Nearly 50 per cent of employees in Ireland say they have been expected to use new technology “which they haven’t been trained on”.
A survey by consulting group Accenture has suggested that although artificial intelligence (AI) was rapidly becoming a part of everyday work, most businesses here were still at an early stage of adoption.
It also found that employees were moving faster in adopting AI than their organisations were.
“Without targeted investment in skills, workflow redesign and stronger core systems, Ireland could struggle to fully realise the productivity and growth benefits of AI,” it said.
RM Block
According to the survey, 47 per cent of employees reported being expected to use new technology without adequate training. Almost two in five (39 per cent) here felt unprepared to work alongside AI tools or systems in their field.
More than three-fifths (64 per cent) said they expected to reskill as AI changed how they work.
Of those workers not regularly using generative AI tools – which can create reports, images and so on – to support their work, 35 per cent said it was because they did not understand AI tools well enough to feel confident using them.
A total of 44 per cent of Irish business leaders said they were actively investing in reskilling and redeployment pathways (compared with 30 per cent in the UK).
However, the report suggested many businesses here still lacked “the basics needed to scale confidently”, with 25 per cent of employers reporting that employees did not have clear guidance on when and how to use AI tools or agents.
Similarly, just 35 per cent of Irish business leaders have conducted a formal AI skills audit of their enterprises.
The Accenture survey was based on interviews with 2,085 employees and 510 business executives in Ireland and the United Kingdom in February and March.
It found that AI use at work was now becoming “mainstream” with 22 per cent of employees surveyed in Ireland saying they used it daily, up from 8 per cent in 2024.
But shadow AI – the use of AI tools without the approval or monitoring of the company’s IT team – persists, with only 34 per cent of employees saying they used AI tools provided by their employer.
Almost a third (30 per cent) reported sourcing such tools independently.
“Employees appear to be moving faster than their organisations, creating a growing gap between day‑to‑day use and meaningful change in how work is done,” said Denis Hannigan, AI and data lead at Accenture in Ireland.
“To move from experimentation to impact, AI needs to be built into everyday operations, supported by clear guidance for employees, stronger core technology systems and sustained investment in reskilling. That’s where the real value lies.”
