New research from Google shows that 20% of Irish SMEs are not using artificial intelligence (AI) for any business task as yet.<\/p>\n
One-third of micro-businesses (under ten employees) are not using AI at all, compared to just 7% of larger SMEs (50\u2013250 employees), according to the report.<\/p>\n
The study, commissioned by Google in partnership with Am\u00e1rach Research and based on a survey of 400 Irish SMEs, shows that while 80% believe AI can positively impact their business and 65% expect it to drive growth in 2026, adoption remains limited.<\/p>\n
The main barriers preventing greater AI adoption included fear of making mistakes, lack of skills and cost.<\/p>\n
The research is being launched today at an event hosted by Google Ireland as part of Local Enterprise Week.<\/p>\n
In partnership with the Local Enterprise Office network, Google also announced the launch of AI Works for Ireland, a series of complimentary, face-to-face regional events aimed at equipping SMEs with practical AI skills for business.<\/p>\n
“Irish SMEs are clear about the opportunity AI presents, but this research shows many are being held back by uncertainty rather than ambition,” said Head of Google Ireland Vanessa Hartley.<\/p>\n
“AI Works for Ireland is about closing that gap – providing practical, trusted support that helps businesses move from awareness to action, and from experimentation to real impact,” Ms Hartley said.<\/p>\n
Chair of the Local Enterprise Offices Kieran Comerford said Local Enterprise Week is all about helping businesses and entrepreneurs improve and showing them the resources available to them.<\/p>\n
“This new initiative with Google will bring accessible and hands on support in the area of AI which can benefit every small business,” Mr Comerford said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New research from Google shows that 20% of Irish SMEs are not using artificial intelligence (AI) for any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-326623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}