95pc of Irish business leaders surveyed by Accenture think generative AI is very inspiring and they are excited by the possibilities it creates.

The vast majority of Irish business leaders surveyed by Accenture as part of its 2023 Technology Vision report indicated they were on board with AI.

Accenture surveyed 100 C-level execs and directors in the period between December 2022 and January 2023. The 100 Irish leaders were surveyed as part of a larger global survey by the Dublin-headquartered company.

The Irish survey found that 60pc of leaders plan to make significant increases in the resources they dedicate to AI over the next three to five years. Most (86pc) said AI is inspiring their long-term strategy.

In terms of where AI might be applied, it looks as if most leaders want to experiment with it for customer support, content creation and product design.

The Irish leaders’ views on AI and emerging tech are broadly in line with their wider European counterparts featured in the global survey.

The majority (95pc) agree that investing in tech will help their organisations remain resilient globally. This echoes the wider European sentiment, (98pc).

Irish leaders are also seemingly not scared off by the potential of generative AI and tools such as ChatGPT. Almost all (95pc) of Irish respondents said they are either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ inspired by the possibilities it creates. An even greater majority, (99pc) of Irish execs agree that advancements in generative AI such are ushering in a new era of intelligence.

More than half (57pc) of Irish respondents believe employees will be more productive thanks to the use of AI models, while 63pc expect an increase in innovation overall.

“It’s encouraging to see that Irish businesses recognise that investments in emerging technologies will help them remain competitive,” said David Kirwan, head of technology at Accenture Ireland.

“Advances in language-based AI – the technology that powers applications like ChatGPT – are set to be transformative so Irish businesses are right to be optimistic about the potential of generative AI,” he added.

“Radically rethinking how work gets done, and helping people keep up with technology-driven change, will be two of the most important factors in realising the full potential of this step-change in AI technology.”

Accenture’s report concentrated on other areas of emerging tech as well as AI. While 86pc of Irish leaders said AI is inspiring their long-term vision, 80pc opted for digital twins, 78pc opted for next generation computing and 76pc opted for robotics.

According to last year’s report, 69pc of Irish leaders said their organisation was becoming increasingly dependent on AI to function effectively.

Reporting: Silicon Republic