Artificial intelligence adoption is accelerating across Ireland, but the evidence does not support a simple league table showing one industry definitively using AI faster than every other sector.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) found that 20.2% of Irish enterprises used AI technologies in 2025, up from 8.1% in 2023. Adoption was substantially higher among large companies than smaller firms.
Other measures point towards particularly strong AI exposure in information and communication, finance and insurance, real estate, and professional, scientific and technical activities. Meanwhile, the Irish Government is developing targeted sectoral policies for manufacturing, tourism, construction and ICT services.
The key point is that AI adoption, AI exposure and AI-related hiring measure different things.
Taken together, however, they show that Ireland’s AI economy is expanding beyond specialist technology companies and into a wider range of industries.
Key Facts
| Indicator | Latest evidence |
|---|---|
| Irish enterprises using AI | 20.2% in 2025 |
| Enterprise AI use in 2023 | 8.1% |
| Large enterprises using AI | 57.7% |
| Medium enterprises using AI | 28.6% |
| Small enterprises using AI | 17.2% |
| Most common AI technology | Data mining, 10.8% |
| Natural-language generation | 9.3% |
| AI-related Irish job postings | 3.7% in 2025 |
| AI-related job-posting share in 2024 | About 2.3% |
| Government sectoral focus | Manufacturing, tourism, construction and ICT services |
Sources: CSO, PwC and Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment.
Table of Contents
- How widespread is AI adoption in Ireland?
- Which Irish industries are leading?
- Why ICT is central to Ireland’s AI economy
- What does the Central Bank say about sector exposure?
- Is finance one of Ireland’s major AI sectors?
- What about professional services?
- Is manufacturing adopting AI?
- Is tourism becoming an AI sector?
- What is happening in construction?
- What are Irish businesses using AI for?
- What does AI adoption mean for workers?
- Why company size matters
- What is the Irish Government doing?
- What does the EU dimension mean?
- Which sectors should businesses watch?
- What happens next?
How Widespread Is AI Adoption in Ireland?
AI use among Irish enterprises has increased significantly.
According to the CSO, 20.2% of enterprises reported using AI in 2025, compared with 8.1% in 2023.
That means the proportion of enterprises reporting AI use more than doubled over the two-year period.
However, adoption is uneven by company size.
In 2025:
- 57.7% of large enterprises used AI;
- 28.6% of medium-sized enterprises used AI;
- 17.2% of small enterprises used AI.
This size gap is important because the headline national adoption rate does not mean that AI is equally established across Irish businesses.
Larger organisations are generally better positioned to fund technology projects, access specialist expertise, integrate data and establish governance processes.
For smaller businesses, the barriers can be different.
The Irish Government has therefore been developing programmes aimed at helping enterprises begin and scale AI adoption. Its national Digital and AI Strategy identifies widespread enterprise adoption as an important economic objective.
Which Irish Industries Are Leading AI Adoption?
There is no single official 2026 Irish dataset that ranks every industry by enterprise AI adoption.
That limitation is important.
Instead, several indicators can be combined to identify where AI is already most significant.
The strongest evidence points towards:
- information and communication;
- finance and insurance;
- real estate;
- professional, scientific and technical activities.
These sectors have particularly high occupational exposure to AI according to Central Bank analysis based on Irish Labour Force Survey data.
AI-related job demand also points strongly towards information and communication. PwC’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer found that the share of Irish job postings requiring AI-related skills reached 3.7% in 2025, compared with approximately 2.3% in 2024.
At the same time, Government policy is increasingly focused on expanding adoption into sectors where implementation can be more complicated.
In July 2026, the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment launched a targeted consultation covering manufacturing, tourism, construction and ICT services.
The result is a more nuanced picture:
ICT and other knowledge-intensive sectors show strong existing AI exposure and demand, while manufacturing, tourism and construction are increasingly becoming targets for wider sectoral adoption.
Why Is Information and Communication So Important?
Information and communication is structurally well suited to AI.
Many activities in the sector are already digital and depend heavily on:
- software;
- data;
- information management;
- coding;
- cybersecurity;
- digital communications;
- analytics;
- research.
