by Ben Davern, Research & Insights at Irish Management Institute
When lecturing to a wide range of audiences, the US Air Force pilot and military strategist Colonel John Boyd supposedly would bark: “People, ideas, machines — in that order!” Boyd believed success came from the intersections between technology and people, the ideas of those people, and the organisations and businesses they belong to.
Every major shift in business history has been defined not by the technology itself, but by the leaders who learned to harness it. AI is no different.
Yet in many Irish boardrooms, AI is still a “special topic” given 20 minutes at the end of a strategy meeting, or confined to an innovation subcommittee. This is a mistake. AI’s rate of change and scope of impact mean it cannot be a side conversation; it is a structural force shaping competitive advantage.
A Complex Environment
The conversation around artificial intelligence has shifted in recent months. At February’s AI Action Summit in Paris, a striking divide emerged between Europe’s regulatory-first approach and the comparatively unregulated US model. While the US and China pursue rapid AI development, Europe’s cautious stance aims to safeguard safety, ethics and privacy. However, some argue this approach risks throttling innovation and competitiveness. As John Clancy, founder of the Irish AI startup Glavia, put it, the Summit resembled “watching engineers redesign a jet engine mid-flight. There is a sense that Europe is only catching up now.”
This tension is not abstract for Irish leaders. Positioned between global innovation hubs and Europe’s regulatory ambitions, Ireland is faced with a challenge. It could serve as a vital bridge, attracting companies seeking stable but innovative environments. Or, it could fall behind if regulatory caution becomes a handbrake, delaying AI adoption and triggering economic and talent risks.
The landscape is complex. Leaders must understand not only the regulatory environment but also the broader organisational and cultural shifts AI demands.
AI Adoption: High Interest, Uneven Execution
AI adoption in Ireland has nearly doubled in the past year, with 91% of organisations now using some form of AI. Yet only 8% have embraced an “AI-first” strategy that integrates AI into core business functions. Research from Trinity College Dublin points to an expanding gap:
· Shadow AI initiatives proliferate with minimal oversight.
· Leaders often regard AI as a tool rather than a transformational force.
· SMEs face mounting pressure to adopt AI but lack clear strategic pathways.
· Disparities in governance, culture, and capability grow between public and private sectors, and between SMEs and multinational corporations.
Many organisations embedding AI into supply chains, customer engagement and strategic decision-making are already reaping the benefit. At the 2023 National Leadership Conference, Deborah Threadgold, General Manager for IBM Ireland, described how IBM has used AI to transform HR —deploying self-service and chatbot “digital workers” to surface promotion-readiness gaps and triage out-of-policy expense claims, increasing speed while preserving human judgement. Similarly, at a recent IMI Senior Leaders Breakfast Briefing, we learned that An Post has also established an AI governance register and cross-departmental AI champions, while Kefron has redeployed staff from manual data tasks into higher-value client roles by embedding AI into core workflows. Following these examples, Ireland’s potential AI contribution to GDP — projected at €250 billion by 2035 — critically hinges on leaders moving beyond one-off experimentation to deliberate execution.
Leadership and Culture
Technological adoption alone won’t deliver AI’s promise. The bigger challenge lies in culture and leadership mindset. Despite talk of “failing fast” and “innovation culture,” most organisations remain risk-averse, tied to traditional incentives and expectations for immediate ROI. Failure is often seen as a liability rather than a learning asset.
Yet, organisations that succeed with digital and AI transformations often do so by embracing failure as an intrinsic part of innovation. As Oonagh O’Hagan of Meaghers Pharmacy shared at another IMI Senior Leaders Breakfast Briefing, their digital transformation took five years of setbacks before gaining traction. Those early experiments provided the learnings needed to thrive when market conditions aligned.
This perspective challenges leaders to rethink success metrics and the value of intrapreneurship, fostering environments where experimentation is safe, and learning velocity outweighs flawless execution.
Regulatory Balance: Between Overreach and Opportunity
Europe’s attempt to regulate AI is set to be a global first, aiming to set ethical and legal guardrails. But this regulatory caution raises important questions:
· Are businesses being held back by uncertainty and delays?
· Is there a risk of a talent drain toward less regulated ecosystems?
· Could Ireland miss a historic opportunity to lead AI innovation?
Some have suggested establishing a “CERN for AI” in Ireland, which captures the scale of coordination needed: a coalition of government, academia, industry and policymakers
working together. Without such joined-up approaches and a clear roadmap, well-intentioned regulation risks unintended consequences.
The Leadership Challenge: Beyond Waiting for Clarity
Crucially, AI is not a future problem, but it brings major future consequences if it is not viewed as an immediate strategic imperative. Waiting for regulatory certainty before embedding AI in organisational strategy is a risk many cannot afford.
Leadership in the AI era requires:
· Proactive testing and iterative learning within the boundaries of emerging regulation.
· Developing AI literacy at senior levels to understand risks, ethical implications and strategic potential.
· Cultivating psychological safety and adaptability so all team members, regardless of tenure, can contribute insight and challenge assumptions.
· Aligning culture and incentives to support innovation alongside compliance.
Under the old hierarchy, expertise generally correlated closely with experience. In an AI-enabled world, expertise is increasingly distributed, with junior employees often bringing crucial data and technical fluency. Leaders must be attuned to this shift and foster inclusive environments where diverse knowledge can surface.
What Does This Mean For You?
The AI landscape is complex and shifting rapidly, caught between the twin pressures of innovation and regulation. Ireland stands at a crossroads: poised to either lead as a responsible AI innovator or risk falling behind amid regulatory uncertainty and cultural inertia.
AI is already changing how decisions are made, how work is done and how value is created. Leaders who treat it as someone else’s job will find themselves reacting to competitors who didn’t. This is not about chasing every new tool. It’s about deciding – deliberately and strategically – where AI belongs in your organisation and making sure the skills, policies and culture are ready for it.
