Artificial intelligence is spreading across the Irish economy, but adoption is not happening evenly.
The latest Central Statistics Office data shows that 20.2% of Irish enterprises used AI in 2025, more than double the 8.1% recorded in 2023. Large businesses are considerably further ahead than smaller firms, with 57.7% of large enterprises using AI compared with 17.2% of small enterprises.
The industry picture is more complicated.
Technology and information services have historically been among Ireland’s strongest AI adopters, while professional services and finance are also highly exposed to AI. Manufacturing is becoming a specific focus of government adoption policy, while evidence from small businesses suggests retail and hospitality are moving more cautiously.
The important point is that AI adoption, AI exposure and AI experimentation are not the same thing.
Key Facts
| Indicator | Latest evidence |
|---|---|
| Irish enterprises using AI | 20.2% in 2025 |
| Irish enterprises using AI in 2023 | 8.1% |
| Large enterprises using AI | 57.7% |
| Medium enterprises using AI | 28.6% |
| Small enterprises using AI | 17.2% |
| AI data mining | 10.8% |
| Natural-language generation | 9.3% |
| AI for business administration | 7.8% |
| AI for production | 3.3% |
| AI for logistics | 1.5% |
Table of Contents
- Which Irish industries are adopting AI fastest?
- Why ICT is leading
- Professional services are becoming AI-intensive
- Finance has high AI exposure
- Manufacturing is moving towards wider adoption
- What is happening in retail and hospitality?
- Construction and tourism remain important test cases
- How Irish businesses are actually using AI
- The SME adoption gap
- What the latest data really tells us
- What comes next for AI adoption in Ireland
Which Irish industries are adopting AI fastest?
There is no single official 2026 Irish table that allows every industry to be placed into a definitive adoption ranking.
The latest CSO enterprise data provides the national adoption rate and a detailed breakdown by business size and AI use, while other Irish and European datasets provide sector-level evidence.
Taken together, the evidence identifies several clear patterns.
ICT and information services are at the forefront of AI adoption. Professional, scientific and technical services are also highly AI-intensive, while finance has exceptionally high exposure to AI-enabled tasks. Manufacturing is an increasingly important adoption target, while retail and hospitality show greater hesitation among small firms.
That distinction matters because a sector can have high exposure to AI without necessarily having the highest proportion of businesses deploying AI systems.
Why ICT is leading AI adoption in Ireland
Information and communication businesses are structurally well positioned to adopt AI.
They already work with software, data, cloud infrastructure, digital products and technical talent. AI can therefore be integrated into existing workflows more easily than in industries where businesses depend heavily on physical processes.
Historical Irish sector data supports this pattern.
An analysis based on 2023 enterprise data found that 29% of Irish information-and-communication enterprises used at least one AI technology, making ICT the leading sector in that dataset.
The sector also dominates Ireland’s AI-related employment story. PwC’s analysis of Irish job postings found that information and communication accounted for the largest share of AI-related job postings, rising from around 6.3% in 2018 to 13.9% in 2024.
This does not mean every technology company has moved to advanced AI.
It means the sector has the strongest combination of AI-related skills, digital infrastructure and practical use cases.
Professional services are another major AI adoption area
Professional, scientific and technical activities include businesses whose work is often heavily information-based.
That makes many of their tasks suitable for AI assistance.
Examples include:
- legal research
- accounting
- financial analysis
- consulting
- document processing
- market research
- data analysis
- technical research
- customer communication
European data reinforces the importance of this sector.
Eurostat reported that information and communication was the EU’s highest-adoption sector in 2025, at 62.52%, followed by professional, scientific and technical services at 40.43%.
Those figures are European rather than Irish, so they should not be presented as Irish adoption rates.
Irish evidence nevertheless points in the same direction. Earlier Irish sector-level analysis found AI use of 16% among professional, scientific and technical enterprises in 2023.
The combination of Irish and European evidence makes professional services one of the most important sectors to monitor as adoption develops.
Finance has unusually high AI exposure
Financial services occupy a different position.
The sector has a large amount of structured data and many processes involving analysis, risk assessment, compliance, forecasting and customer service.
The Central Bank of Ireland’s research found that finance and insurance was among the Irish sectors with the highest workforce exposure to AI, alongside ICT.
Importantly, AI exposure does not mean that every financial-services company is already using AI at scale.
Exposure measures the extent to which jobs contain tasks that AI may affect.
Adoption measures whether businesses are actually deploying AI technologies.
Those are related but different concepts.
Current small-business research also indicates strong enthusiasm for AI in finance and professional services. The 2026 Small Firms Association survey found the finance/professional-services category had the highest reported enthusiasm for AI among its respondents, at 88%.
Manufacturing is becoming an important AI adoption sector
Manufacturing presents a different AI opportunity.