That reduces some of the physical integration barriers that exist in industries such as construction and manufacturing.
The sector is also strongly represented in Irish AI-related employment demand.
PwC found that AI hiring in Ireland almost doubled between 2024 and 2025, with AI-related skills appearing in 3.7% of job postings in 2025.
This does not mean that every technology company has deeply integrated AI into its operations.
It does mean that the labour market is providing evidence of growing demand for AI capability.
Typical applications can include:
- software development assistance;
- data analysis;
- cybersecurity;
- automated customer support;
- document processing;
- research;
- language generation;
- predictive analytics.
Ireland’s broader technology ecosystem also makes ICT strategically significant to the country’s AI ambitions.
The Government describes Ireland as seeking to remain a global hub for applied AI innovation while expanding domestic enterprise adoption.
What Does the Central Bank Say About AI Exposure?
The Central Bank of Ireland provides another useful perspective.
Its analysis of Irish labour-market data found particularly high AI exposure in:
- information and communication;
- finance and insurance;
- real estate;
- professional, scientific and technical activities.
More than 90% of workers in those sectors were estimated to be exposed to AI under the Central Bank’s methodology.
But exposure is not equivalent to adoption.
An occupation can be highly exposed to AI because many of its tasks could potentially be affected by AI technology, even if the employer has not deployed AI.
That distinction prevents a common analytical mistake.
A sector with high AI exposure is not necessarily the sector with the highest percentage of businesses actively using AI.
The Central Bank’s research therefore works best as a second evidence layer alongside CSO enterprise adoption data.
Is Finance One of Ireland’s Major AI Sectors?
Finance and insurance have substantial AI exposure.
Financial businesses work with large volumes of:
- financial data;
- customer information;
- transactions;
- risk indicators;
- compliance documentation;
- market information.
These characteristics create potential AI applications in:
- fraud detection;
- risk assessment;
- financial analysis;
- customer service;
- document processing;
- compliance;
- forecasting;
- operational automation.
The Central Bank identifies finance and insurance among the sectors with particularly high AI exposure in Ireland.
However, financial AI adoption also operates within a highly regulated environment.
For financial institutions, deployment therefore involves more than identifying whether an AI system can improve productivity.
Businesses also need to consider governance, data protection, operational resilience and the requirements arising from the EU’s regulatory framework.
That makes financial services an important example of the difference between AI capability and AI deployment at scale.
What About Professional, Scientific and Technical Services?
Professional, scientific and technical activities are another highly exposed part of the Irish economy.
The work performed across these industries often involves:
- research;
- analysis;
- documentation;
- specialist knowledge;
- engineering;
- consulting;
- legal work;
- accounting;
- design.
Many of these activities contain tasks that can be supported by generative AI, analytical systems or automation.
The Central Bank’s sector analysis places professional, scientific and technical activities among the areas with substantial AI exposure.
The important distinction is that exposure does not tell us how many companies have implemented AI.
It tells us that the underlying tasks and occupations have significant potential to be affected by AI.
Is Manufacturing Adopting AI in Ireland?
Manufacturing represents a different type of AI opportunity.
Potential applications include:
- predictive maintenance;
- computer vision;
- quality control;
- production optimisation;
- supply-chain forecasting;
- process monitoring;
- energy management.
But manufacturing can require more extensive integration than a software business adopting an AI assistant.
Factories may need:
- sensors;
- operational data;
- connected machinery;
- system integration;
- cybersecurity;
- specialist skills.
The Irish Government has therefore made manufacturing one of the sectors covered by its 2026 targeted consultation on enterprise AI adoption.
The consultation is examining current AI use, opportunities, barriers, skills requirements and the support businesses need to adopt and scale AI.
That makes manufacturing a key sector to watch as Ireland moves from broad AI awareness towards more operational adoption.
Is Tourism Becoming an AI Sector?
Tourism is increasingly part of Ireland’s AI adoption agenda.
Fáilte Ireland’s 2026–2029 corporate strategy includes expanding digital and AI adoption programmes across the tourism sector.
