Expleo research reveals one-in-five businesses in Ireland creating new jobs to handle AI

Expleo has announced new research which finds that 98% of business leaders in Ireland believe AI will have transformed their industry within the next three years. In response, one-in-five (19%) businesses have already created new positions and roles within their company to help them to deployand manage AI.

Expleo’s new report, ‘Integrating AI: Navigating the next wave of business transformation’, comprises insights from 100 key decision-makers at large- and mid-sized businesses in Ireland, and a further 703 from France, Germany and the UK, to provide a strategic overview of AI adoption and the challenges organisations face when deploying AI.

Adoption of AI gains momentum

Expleo’s research points to a clear shift in perspectives of AI, moving beyond a technology of promise to one of business necessity as enterprises start to demand more from their deployments. This is characterised by four key trends:

• Deploying AI an urgent priority: Whilst only 26% of businesses here have already deployed AI tools, a further 68% have them in development, under consideration, or plan to deploy them in the coming 12 months. The survey shows that while almost all business leaders in Ireland believe AI will transform their industry in the next three years, just 47% (versus an average of 56% in other markets surveyed) believe AI is currently having a transformative impact on their own organisation and its processes.
• AI will have a real financial impact: The increased urgency to deploy AI at scale is closely linked to a desire to see returns, particularly in areas that directly correlate to the bottom line. Better time-to-market, financial gains, and improved quality (all 94%) were cited as the top three measurements of ROI for AI deployments amongst businesses in Ireland.
• Scaling AI remains a challenge: Despite a clear impetus to begin realising ROI from AI deployments, obstacles remain. Chief amongst these for organisations in Ireland are technical integrations with existing tools (34%) and the imperative to control costs (33%). However, enterprises in Ireland are less likely to foresee barriers to AI adoption than other locations – more than a quarter (26%) do not see any major barriers to deploying the technology, compared to an average of 17% in other markets surveyed.
• Proven expertise is in demand: The complex integration landscape has put AI skills in high demand. 55% of businesses in Ireland are turning to outside expertise to support their deployments today. Equally, more than half (54%) are investing in AI training for employees.

Rajesh Krishnamurthy, CEO of Expleo, commented: “AI is a technology for today, not tomorrow. But the optimism that abounds around the technology often isn’t matched by the success of deployments. After years of promise, businesses are at the point where they are demanding to see a return on their investments. The challenge now is to convert promise into meaningful impact.

“Successfully moving AI deployments from proof of concept to production at scale is more than a technical exercise. Capable data scientists are a critical component to the success of AI deployments, but so is business knowledge. Building teams with techno-functional expertise and implementing a process to ensure adoption across the user base will ensure AI applications are both technically sound and generate value too.”

Phil Codd, Managing Director of Expleo Ireland, said: “Adapting at speed to the AI revolution will be crucial for businesses in Ireland, and around the world, in making the most of the opportunities it presents. It is encouraging to see organisations being proactive and planning for the future by creating new roles that can deploy and manage AI.

“With more than a quarter of businesses in Ireland already deploying the technology, what we now hope to see is a continued upward trend in AI adoption in Ireland. With our pedigree as a technology hub, this will put us in a prime position to become a global leader of AI excellence. Now is the time to seize that opportunity with both hands.”

Six steps to successfully integrating AI at scale

In addition to insights from European decision-makers, Expleo’s report offers businesses guidance based on the company’s real-world experience as to how they can avoid common pitfalls when adopting AI tools and successfully integrate them at scale:

1. Identify a real and viable business model
2. Evaluate technical and financial feasibility
3. Choose the right technology architecture
4. Develop robust and automated data pipelines
5. Train and validate models on representative data
6. Monitor and maintain data and models

Through a qualitative survey conducted by leading research firm IPSOS, respondents also provided detailed insights into how the technology is reshaping eight transformative industries: aerospace & defence, automotive, BFSI, energy & utilities, life sciences, manufacturing, retail, and transport.

The full report from Expleo, ‘Integrating AI: navigating the next wave of business transformation’ is available to download here.

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