Artificial intelligence use among Irish enterprises is growing as the technology continues to develop, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.
The Information Society Statistics report showed the number of businesses using AI rose from 8 per cent in 2023 to 15 per cent last year, with natural language generation and data mining the most common applications.
The figures were higher among larger enterprises – those who employed more than 250 people – with more than half using the technology, with 30 per cent automating workflows and 28 per cent using it for data mining.
Some 12 per cent of enterprises had an incident, either from an intentional attack or an unintentional cause, that led to the unavailability of ICT services last year.
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Two per cent of the businesses said they had experienced a destruction or corruption of data, while 2 per cent said they had a disclosure of confidential data.
However, only a third of businesses said they offered voluntary ICT security training, and only a quarter said it was compulsory. Thirty-five per cent said ICT security training was a contractual requirement of employment.
Despite a push towards digitalisation, internet access varied among enterprises.
More than 15.2 per cent of small enterprises had no fixed broadband, compared with 12.1 per cent of medium enterprises and 5.2 per cent of large enterprises.
Thirty-four per cent said they had broadband speeds of more than 500Mbps, while 27 per cent have between 100 and 500Mbps, and 25 per cent with speeds of less than 100Mbps.
More than 40 per cent said they paid for internet advertising last year, and a quarter said they targeted advertising based on webpage content or users’ keyword searches.
Among smaller enterprises, the number recording internet sales was lower at 38 per cent compared to 51 per cent of medium enterprises, and 54 per cent of large enterprises.
The manufacturing sector was most active in online sales with 51.1 per cent of firms conducting them over the internet last year. That was broken down into sales through websites, at 37.1 per cent, and 26.3 per cent through electronic data interchange.
The services sector was close behind, at 42.3 per cent conducting sales electronically, and 16.3 per cent of construction companies selling online.
“The Information Society Statistics Enterprises 2024 results show the extent of digitalisation among Irish businesses,” said Devin Zibulsky, statistician in the enterprise statistics division.
“The 2024 results reflect the continued increase in the online presence among enterprises in Ireland and their use of data and technology.”
