Chamber itself.

The report argues that chambers are uniquely positioned to turn individual conversations with businesses into economic intelligence. When those experiences are systematically gathered, they can identify emerging problems before they are fully reflected in official economic statistics and provide governments with a more grounded picture of business conditions. That is exactly why ongoing engagement with our members matters.

When local businesses engage with us and tell us about workforce shortages, transportation challenges, rising input costs, energy constraints, trade barriers or technology needs, those aren't isolated concerns. Collectively, they help identify where policy and infrastructure need to change.

The Chamber's role is to connect those local business realities to the larger economic picture and turn them into evidence-based advocacy.

The global economy may be increasingly uncertain, but the response does not need to be. For Southeast Alberta, resilience will come from strengthening the fundamentals that allow businesses to adapt, invest, innovate and reach new markets, ensuring our region is prepared not only to withstand economic change, but to capitalize on it.

The time is now and it's more important than ever do be part of the Chamber network, to help fuel our growth, invest in our collective future and to become part of the engine that drives our economy forward.

Source: International Chamber of Commerce World Chambers Federation, Chamber Pulse: Navigating uncertainty, embracing AI, 2026 edition.