Small Irish firms 'have not yet explored full potential of AI', survey finds 

Small Firms Association said small businesses needed to 'adopt AI strategically to keep up with large businesses to survive'

Small Firms Association director David Broderick said 'adoption remains shallow among small firms as it is mostly confined to content generation and simple data analysis, rather than innovation, product development, or decision-making'.

Just 40% of small Irish firms have implemented AI in some form across their business, but its use remains “shallow” and is mostly confined to content generation and simple data analysis, a new survey has found.

According to research conducted by Amárach on behalf of the Small Firms Association, 8% of firms have already incorporated AI into most of their business areas, while 13% said they had started incorporating it into some of their business. A further 19% said they had started to experiment with AI in some business areas.

Another 22% said while they had started looking into how AI might be used in their business, they had yet to start using it.

Small Firms Association director David Broderick said while the survey showed that although small businesses were interested and curious about AI, "adoption remains shallow among small firms as it is mostly confined to content generation and simple data analysis, rather than innovation, product development, or decision-making”.

“Therefore, many businesses have not yet explored its full potential,” he said.

Mr Broderick added small businesses needed to “adopt AI strategically to keep up with large businesses to survive”.

In total, 357 companies were surveyed as part of this research.

Of the firms who use AI, 66% said it was utilised in their sales and marketing, including content creation, while 44% said it was being used in their data analytics. It also found 35% of firms had implemented the technology in chatbots and customer support.