AI Ireland research

Evidence for better AI decisions.

Explore how surveyed AI leaders are using AI, what is holding adoption back and which questions leadership teams should ask next.

Read the published report Explore the findings

Published report

AI Ireland 2026: The State of AI in Irish Business

The report draws on a survey of senior AI leaders across Irish enterprises, SMEs and public bodies. The findings describe this respondent group and should not be read as estimates for every Irish business.

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Findings from the published survey

Four signals for AI leaders

73.9%

in early production or broad adoption

The report combines early production (40.8%) and broad adoption (33.1%).

Source: report page 6

24.6%

identify integration as their biggest blocker

Connecting AI with existing systems is the largest category shown in the blocker chart.

Source: report page 8

56.2%

favour controlled use with company data

Controlled use is separate from the report’s sandbox-only and production-ready responses.

Source: report page 10

19.2%

prioritise engineer assistance

The executive dashboard identifies engineer assistance as an AI goal.

Source: report page 3

Evidence boundary: these figures describe the published survey respondents. The report’s company-size chart and prose contain a small inconsistency, so this page does not make a claim about the smallest company band.

Use the evidence

Questions for your next leadership discussion

These prompts apply the report’s themes. They are not additional survey findings.

Where is AI creating value?

Compare the report’s examples with a problem your organisation needs to solve.

What will move a pilot into use?

Identify the integration, process and ownership work needed to make adoption repeatable.

Which barrier needs leadership attention?

Name the skills, security, governance or integration issue that matters most and give it an owner.

How will you use private data safely?

Agree where experimentation is allowed, which controls apply and what evidence supports wider use.

Related practitioner conversations

Explore the themes in practice

These conversations provide practical context and are separate from the survey evidence.

Put the evidence to work

Give AI better context for your organisation.

Use the free AI Ireland Context Brief to define your goals, constraints, data boundaries and working preferences before asking AI to help.

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Hear from practitioners

Search AI Ireland podcast conversations by topic, guest and organisation.

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Use the 5Ps with your team

Connect the evidence to People, Process, Platforms, Proprietary Data, and Products & Services.

Explore executive workshops