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Ireland’s AI Paradox: 20% Business Adoption, 56% AI Understanding, but Only 15% Trust

Writer: Uttam Sharma
Uttam Sharma
Aug 21
2 min read

Ireland's relationship with AI presents an interesting paradox. The latest CSO data, highlighted in RTÉ Brainstorm, suggests that awareness of AI is already widespread, yet confidence in how institutions will use it remains much lower. In particular, only 15% of respondents were confident that government agencies would protect personal information from unauthorised access or misuse when using AI, while 72% were not confident. This suggests that Ireland's challenge may not simply be AI literacy, but AI trust. People increasingly understand what AI is and are already using it, but understanding a technology does not automatically mean trusting it with important decisions, personal data or public services. This distinction is important for AI companies because it shifts the conversation from simply building better technology to demonstrating why customers should trust that technology.


This is where Go-To-Market (GTM) becomes critical. AI companies often lead with technical capabilities—agents, models, automation, RAG or generative AI—when customers are more interested in outcomes: reducing costs, saving time, improving decisions or solving a specific workflow problem. A strong AI GTM strategy can therefore help close the trust gap by starting with low-risk, clearly defined use cases, demonstrating measurable outcomes and being transparent about limitations, data usage and human oversight. Instead of saying “our AI agent automates your workflow,” companies should be able to demonstrate “this process previously took 20 hours and now takes five, with a human reviewing the final output.” In that sense, GTM is not simply about selling AI; it is about reducing uncertainty around AI. Education, pilots, demonstrations, ROI measurement and transparent communication can turn an abstract technology into something customers can evaluate and trust.


There is also a significant commercial opportunity. CSO data shows that 20.2% of Irish enterprises used AI in 2025, up from 8.1% in 2023, putting Ireland roughly in line with the EU average but well behind leaders such as Denmark at 42% and Finland at 37.8%. Large enterprises are also much more likely to use AI than smaller businesses-



57.7% of large enterprises compared with 17.2% of small enterprises. The next phase of Irish AI adoption therefore may depend less on whether companies can access AI technology and more on whether AI providers can communicate its value effectively. The winners may not simply be the companies with the best models, but those that are best at translating AI capability into trusted, measurable business outcomes. Better GTM can make AI less intimidating, more understandable and easier to adopt—and that could ultimately help move Ireland's AI adoption numbers closer to those of Europe's leaders.


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