Irish firms say AI adoption hit by talent shortages

Deloitte Ireland has published survey findings showing that Irish firms see talent shortages as the main constraint on AI adoption. The research also points to widespread job redesign as companies expand AI use.

The Irish findings are part of a global study of 3,235 business and IT leaders, from director to C-suite level, across 24 countries, including 50 executives in Ireland. Among Irish respondents, 84% identified skills gaps as the main barrier to traditional AI adoption, while 52% said the same for generative AI.

Businesses are responding through a mix of training and hiring. The survey found that 66% are investing in upskilling and reskilling programmes, 54% are hiring specialist AI talent, 48% are providing broader workforce education to improve AI fluency, and 58% are recruiting specialists to address data-related skills gaps.

Work redesign

The findings suggest AI is already reshaping roles across Irish organisations, with 90% of respondents reporting moderate to extensive job redesign as AI becomes embedded in the enterprise.

That shift has not yet led to expectations of large workforce reductions. Six in 10 respondents said they expected overall headcount to fall by less than 10% over the next 12 months.

The survey also found that 98% said AI had improved the speed of decision-making and execution, while 84% reported productivity gains.

Emmanuel Adeleke, Partner Technology & Transformation at Deloitte Ireland, said the results reflected a broader change in how organisations are approaching work. "What we're seeing across Ireland and globally is a decisive shift toward job redesign, new skills and new ways of working," he said.

He said that trend was shaping workforce planning and adoption strategies. "It shows us that organisations that invest in reskilling, workforce confidence and human-AI collaboration will be the ones that turn productivity gains into lasting competitive advantage. The results align with what we are seeing on the ground with clients. AI is reshaping jobs and the talent agenda has become the critical success factor in the AI era."

Data concerns

The research also highlighted concern in Ireland about reliance on foreign-owned AI technology. It found that 84% of Irish respondents said more than one-fifth of their AI technology stack is owned or controlled by foreign vendors, while nearly half said foreign ownership accounted for more than 40%.

Deloitte defined an AI tech stack as the technologies an organisation uses to build and run AI systems, including cloud infrastructure, data storage and employee AI tools. The findings come as data residency, sovereign AI and regulatory alignment move higher up the corporate agenda.

Four in five Irish respondents said they had at least moderate concern about dependence on foreign-owned AI technology. Nearly one-third were very or extremely concerned, while 68% said they were highly concerned about using proprietary or sensitive data in AI models.

Data privacy and security ranked as the leading AI risk for Irish executives, cited by 66% of respondents. Legal, intellectual property and regulatory compliance followed at 64%, while workforce impact was cited by 42%.

The global study found that 83% of organisations worldwide view sovereign AI as important to their strategic planning. For Irish companies, the issue carries added weight because the country is both a European data hosting hub and part of the EU regulatory system.

Beyond pilots

The report said companies globally are moving beyond trials and experimental use into broader deployment. Workforce access to approved AI tools has risen from fewer than 40% of employees to around 60%, according to the study.

Irish organisations appear to be following that pattern. The survey found that 92% expect AI investment to increase in the next fiscal year, while 68% said their organisation had upgraded its IT infrastructure.

The research also examined so-called agentic AI, which is designed to carry out tasks across systems with limited human intervention rather than simply generate content. Globally, 85% of organisations said they expected to tailor AI agents to specific business needs.

In Ireland, the technology remains at an early stage of rollout. Even so, four in 10 organisations said they expected agentic AI to become widespread or core to operations within two years.

The survey covered sectors including consumer, energy, industrials, financial services, life sciences, media, telecoms, technology, healthcare, government and public services. In Ireland, the central finding was that firms do not see AI adoption mainly as a technology issue. Instead, the greatest pressure is falling on skills, training and workforce adaptation.