70% of large enterprises in Ireland believe AI should be managed like an employee

Dublin, 25 June 2025 – Expleo, the global technology, engineering and consulting service provider, today launches its Business Transformation Index 2025. To mark the launch, Expleo is revealing new data showing that 70% of Ireland’s largest enterprises believe AI’s impact on workforces is so profound that it should be managed like an employee to avoid conflicts with company culture and people.

The sixth edition of Expleo’s award-winning Business Transformation Index (BTI) assesses the attitudes and sentiments of 200 IT and business decision-makers in Ireland in enterprises with 250 employees or more. The report examines themes including digital transformation, geopolitics, AI and DEI, providing strategic recommendations for organisations to overcome challenges related to these areas.

The BTI 2025 found that while 98% of large enterprises are using AI in some form, 67% believe their organisation can’t effectively use AI because their data is too disorganised. As a result, just 30% have integrated and scaled AI models into their systems. Almost a quarter (23%) admitted that they are struggling to find use cases for AI beyond the use of off-the-shelf large language models (LLMs).

Despite remaining in the early stages of AI deployment, senior decision-makers are already making fundamental changes to the skills makeup of their teams due to AI’s influence and its capabilities. Expleo’s research found that 72% of organisations have made changes to the criteria they use to identify job candidates because AI can now take on some tasks, while its application requires expertise in other areas. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds (68%) of enterprises who are deploying AI have stopped hiring for certain roles entirely because AI can handle the requirements.

The research shows that as AI absorbs tasks in some areas it is offering workforce opportunities in others. While 30% of enterprise leaders cite workforce displacement as one of their greatest fears resulting from AI, 72% report that they will pay more for team members who have AI-specific skills.

The colliding worlds of humans and machines are further revealed in BTI 2025 as 78% of organisations say the correct and ethical use of AI is now covered in their employment contracts. However, the BTI indicates that employers themselves may not be living up to their side of the bargain, as 25% of business and IT leaders conceded a possibility that the AI used for hiring, retention or employee progression in their organisation could be biased.

The uncertainty about the objectivity of their AI could explain why 25% of decision-makers are also not confident that their organisation is compliant with the EU AI Act. The Act, it seems, is a bone of contention for many as 76% believe the EU AI Act will hinder adoption of AI in their organisation.

Phil Codd, Managing Director, Expleo Ireland, said: “The pace of change that we are seeing from AI is like nothing we have seen before – not even the Industrial Revolution unfolded so quickly or indiscriminately in terms of the industries and people it impacted. And the workforce’s relationship with AI is complicated – on the one hand, they are turning to AI to make their jobs more manageable and to reduce stress, but at the same time, they worry that its broad deployment across their organisation could impinge on their work and therefore their value as an employee.

“Business leaders are entering untrodden ground as they try to solve how AI can work for them – both practically and ethically – and without causing clashes within teams. There is no question that there is a new digital colleague joining Irish workplaces and it will define the next chapter of our working lives and economy. However, the success of this seemingly autonomous technology will always depend on the humans and data that back it up.

“At Expleo, we work with enterprises to ensure they are reaping the benefits of AI by looking holistically at their people, processes and data. AI requires, and will bring, significant changes for all of us and we are helping organisations to navigate and plan for that. It is only when organisations and their people are ready to embrace change that the true benefits of AI will be realised.”