The strategy links digital and AI adoption with productivity, efficiency, discoverability, bookability and commercial performance.
Potential applications include:
- customer communications;
- travel recommendations;
- marketing;
- booking support;
- demand forecasting;
- content production;
- operational administration;
- visitor personalisation.
Fáilte Ireland has also established a specific target within its strategy framework: 90% digital adoption and 25% AI adoption by 2030 among its relevant tourism-business client base.
That does not mean 25% of every Irish tourism business currently uses AI.
It is a strategic target for the tourism sector.
The distinction matters.
What Is Happening in Construction?
Construction has substantial potential AI applications, but adoption can face different practical barriers.
Potential uses include:
- project planning;
- cost estimation;
- scheduling;
- design;
- document management;
- site monitoring;
- risk analysis;
- predictive maintenance.
Unlike many office-based applications, construction AI may need to interact with physical environments, equipment, materials and site-specific conditions.
The Government therefore included construction in its 2026 sectoral AI consultation.
This demonstrates an important change in Irish policy.
The question is no longer simply whether AI has potential.
It is increasingly:
What prevents individual industries from turning that potential into practical deployment?
What Are Irish Businesses Using AI For?
The CSO provides some of the clearest evidence on actual enterprise use.
In 2025, the most common AI technology reported by Irish enterprises was data mining at 10.8%.
Natural-language generation followed at 9.3%, while AI for automating workflows or assisting decision-making was reported by 6.2%.
By business purpose, the leading uses included:
| Business purpose | Enterprises using AI |
|---|---|
| Business administrative processes | 7.8% |
| Marketing or sales | 5.4% |
| ICT services | 5.4% |
| R&D or innovation | 5.4% |
| Accounting or financial management | 4.7% |
| Production processes | 3.3% |
| Logistics | 1.5% |
Source: CSO, Information Society Statistics – Enterprises 2025.
This provides an important insight.
A substantial part of current enterprise AI adoption appears focused on improving existing business processes, rather than completely rebuilding companies around AI.
Is AI Adoption Deep or Mostly Experimental?
The national adoption rate does not answer that question by itself.
A company can use AI to draft documents or support marketing while leaving its core systems unchanged.
Another organisation may integrate AI into:
- customer service;
- forecasting;
- finance;
- production;
- supply chains;
- decision support.
Both organisations could be counted as AI users, but their level of transformation would be very different.
Research from Trinity College Dublin also points towards a maturing adoption picture, with its 2026 research reporting organisations at different stages from active implementation to pilot programmes.
The broader lesson is that adoption percentage and AI maturity should not be treated as the same metric.
What Does AI Adoption Mean for Irish Workers?
AI is also changing the skills employers seek.
PwC’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer found that AI-related skills appeared in 3.7% of Irish job postings in 2025, compared with approximately 2.3% in 2024. AI hiring in Ireland almost doubled over that period.
The report also found that AI-related skills are associated with changing requirements across the labour market.
The implications extend beyond software engineering.
Workers may increasingly need to understand:
- how to use AI tools;
- how to verify AI-generated information;
- how to protect confidential data;
- how to evaluate AI outputs;
- how to integrate AI into existing workflows;
- how to combine AI tools with professional judgement.
The Central Bank’s 2026 labour-market research similarly finds uneven exposure across occupations. ICT, science, engineering, legal and managerial occupations sit among the high-exposure, high-complementarity groups, while clerical and customer-service roles feature among high-exposure, lower-complementarity occupations under its methodology.
That means the impact of AI on employment is unlikely to be uniform across the Irish economy.
Why Company Size Matters
The CSO data reveals one of the clearest divides in Ireland’s AI economy.
| Enterprise size | AI use in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Large | 57.7% |
| Medium | 28.6% |
| Small | 17.2% |
The difference suggests that access to capital, technical expertise, data and implementation capability can influence adoption.
It also explains why national AI policy increasingly focuses on helping smaller businesses move beyond experimentation.
