Balancing the promise and perils of AI adoption

Research from Expleo explores how large organisations in Ireland and Europe are approaching artificial intelligence, including deployment, data governance and workplace implications.

Artificial intelligence is moving faster than many businesses can keep up with; it is reshaping business models, job roles and innovation itself. It has been a revolution, or at least it promises to be one. Most businesses appear to be excited about moving beyond simple desktop AI chatbots to deploying meaningful, integrated AI solutions at scale. However, a nervousness about ethics, as well as AI’s impact on their workforces, could be preventing enterprises from getting true value from AI, or even deploying it at all.

Two recent studies from Expleo, the Business Transformation Index (BTI) 2025, carried out in Ireland, and AI Pulse, carried out in three European markets: the UK, France and Germany, surveyed decision-makers in large enterprises about their use of AI, along with their hopes and fears. Both studies reveal that across Europe, business leaders are excited about the promise of AI and want to lean in. Some are doing exactly that, but most are not. While 98% are ‘using AI’, just 30% of large businesses in Ireland have successfully deployed and scaled one or more AI models. In fact, 23% are still struggling to find use cases beyond chatbots.

Getting to grips with data

Looming questions about ethics and data are proving to be major stumbling blocks that cry out for greater AI governance. Businesses operating in the EU must ensure that any AI introduced is compliant with the EU AI Act. Yet, in Ireland, Expleo’s BTI 2025 showed that only 71% of business leaders are confident that their company is compliant. The wider European report shows similar trepidation, with only about three-quarters (77%) of those surveyed indicating that they trust their organisation to use AI ethically. This leaves a significant proportion – approximately a quarter of businesses in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe – who are not willing to stand over their AI’s statutory, or ethical, integrity. And why would they, when, in Ireland, 67% of business leaders admitted that their organisation cannot effectively use AI because their data is unmanageable?

This should be an alarm bell moment for business leaders in Europe. At a time when AI models are poised to become more complex, particularly as the development of agentic AI gathers momentum, we can be certain that the technology we are seeing and experiencing now is AI in its simplest form. Getting to grips with their data – and what their AI models process and ‘know’- will therefore become increasingly cumbersome for businesses that do not address their governance gap now.

AI and the workforce

Simultaneously, there is a workplace impact to consider. In Europe, over a third (35%) of business leaders are worried about how AI is transforming their organisation. A similar proportion (36%) is even worried about how it will impact their own jobs. These concerns are not misplaced: in Ireland, 68% of large organisations have already stopped hiring for certain roles because AI can fulfil the responsibilities. Evidently, it is no longer a question of if AI will impact jobs and livelihoods, but how.

This is something that businesses must address head-on with their teams. A failure to do so risks procrastination, or resentful workforces – and maybe both. AI has sparked understandable hesitation among many employees, yet the more it’s applied in practice, the more we see how central people are to making it work. Expleo’s research underscores this trend, showing that AI is unearthing new opportunities and that a mass reskilling is on the horizon. In Ireland, some 72% of enterprises are offering higher salaries for those with AI-specific skills, suggesting that there could also be more resilient, meaningful and higher-value work on offer for those who embrace AI.

As with any transformation programme, success with AI requires more than just technical capability. If even the most senior leaders in an organisation have concerns about their AI, one can be certain that those concerns are reverberating across the organisation. AI, without question, will be vital to every organisation. But it demands openness, governance, streamlined datasets and a unified approach from the entire organisation. As organisations across Ireland and Europe navigate this wave of digital transformation, those who blend innovation with integrity will be best placed to turn AI’s promise into real performance and do so with confidence.