Legal experts Karyn Harty and Garrett Hayes explain why they think Ireland is well located for capitalization in the AI boom.
The potential for the development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in Ireland is enormous, however, the country must decide whether to be a leader or follower in technology.
Since Brexit entered into force in 2020, Ireland has had the advantage of being the last jurisdiction of customary English law in the EU, which gives it the benefit of being part for the development of the world leading regulation on AI and technology more broadly, while retaining its reputation as an attractive place for the world to do business.
A healthy budget surplus in 2024 also means that Ireland has the opportunity to invest in making a significant component of the country’s future economy.
Ireland certainly expects to take advantage of AI’s potential. In November 2024, he launched a national “update” strategy, based on its 2021 strategy to take into account the significant developments in AI, including regulatory updates such as the introduction of the EU’s law in August in August 2024, as well as the advent of the generation.
This declaration of intention to promote AI’s implementation at the central state level has been an encouraging message for the private sector of Ireland, where there is a significant scope for the adoption of AI.
However, despite this positive and progressive environment for AI to flourish, Ireland, like many jurisdictions, is dealing with implementation practices.
According to a recent survey conducted by Dentons, 59pc of large Irish companies said they were concerned with the pace of technological changes in AI and only 34pc said they had a formal route map of AI.
These statistics lend to a series of interpretations, the most obvious of what the great Irish organizations are adopting an open but fundamentally reactive approach to AI.
This approach may not be surprising. While there will be a significant variation in the levels of technological sophistication among Irish companies, the risk of changing regulation around AI, the headache of change management, ethical conerns on some cases of use of AI and redundancy problems of the workforce are marked that are important significant problems in significant problems of significant trees of significant problems of significant trees of what they need.
For executives who sit in the boards of Irish companies, their risk matrix is constantly expanding, with AI that appears as one of the newest and most disruptive new and potential participants on the network.
For this reason, when it comes to choosing what tools to adopt, the size and trail of product developers, along with their ability to absorb responsibility if things go, will be an important factor in the acquisition.
While this favors the largest and longer multinational technology companies, it does not prevent the prosperous scene of Ia Ireland.
Many small Irish companies offer highly specific solutions, from Medtech to advertising, which are designed to screw existing corporate operations to offer substantial improvements, such as the transparency of data and the efficiency of the process, in specific AA.
And although associating with a new artificial intelligence company is unquestionably more risky than acquiring a solution of a large and established player, the competitive advantages of trial solutions that have not yet reached the mass market can be considerable.
According to a recent state survey of new companies published by Scale Ireland, there are more than 2,200 starting companies and indigenous technology scale, which employ more than 52,000 people, in Ireland.
The enthusiasm for the Ireland’s beginning ecosystem was also evidenced by the indignation by the recently decision of the Government to close the National Digital Research Center (NDRC), the national accelerator of the country in November 2025, with a blow to Toteland.
Risk V Opportunity
Despite the perceived risks associated with AI, the majority opinion expressed in the Dentons survey was that, in general, technology repeats a great opportunity for Irish companies.
59pc of the Irish companies surveyed said they thought that the sentences that fail to adopt the change driven by AI will be increasingly unfeasible, while 63pc said that AI is now a key mechanism to protect income and the final result in its line.
This suggests that doing nothing is registered as more dangerous for Irish companies than committing to risks measured.
Although faith jumps are necessary to some extent with any new technology, the preparation is essential and it is possible to launch the robust government security networks before making such jumps.
Irish companies that begin to adopt AI must make it methodicular in an auditable way by matching AI solutions with the needs of their business, so that they know where AI is in their organization and can react quickly and when the regulations change.
The dentons survey also stressed the importance of considering legal issues relevant at the beginning of the AI adoption process.
According to the survey, 60pc or Irish companies already involve their legal teams in the stage of fulfilling the development of their AI strategy. The same proportion of Irish companies said they thought that their general advisor and legal teams were crucial to ensure that companies have sophisticated data management strategies.
These numbers are encouraging, but indicate that there is room for a better understanding of the legal risks associated with AI and the necessary governance measures to allow companies to use people with confidence.
By Karyn Harty and Garrett Hayes
Karyn Harty is a global co -president of disputes and is a partner and head of the Litigation Practice Group in the dentons office in Dublin; Garrett Hayes is a corporate partner in the dentons office in Dublin.
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