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment’s “AI – Good for Business” initiative was launched in 2026 to help Irish businesses access information, practical examples, skills and support for AI adoption.
What Is the Irish Government Doing?
Ireland’s approach is becoming increasingly sector-specific.
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment’s 2026 consultation covers:
- Manufacturing
- Tourism
- Construction
- ICT services
The study is examining current adoption, opportunities, barriers, skills and support requirements.
The Government’s wider Digital and AI Strategy also aims to promote responsible AI adoption across enterprise and position Ireland as a hub for applied AI innovation.
This suggests a shift from a broad national AI strategy towards practical sectoral implementation.
What Does the EU Dimension Mean for Irish Businesses?
Ireland’s AI adoption story cannot be separated from the European regulatory environment.
The EU AI Act is being implemented progressively across Member States, and Ireland is establishing its domestic regulatory architecture through the AI Office of Ireland and sectoral authorities.
The Government’s 2026 legislation establishes the AI Office of Ireland as Ireland’s central coordinating authority for implementation of the EU AI Act.
This matters because companies adopting AI need to consider not only productivity and commercial value but also:
- AI literacy;
- risk classification;
- data governance;
- transparency;
- sector-specific regulation;
- compliance;
- accountability.
EU regulation therefore becomes part of the operating environment for Irish businesses adopting AI.
For a European economy with a large technology and multinational presence, that creates a dual challenge:
Ireland needs businesses to adopt AI while ensuring adoption is compatible with Europe’s regulatory framework.
Which Irish Sectors Should Businesses Watch?
The evidence points towards several distinct groups rather than a single winner.
Information and communication
Strong AI-related employment demand and structural suitability for digital AI applications.
Finance and insurance
High AI exposure combined with data-intensive business processes and significant regulatory requirements.
Real estate
High occupational exposure according to Central Bank analysis, although exposure should not be confused with enterprise adoption.
Professional, scientific and technical services
High exposure because of the analytical, research and knowledge-intensive nature of many roles.
Manufacturing
A major Government policy focus with applications in production, quality, maintenance and supply chains.
Tourism
Increasingly supported through dedicated digital and AI programmes and a 2030 AI-adoption target within Fáilte Ireland’s strategy.
Construction
Potentially significant AI applications, but with different implementation challenges because many activities involve physical environments.
So, Which Industry Is Using AI Fastest?
There is not enough evidence to responsibly declare one Irish industry the definitive fastest adopter of AI in 2026.
The evidence supports a more precise conclusion.
Information and communication stands out most clearly in AI-related job demand and technological suitability, while ICT, finance and insurance, real estate, and professional services show high occupational exposure. Manufacturing, tourism and construction are increasingly important areas of Government-supported sectoral adoption.
That is different from saying that every company in those industries is already using AI.
The available evidence measures different dimensions of the transition.
What Happens Next?
Ireland’s AI story is moving from experimentation towards broader implementation.
Enterprise AI use increased from 8.1% in 2023 to 20.2% in 2025, according to the CSO.
The next stage will depend on whether businesses can move from isolated tools and pilots into deeper operational integration.
For digitally intensive sectors, that transition may already be well underway.
For manufacturing, tourism and construction, the challenge is increasingly about overcoming practical adoption barriers.
And For financial and professional services, governance and regulatory requirements will remain central.
And for SMEs, access to skills, funding, data and implementation expertise may determine how quickly adoption spreads.
Ireland is also approaching an important European moment. The country is holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union during the second half of 2026 and plans to host an International AI Summit in Dublin in October focused on applied AI, productivity and European competitiveness.
The question for Irish businesses is therefore becoming less about whether AI exists.
It is increasingly:
Where can AI create measurable value, what skills and infrastructure are needed, and what regulatory safeguards must accompany deployment?
For Ireland, the answer will differ substantially by sector.
Key Takeaways
- 20.2% of Irish enterprises used AI in 2025.
- Enterprise AI use increased from 8.1% in 2023.
- Large businesses had much higher adoption than small businesses.
- Information and communication has strong evidence of AI-related employment demand.
