Artificial intelligence (AI) will be at the heart of all innovation in the year to come. From recruiters to software providers through broadly focused IT multinationals, and cybersecurity professionals, this will be the common theme for 2026.
That includes impacting the way the different aspects of our various roles in work interact with one another.
“Multimodal will become the new natural,” says Mark Cockerill, senior vice-president of legal at ServiceNow. “Everything is shifting in terms of tools. AI is part of it, it’s not just on text any more but is where people think, speak, and create.
“In the enterprise, thinking of multi-modal, whatever you’re doing it’s going to be about the ability to switch between these different modes, regardless of the form of communication.”
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That shift is one that will require a great deal of organisation, according to Mark Kelly, the founder of AI Ireland. The steps taken in 2025 have made AI a normal part of working life for Irish businesses.
“In 2025, AI got context and connectors really well. You could give more context about business problems and more detail about the problems you wanted to solve,” he says.
“With the connectors, it was about linking to the likes of Google Drive, emails, or attachments. That was important for small businesses as it was AI you could more personalise.”
These aspects mean that companies will need to think with greater care about how they deploy AI in their businesses.
“In 2026, the focus will be on cyber and protecting yourself. Companies now have to show where they will protect their systems. AI will be front and centre in protecting companies,” says Kelly.
“The other big aspect is the AI brain. The workflows they generate will become better at measuring outcomes and helping you save time. We’ll see real practical benefits of these workflow improvements for businesses.”
These benefits appear to already be felt in recruiting. Research by IrishJobs found that 47 per cent of employers in Ireland are already using AI to help with recruitment, while 35 per cent are using it to help schedule job interviews.
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“With recruiters facing an average of 13.5 hours in manual administrative tasks per week, AI will become a key tool for more recruiters in 2026 to enhance efficiency, reduce the time spent on manual tasks, and ultimately accelerate the hiring process,” says Christopher Paye, country director of the StepStone Group with responsibility for IrishJobs.
Another area where AI is likely to be used more in the year to come is in the public sector, where the Government is expected to find greater use for it across departments.
“After a year of cautious pilots, 2026 will see the Irish public sector accelerate AI adoption, with healthcare at the forefront. The impending publication of the Government’s AI for Health strategy will set the stage for a new wave of innovation and investment,” says Mark Hopkins, general manager of Dell Technologies Ireland.
“Expect to see AI-driven diagnostic support, automated clinical documentation, and predictive resource planning move from pilot to production. These advances will help reduce waiting lists, improve patient outcomes, and free up clinicians’ time.”
All of these potential leaps forward will naturally mean governance comes further to the forefront, as regulators and businesses alike move to maintain control and transparency.
With the EU AI Act, NIS2, and Dora already requiring action, and the EU Cyber Resilience Act coming into force in 2027, there’s a lot on the menu for Irish companies.
“The EU regulations are emphasising cybersecurity more from 2026 and beyond. Stricter cybersecurity standards are being imposed on Irish businesses. It won’t just be for those directly regulated but also companies in the supply chain of regulated businesses,” says Brian Honan, chief executive of BH Consulting.
“The Cyber Resilience Act will require any digital product to have minimum standards of cybersecurity built into them.”
The increasing difference in regulatory approaches between the US and EU could also create an interesting dynamic in governance.
“The geopolitical aspect will make it interesting for companies, too. If they are in Europe, they may fall behind as they may not be able to deploy the most recent advances in AI,” says Kelly.
Still, he says the broader benefits of regulation will work to educate companies about avoiding big pitfalls.
“If you don’t teach people to use AI effectively, you’ll be open to fines. More than that, if you’re not managing data effectively, you could be in big trouble,” says Kelly.
“If you load a free AI tool with customer and employee data, that puts you in a world of breaches, so there are things we need to be mindful of.”
It’s not just at a regulatory level where governance will grow in importance, as internal company policies are likely to evolve as well.
“There’ll be a greater focus on governance, with a lower case rather than capital g. There’s a lot of focus on it like a drama built around control. When I think about governance with a small g, it’s about the practical aspects. How are you embedding what’s going on across your organisation?” says Cockerill.
“That governance and transparency gets the fundamental use and transparency of AI built in rather than bolted on with a heavy hand.”
All of which naturally means that security will be at the core of all innovation, good and bad, with AI in the year to come.
“A lot of the tools we use to protect our systems will use AI to hopefully better detect and enable better reactions to potential cyber breaches. This should also free up resources such as staff to tackle more strategic and important class issues, rather than the mundane cybersecurity jobs,” says Honan.
“Every tool for cyber that can be used for good can also be used for nefarious means. Criminals will use AI to improve their attacks across the board, making them more convincing to try and scam staff, as well as using the tools to automate their attacks.”
This is why businesses must be wary of potential blind spots in their security infrastructure as they deploy new tools.
“Businesses, in the rush to reap the benefits of all these technologies, shouldn’t overlook the responsibilities they have before deploying them,” says Honan.
“The biggest blind spot being underestimated at the moment is vulnerabilities in the supply chains. We need to make sure that we understand the cyber risks and data protection risks that come with them.”
The supply chain challenge goes beyond security. In the digital world, it can affect all operations.
“That’s also from an availability point of view. We’ve seen major outages in the last few months from major players that have taken down large parts of the internet that people rely on,” says Honan.
Ensuring visibility goes beyond keeping the lights on but also ensuring a company can maximise the benefits of any AI deployment.
“Without a clear strategy for where data lives and how intelligence is deployed, many organisations won’t be able to reap the competitive edge that AI can bring,” says Hopkins.
Kelly recommends taking a step back to get a good look at what it is you want AI to improve in your business.
“Look at the way your business workflows are set up and think about how you could reimagine them. It could be incremental or wholly reimagining the process.”
Whatever the strategy, Cockerill says that companies should take a holistic approach to any deployment in 2026.
“If AI is implemented in siloed applications, stop. Start blending across the entire workplace. That starts with your employees; the goal is to have AI help your employees and help them train for that.”
