Aindrias Moynihan: How Ireland Will Help SMEs Adopt AI

Minister, AI is no longer evolving year on year, but rather month on month, and businesses are now encountering ageing and autonomous AI systems that can plan, act and execute workflows. While larger firms are moving more quickly, SME adoption is lower and more uneven, and that risks embedding a two-speed economy. Minister, can you set out how current AI supports are being adapted and scaled to help SMEs move beyond the pilots and entry-level tools and into more measurable and productive? Thank you very much, Deputy, for your very important question. The Government is committed to ensuring that Irish businesses can adopt and benefit from AI. Many firms, particularly at the very early stage of adoption, are seeking practical guidance on applying AI across core business functions. In response, my department works closely with the enterprise agencies to develop practical guidance, case studies and sector-specific examples that demonstrate the tangible business benefits of AI. The recently published national digital and AI strategy, Digital Ireland, Connect with our People, Securing our Future, sets out a clear road map for Ireland's digital and AI development, and includes actions to support AI readiness across enterprise. Evidence points to rapid progress. Research from the expert group on future skills needs show that AI usage and demand for AI roles have doubled since 2023, with strong skills demands matched by supply. CSO data shows over 20% of enterprise use AI in 2025, up from 15% in 2024, while the European Commission's 2025 digital decade report indicates that 13.8% of Irish SMEs use AI, above the European average, and up from 8% in 2023. My department is also working with the ERSI to assess AI take-up among SMEs, including barriers to adoption and investment. A key priority for the new strategy is accelerating technology adoption among enterprises, especially the SME sector. Under the Government's AI Good for Business initiative, a national AI and digital awareness roadshow has been delivered in partnership with Arleos. The roadshow helps SMEs understand the practical benefits of AI and digital tools, showcases real SME success stories and highlights available LEOs to support. The initiative also includes the appointment of AI sector champions and the establishment of Uber, the observatory for business AI readiness. We already see evidence that many SMEs are stuck around entry-level AI adoption, and most businesses planning AI investments that they're expecting to spend under €10,000, and that's typically on the more basic content creation and basic marketing, rather than more deeper productive gains through workflow automation and supply chain optimisation, for example. At the same time, Ireland remains mid-table, just above average, in EU business adoption, AI adoption, and that's behind countries like Denmark and Finland. So, how will existing schemes, through the likes of Enterprise Ireland, the LEOs and UDRAs, how will they be redesigned or scaled up to support a deeper AI integration in SMEs, instead of a fragmented or more one-off or pilot schemes? And how will the department measure whether those interventions, they're actually delivering productivity gains at a company level? Thank you very much, Deputy. I suppose it is important to say that we have a job of work to do to, I suppose, ensure that all of the SME sector are open and embracing AI tools. Because for them, if they're not, I suppose, embracing it and looking at the digitalisation within their company, they're set to lose. And the divide between the successful and the more, I don't want to say unsuccessful, but businesses that will fall behind and ultimately may fall off, will come down to their ability to adapt technology. And of course, we have a suite of measures to try and make that job easier. And I'm always keeping a very close eye on the uptake of those grants, to see how businesses are engaging with them. And that's why this LEO roadshow is so incredibly important, because it gives not just the department's suite of supports that are in place, but also the LEO, and as we know, they're incredibly important at a local level, but also showing the case studies. I think that for me, being out and meeting with businesses and doing these roadshows, that for me is the key piece. Where businesses can see businesses like theirs, the difference it's making by having the adoption piece in place. Thank you, Minister. I want to move the focus towards job protection, please. The real risk from AI is, it's not so much the AI itself, but more poorly managed adoption of the AI. And where we've seen agent and autonomous systems, as I mentioned earlier, that they don't just assist with the work, but that they can carry out tasks and coordinate workflows. Where people are trained to supervise and to validate the work alongside the AI, the productivity can grow. But where that training is absent, it looks like the AI would almost replace or substitute the person. And smaller businesses now, they're expected to redesign roles, to supervise autonomous systems, and to comply with EU AI Act, and to do all that at speed. How are AI initiatives being accelerated beyond basic literacy into more practical job protecting capabilities? And how are these skills supports being used to help SMEs manage change without job displacement? Again, thank you very much. And it is absolutely true to say that there will be disruption within the workforce, within the labor force, within business, because of AI. Again, I would point to the fact that the disruption will be greater, the impact will be greater if businesses don't be open to and embracing to using AI within their own businesses. You will see that we have, as I said, the observatory piece within our own department, which is looking at, I suppose, mitigating against that, where the AI will impact the number of the workforce that's required, and looking how we can retrain and upskill staff that they're not left facing redundancy or anything like that. But I'm not going to be in denial, and I don't think I'll be in government's denial, about the impact that this will have. Also, I know our colleague, Minister James Lawless, launched this week AI Ready, which of course is to get down to the nitty gritty with individuals within the workforce, that nobody feels that digital divide, and to give people who want to, I suppose, explore what AI can do, and help them in upskilling within a business. All of that, I suppose, is the suite of measures, if you like, in place to help the worker and the company itself as well.