AI can be used for:
- predictive maintenance
- quality control
- computer vision
- production optimisation
- demand forecasting
- supply-chain management
- process monitoring
- energy management
Ireland’s Government is now treating manufacturing as one of the sectors requiring targeted analysis of AI adoption.
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment launched a sectoral consultation covering manufacturing, tourism, construction and ICT services to examine current AI use, opportunities, barriers, skills requirements and potential supports.
That is significant because it shows the policy focus is shifting from broad encouragement of AI towards sector-specific adoption strategies.
Manufacturing is therefore likely to remain an important part of Ireland’s next phase of AI development.
What is happening in retail?
Retail has a very different adoption profile from ICT.
Retail businesses can use AI for:
- customer-service chatbots
- product recommendations
- demand forecasting
- inventory management
- marketing
- pricing analysis
- fraud detection
- content creation
But adoption requires more than simply purchasing an AI subscription.
Businesses need appropriate data, staff capability, systems integration and confidence that the technology will produce measurable value.
The 2026 Small Firms Association research found that 38% of surveyed retailers had not investigated using AI.
That does not mean 38% of all Irish retailers are not using AI.
It is a survey finding from small businesses and should be interpreted within that population.
It nevertheless provides evidence that retail has a significant adoption gap compared with sectors such as finance and professional services.
Hospitality is also moving more cautiously
Hospitality faces many of the same constraints.
Restaurants, hotels and other hospitality businesses can use AI for:
- customer enquiries
- booking management
- marketing
- translation
- staff scheduling
- demand forecasting
- review analysis
- menu content
- customer segmentation
Yet many hospitality businesses are smaller enterprises with limited technical resources.
The SFA’s 2026 survey found that 41% of hospitality operators surveyed had not investigated AI.
That makes hospitality one of the clearest examples of the difference between the rapid expansion of AI across the Irish technology economy and the slower adoption curve among some smaller operational businesses.
What about construction and tourism?
Construction and tourism are particularly important because the Irish Government has identified both sectors for specific AI-adoption research.
In July 2026, the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment said its sectoral consultation would examine manufacturing, tourism and construction, as well as ICT services.
The consultation is looking at:
- current AI adoption
- opportunities
- barriers
- skills
- capability
- investment
- government support
That means Ireland is moving towards a more granular AI strategy rather than assuming every industry will adopt AI in the same way.
For construction, potential use cases include project planning, estimating, document management, safety analysis and scheduling.
For tourism, applications can include customer service, personalisation, translation, marketing and demand forecasting.
How are Irish businesses actually using AI?
The CSO provides one of the clearest pictures of what businesses are doing.
In 2025, the most common AI technology was data mining, used by 10.8% of enterprises.
Natural-language generation followed at 9.3%.
AI used for automating workflows or assisting decision-making reached 6.2%.
By business function, administrative processes were the most common use at 7.8%.
Marketing and sales, ICT services and R&D/innovation each accounted for 5.4%.
Accounting and financial management reached 4.7%.
Production processes accounted for 3.3%, while logistics was 1.5%.
This suggests that much of Irish enterprise AI adoption is still focused on information, administration and knowledge work rather than fully autonomous physical systems.
The SME adoption gap remains significant
The biggest divide in Irish AI adoption is not necessarily between industries.
It is between business sizes.
The CSO found that:
- 57.7% of large enterprises used AI.
- 28.6% of medium enterprises used AI.
- 17.2% of small enterprises used AI.
That creates an important challenge for Ireland.
A country can have a large technology sector and major multinational AI investment while many smaller domestic businesses remain at an early stage of adoption.
The 2026 Small Firms Association survey found that 92% of small businesses surveyed acknowledged using generic AI tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.
But only 30% reported using customised AI models.
This suggests that the next phase may not simply be about convincing businesses to try AI.
It may be about helping them move from basic experimentation towards secure, customised and measurable implementation.
Why Ireland’s AI adoption figures can look contradictory
Different surveys can produce dramatically different numbers.
The reason is often the definition of “adoption”.
The CSO’s official enterprise survey found that 20.2% of enterprises used AI in 2025.
Other surveys of business leaders can produce much higher figures because they may count organisations that are experimenting, piloting, planning to deploy or using generative-AI tools informally.
Neither figure necessarily contradicts the other.
They may simply be measuring different things.
For example:
Basic usage
An employee uses an AI assistant for writing or research.
Pilot adoption
A company tests an AI tool with one department.
Operational adoption
AI becomes part of a regular business process.
Strategic adoption
AI is integrated into multiple business functions with governance, data controls and measurable objectives.
The most important question for Ireland is therefore increasingly:
How many businesses have moved beyond experimentation into sustained operational adoption?
Ireland’s AI adoption is rising quickly
The direction of travel is clear.
CSO data shows enterprise AI use increased from 8.1% in 2023 to 20.2% in 2025.
That is more than a doubling in two years.
The European comparison is also useful.
Eurostat data puts Ireland around the EU average for enterprise AI adoption in 2025, while countries such as Denmark and Finland recorded considerably higher adoption rates.
