Artificial intelligence is changing how companies innovate, how they compete, where they invest and how people work. The question for business leaders is whether they can harness it quickly, responsibly and at scale to safeguard their competitiveness.
Global corporate investment in AI more than doubled in 2025 and organisational adoption reached 88 per cent. Generative AI is now being used in at least one business function by 70 per cent of organisations.
These numbers mark the emergence of a new layer of economic infrastructure – one capable of reshaping productivity, research, customer experience, supply chains and decision-making across every sector.
This point in our AI-driven era represents a defining opportunity for Ireland. Our clear ambition must be to harness AI’s transformative potential so as to strengthen competitiveness and productivity, improve enterprise performance and public services, and support education and learning to equip our people for the jobs of the future.
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To harness the real potential of the AI opportunity, we must invest in people at every stage of their careers. Ireland ranks fourth globally for both AI engineering talent concentration and net AI talent migration, according to our latest Labour Market Pulse report – a strong indication that Ireland has both the specialist skills base and international appeal needed to develop, deploy and scale AI-intensive operations.
The same report sees Ireland rank third globally and first in Europe for AI adoption.
It’s true that AI will automate some tasks, augment many more and create roles we cannot yet fully define. The correct response to this is not complacency or fear but preparation: AI literacy for every worker, advanced technical skills for specialists, and stronger collaboration between industry, education and government. Human creativity, judgment and leadership will remain fundamental and critical to success.
As Taoiseach Micheál Martin emphasised during his opening address at the International AI Summit hosted by the Irish Government in Dublin last week, Ireland is determined to capture the AI dividend while mitigating the risks. That means pursuing a distinctly European approach – responsible, safe, secure and human-centric – in which innovation is guided by our values and the benefits of AI remain firmly anchored in human agency.
The summit examined AI’s impact on competitiveness, innovation and economic growth at a time when the technology is now moving beyond information generation into the physical world: powering machines; supporting autonomous decision-making; becoming embedded in products, factories, healthcare systems, transport networks and critical infrastructure.
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AI is also changing the geography of global business. Investment decisions increasingly depend on access to advanced skills, trusted data environments, research partnerships, secure digital infrastructure, clean energy and a clear regulatory framework. Companies are asking where they can develop, deploy and govern AI across international markets – not merely where they can locate a single function.
This creates economic opportunity but also intensified competition. Capital and talent will flow to locations that can bring innovation, regulation and execution together. Support for the regulation of AI in a way that fosters and aids innovation, and where Europe’s competitiveness is enhanced not stymied, will be critical.
Initiatives such as the Trusted Tech Alliance – a global industry coalition between transatlantic technology companies committed to strengthening innovation security – underscores the need for commitment and focus on this.
At the same time, the concentration of advanced compute, chips and expertise in a small number of markets creates new dependencies. Resilience, cybersecurity and trusted international partnerships are therefore becoming central to corporate strategy. Ireland’s track record across all three elements is proven and exemplary.
We enter this new era from a position of industrial strength. We are home to a deeply embedded base of leading global companies, a vibrant ecosystem of indigenous industry, a strong basis in research and education, and a workforce with expertise across technology, life sciences, financial services, engineering and advanced manufacturing.
Furthermore, we prioritise an unwavering commitment to trustworthy innovation, reflective of the views held by our fellow Europeans.
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Our role in IDA Ireland is not only to attract the next generation of AI investment. It is to work with the 1,800 multinational companies already operating here – employing more than 300,000 people – to transfer, renew and expand their mandates. That means connecting firms with talent, research partners and funding, supporting AI adoption across all sectors, and ensuring that opportunity and benefits are felt across our entire country.
Over the past 12 months, IDA Ireland has supported significant client investment in AI and AI-adjacent initiatives.
OpenAI announced 250 new roles in its Irish operation in July, followed last week by a further 200 jobs to support a new Applied AI Lab. Canadian company OpenText unveiled a €105 million investment, creating 400 jobs across Cork and Galway focused primarily on agentic AI, sovereign cloud and European cyber resilience.
Anthropic announced plans in March to create 200 jobs across engineering, operations, sales and compliance. Earlier this month two leading financial service companies, Stripe and MasterCard, announced big expansions of Irish operations reflecting AI-related growth.
Stripe is to create 200 new roles at its Dublin headquarters while Mastercard’s European Tech Hub in Dublin, where teams are driving innovation in AI, agentic commerce, cybersecurity and next-generation payments continues to grow.
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Reflecting our ability to remain agile and responsive as AI continues to evolve, several initiatives have been announced to ensure Ireland is well positioned to harness the opportunity.
Last week, the Government published its Intelligence:Applied programme, which includes a €150 million AI Future Skills programme to support skills and lifelong learning, a €21 million AI Start Up Accelerator Programme, a national Regulatory Sandbox Programme to be established by the AI Office of Ireland, and the selection of 10 AI Sectorial Champions to advocate for transformation across various sectors.
We must be equally clearsighted about infrastructure. AI is energy intensive. Its sustainable growth depends on resilient grids, renewable energy, efficient data centres, secure connectivity and continued investment in cloud and semiconductor capacity. The countries that align digital ambition with energy and infrastructure delivery will be best placed to capture the next wave of investment.
Ireland is well positioned to capitalise on this. We must ensure we bring together our strengths in these areas to succeed.
Success will also depend on how we prepare for and scale these new and emerging technologies. Ensuring that we are not only adopters of these technologies, but leaders in shaping and scaling them for the future, will help us realise our true growth potential in AI.
Ireland has adapted effectively through every significant wave of global change. We have been to the fore of technological advancements throughout the decades and we are positioned to do so again, to help shape what comes next and to drive the global AI opportunity into our own economic advantage.
Michael Lohan is IDA Ireland chief executive