- ICT, finance and insurance, real estate, and professional services have particularly high AI exposure.
- AI exposure does not necessarily mean that companies have deployed AI.
- Data mining was the most common AI technology reported by Irish enterprises.
- Business administration was the most common reported AI business purpose.
- Manufacturing, tourism, construction and ICT services are central to Ireland’s 2026 sectoral AI-adoption work.
- Fáilte Ireland is targeting 25% AI adoption by 2030 within its relevant tourism-business framework.
- AI-related skills appeared in 3.7% of Irish job postings in 2025.
- Ireland’s next AI challenge is moving from broad adoption towards deeper, measurable and responsibly governed implementation.
Conclusion
Ireland’s AI economy is expanding, but the evidence is more complicated than a simple ranking of industries.
The clearest existing concentration is in digitally intensive and knowledge-heavy activities, particularly information and communication, finance, real estate and professional services. At the same time, Government policy is deliberately extending attention towards manufacturing, tourism and construction.
The most useful way to understand AI adoption in Ireland is therefore not to ask only which industry is first.
It is to ask which sectors are adopting AI, which are most exposed, where employers are demanding AI skills, and where policy is now trying to accelerate deployment.
That broader view shows an Irish economy moving from AI experimentation towards sector-specific adoption.
The article’s most important factual anchors are:
- 20.2% of Irish enterprises used AI in 2025.
- This was 8.1% in 2023.
- Large enterprises: 57.7%.
- Medium enterprises: 28.6%.
- Small enterprises: 17.2%.
- Data mining: 10.8%.
- Natural-language generation: 9.3%.
- Business administration: 7.8%.
- AI-related skills appeared in 3.7% of Irish job postings in 2025.
- Government’s 2026 sectoral consultation covers manufacturing, tourism, construction and ICT services.
FAQ
1. What percentage of Irish businesses use AI?
The CSO reported that 20.2% of Irish enterprises used AI technologies in 2025, compared with 8.1% in 2023.
2. Which industry is using AI fastest in Ireland?
There is no official 2026 dataset that provides a definitive ranking of every Irish industry by enterprise AI adoption. Information and communication has particularly strong evidence of AI-related employment demand, while several knowledge-intensive sectors have high AI exposure.
3. Which Irish sectors have the highest AI exposure?
Central Bank analysis identifies ICT, finance and insurance, real estate, and professional, scientific and technical activities among the sectors with particularly high AI exposure.
4. Are large Irish companies more likely to use AI?
Yes. In 2025, 57.7% of large enterprises reported using AI, compared with 28.6% of medium-sized and 17.2% of small enterprises.
5. What are Irish companies using AI for?
The CSO reports uses including business administration, marketing and sales, ICT services, R&D, accounting and financial management, production and logistics.
6. Is AI adoption increasing in Ireland?
Yes. The CSO reported an increase from 8.1% of enterprises in 2023 to 20.2% in 2025.
7. Is manufacturing adopting AI in Ireland?
Manufacturing is one of four sectors included in the Government’s 2026 targeted consultation on enterprise AI adoption.
8. Is tourism adopting AI in Ireland?
Yes. Fáilte Ireland’s 2026–2029 corporate strategy includes expanding digital and AI adoption programmes and sets a 25% AI-adoption target by 2030 within its relevant industry performance framework.
9. Is AI creating more demand for skills in Ireland?
AI-related skills appeared in 3.7% of Irish job postings in 2025, up from approximately 2.3% in 2024, according to PwC’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer.
10. Does high AI exposure mean an industry has the highest AI adoption?
No. Exposure and adoption are different measurements. Exposure estimates how strongly jobs or tasks may be affected by AI, whereas enterprise adoption measures whether businesses report actually using AI.
11. What sectors is the Irish Government targeting for AI adoption?
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment’s 2026 targeted consultation covers manufacturing, tourism, construction and ICT services.
12. What is the main AI challenge for Irish businesses?
The evidence points beyond simple access to AI tools. Businesses increasingly need the skills, data, governance, infrastructure and regulatory capability required to integrate AI into real operations.