Ireland therefore has significant progress to build on, but it is not the European leader on the basic enterprise-adoption measure.
That distinction is important for understanding Ireland’s AI economy.
Ireland’s strength is not captured by one adoption percentage.
Its wider position includes multinational technology companies, AI investment, research, digital infrastructure, financial services, professional services, startups and a large concentration of technology-related employment.
What does this mean for Irish businesses?
For businesses, the sector differences suggest that AI adoption will increasingly become industry-specific.
A software company may focus on coding assistants and product development.
A bank may focus on fraud detection, compliance and customer service.
A manufacturer may focus on quality control and predictive maintenance.
A retailer may focus on forecasting and personalisation.
A hotel may focus on customer service and demand forecasting.
A professional-services firm may focus on research, document analysis and administration.
There is no single Irish AI adoption model.
The technology is being adapted to different economic activities.
What happens next for AI adoption in Ireland?
Ireland’s next stage is likely to be less about whether businesses have heard of AI and more about whether they can integrate it effectively.
The Government’s sectoral AI work, Enterprise Ireland programmes and the expansion of European Digital Innovation Hub support all point towards a stronger emphasis on implementation.
Enterprise Ireland’s ENTIRE 2.0 programme, launched in September 2026, expands support for Irish SMEs and public-sector organisations in areas including AI, data analytics, cybersecurity, IoT, high-performance computing and ICT services.
The evidence therefore points towards a two-stage Irish AI economy.
First came experimentation.
Now comes integration.
The sectors best positioned to benefit will not necessarily be those that use the most AI tools.
They will be the sectors where businesses can connect AI to valuable data, existing workflows, skilled workers and measurable business outcomes.
The bottom line
AI adoption in Ireland is growing rapidly, but the transition is uneven.
ICT remains the clearest leader in documented sectoral AI adoption. Professional and scientific services are also highly AI-intensive, while finance has particularly high exposure to AI-enabled work. Manufacturing is becoming a major policy focus, while retail and hospitality show greater hesitation among small businesses.
The latest official CSO figures show that one in five Irish enterprises used AI in 2025.
The next question is no longer simply how many businesses are using AI.
It is which businesses are turning AI from an experiment into a core part of how they operate.
Takeaways
Key facts
- 20.2% of Irish enterprises used AI in 2025.
- AI adoption increased from 8.1% in 2023.
- Large-enterprise adoption was 57.7%.
- Small-enterprise adoption was 17.2%.
- ICT has the strongest documented Irish sector-level adoption evidence.
- Professional/scientific/technical activities are another major AI-intensive category.
- Finance has very high AI exposure.
- Manufacturing, tourism and construction are now specific targets of Irish sectoral AI policy.
- Retail and hospitality show greater hesitation among surveyed small businesses.
- The CSO data indicates administration, data mining and natural-language generation are major current AI applications.
Main reader takeaway
Ireland’s AI story is not simply “technology companies are adopting AI”. AI is spreading into professional services, finance, manufacturing, retail, hospitality and other sectors, but the pace and depth of adoption vary substantially.
FAQ
1. Which industries are adopting AI fastest in Ireland?
ICT and information-and-communication activities have the strongest documented sector-level adoption evidence. Professional/scientific/technical services are also highly AI-intensive, while finance has very high workforce exposure to AI.
2. What is the AI adoption rate in Ireland?
The CSO reported that 20.2% of Irish enterprises used AI in 2025.
3. Which Irish businesses use AI the most?
Large enterprises have the highest adoption rate. In 2025, 57.7% of large enterprises used AI compared with 28.6% of medium and 17.2% of small enterprises.
4. Is AI adoption increasing in Ireland?
Yes. CSO enterprise AI adoption increased from 8.1% in 2023 to 20.2% in 2025.
5. How is AI being used by Irish businesses?
Common applications include data mining, natural-language generation, business administration, workflow automation, marketing and sales, accounting, production and logistics.
6. Is finance using AI in Ireland?
Finance is one of the Irish sectors with particularly high workforce exposure to AI. Current small-business research also reports strong enthusiasm for AI among finance and professional-services businesses.
7. Are Irish manufacturers adopting AI?
AI adoption in manufacturing is becoming an explicit policy focus. The Irish Government is examining manufacturing alongside tourism, construction and ICT services as part of its sectoral AI-adoption strategy.
8. Are Irish retailers using AI?
Some are, but adoption is more uneven. The 2026 SFA survey found that 38% of surveyed retailers had not investigated using AI.
9. Are Irish hospitality businesses using AI?
Adoption is also uneven in hospitality. The SFA reported that 41% of surveyed hospitality operators had not investigated using AI.
10. Does AI exposure mean a sector has adopted AI?
No. AI exposure measures how susceptible jobs or tasks are to AI assistance or automation. Adoption measures whether organisations are actually deploying AI technology.
