Leader silence on AI leads to overall hesitation

The workplaces of the near future are going to look very different the William Fry AI Summit has been told.

The panel discussion (14 May) C-Suite perspectives on Implementing Artificial Intelligence, moderated by Máire O’Neill of William Fry, began with an overview of the current landscape.

Business issue

The panel agreed that AI has rapidly shifted from a speculative technology discussion to a board-level business issue, with organisations under increasing pressure to adopt AI tools while still struggling to demonstrate measurable returns on investment.

They also agreed that change needs to come from the top. 

Kieran McCorry of Microsoft cited the Thomson Reuters report which found that in law firms, partner silence on AI leads to overall hesitation about adoption.

“You can put that into any organisation”, he said.

“If leadership isn't using the technology and promoting it, then the acceptance of tech and people's willingness to learn doesn't transfer.”

Mick O'Keeffe of Teneo said chief executives can feel “ferocious pressure” from boards to deliver an AI transformation.

She added: “that will probably influence how boards are constituted in the future … because you're going to need people at board level to guide companies and to guide chief executives”.

Referring to Teneo’s own research, he said that of almost 700 chief executives surveyed, more than 80% intended to increase AI spending this year, despite only 30% reporting a return on investment over the previous 12 months.

In addition, notwithstanding widespread belief in the transformative potential of technology, there is “massive nervousness” around AI investment because “the bets are big”.

Readiness gap

The panel also highlighted a significant readiness gap within the Irish market.

Kieran McCorry stated that Microsoft’s recent research found that large organisations in Ireland could, on aggregate, save up to about 5000 hours per month using AI.

Conversely, SMEs are typically achieving savings closer to 1,000 hours.

Statistics from the William Fry Technology Report 2026 showed that 70% of Irish companies had not yet begun implementing AI systems.

Speaking about how companies should begin to do so, the panellists emphasised that organisations should focus first on governance, data quality and operational readiness rather than rushing to procure technology.

The need for governance frameworks to be embedded from the outset rather than treated as a later compliance exercise was unanimously agreed.

“There’s a real explosion around help needed for governance and how to get the right policies in place,” Kieran McCorry said.

Front foot

Organisations “on the front foot” with governance policies could see “a 10x increase” in outcomes compared with companies operating without such frameworks, he added.

The panellists said that governance structures should determine what AI systems can access, what they can modify and how they interact with clients and employees.

Teneo’s Mick O’Keeffe stressed the importance of AI ethics.

Emmet O’Neill of StoryToys described how AI implementation had worked in his company.

“Brand reputation is really, really important”, he said.

Because that company operates across multiple national and global regulatory regimes, including GDPR and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) requirements, they began by marking ‘red lines’ for AI deployment.

“By outlining our policies up front, by deciding our go areas and no-go areas, we gave ourselves a framework within which to move quickly and confidently,” he said.

“We can definitely demonstrate strong return on investment in any of the AI work we're doing, mainly because we're using third party tools, so the investment’s relatively low,” he said.

Nathan Cullen of IBM Ireland outlined two vital stages before the purchase of AI technology.

The first is to ensure that organisational data is “trusted, time-aligned and accurate”.

The second is to “look at the common workflows that exist across your business, start to optimise those, and then make use of that data.”

Junk

“AI without reliable data is junk,” he said.

“If you haven't got exposure of 70% plus of your data within those horizontal workflows,” the purchase of tech is wasting your money, he said.

Early AI projects should also be capable of scaling across an organisation, rather than being confined to isolated use cases with limited application.

Nathan Cullen also identified four metrics to assess AI deployment:

• Adoption,
• Maturity,
• User satisfaction, and
• Return on investment.

Organisations, he said, needed to determine whether systems were actually being used, whether they were improving over time, whether users found them valuable, and whether they were delivering savings or market advantage.

Microsoft research found that 70% of women in Irish workplaces expressed hesitation about using AI compared with 54% of men.

This was noted as having potential implications for career progression as AI adoption accelerates.

Mick O’Keeffe expressed concern that organisations are reducing graduate recruitment programmes.

“I think that's really dangerous long term, because these are the bright business leaders of the future,” he said.

O’Keeffe added that it is important to have people with the ability to read dense information and analyse data. “I would like to think that what's going to happen is that AI will make people work smarter and better, rather than replace people.”

Kieran McCorry said: “training people up on AI is not an event. It's an ongoing process and an ongoing journey.”

Emmet O’Neill said organisations need to acknowledge employee anxiety around job security during this transition.

Eclipsed

While leaders needed to manage those concerns carefully, he said employees who ignored AI tools risked being “ultimately eclipsed”.

Ireland’s position as an attractive destination for AI investment cannot be taken for granted, Nathan Cullen said, stressing the importance of collaboration between government, academia and industry.

Despite the uncertainties around AI rollout, all panellists warned against organisational inertia.

“Not moving isn’t an option,” Mick O’Keeffe said.