PwC Ireland announces new dedicated Generative AI (GenAI) Business Centre, enabled by Microsoft

PwC Ireland today is delighted to announce the expansion of its strategic AI collaboration with Microsoft into Ireland involving the launch of the PwC GenAI Business Centre, enabled by Microsoft technology.  

Through the PwC Ireland GenAI Business Centre, enabled by Microsoft, PwC is turning its AI experience and knowledge into business outcomes for its clients. The new Centre will help boost GenAI adoption, driving the necessary investment returns in a safe and secure way.  This comes at a time of huge opportunity for businesses but also at a time when technology needs to be applied with great responsibility. 

This follows PwC’s global strategic collaboration with Microsoft creating scalable offerings using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot for Microsoft 365 to help support clients in reimagining their organisations. PwC earlier this year also invested, through its industry leading relationship with Microsoft, over €1bn globally to expand and scale artificial intelligence (AI) and drive human-led, tech-powered transformation.  

PwC Ireland has also invested significantly over the last number of years in the digital upskilling of all of their people. This ongoing investment is seeing this upskilling extended to cover AI and GenAI skills for all staff. 

Speaking at the launch, Enda McDonagh, Managing Partner, PwC Ireland, said: “This is a very  important investment by PwC Ireland which we believe will deliver a generational leap forward in the way we deliver our work and aligns with our strategy to be at the forefront of technology-enabled change. This strategic collaboration with Microsoft will allow us to harness the power of Generative AI in a secure and responsible way to build trust and drive sustained outcomes for clients. As part of PwC Ireland’s commitment to this leading edge technology and ensuing opportunities, we have recently created a dedicated Head of GenAI role, to which Martin Duffy has been appointed.”  

Anne Sheehan, General Manager, Microsoft Ireland, said: “Microsoft welcomes the significant investment PwC is making in AI in the Irish market to drive transformation for our mutual customers, across both the private and public sector. We can see from PwC’s findings from business leaders in the Irish market, which aligns with what we are seeing globally, that Generative AI will have an overall positive impact on the economy. As we embark on the era of AI, we are already starting to amplify human ingenuity by accelerating productivity and innovation using technology that is designed to be a copilot in our everyday working lives.”

PwC new survey finds AI and GenAI adoption in Ireland slow by international comparisons

• Large majority positive about potential impact from GenAI adoption for economy and their businesses 

• Survey highlights ability to assess return on AI investment is poor

• Few organisations have formal AI governance structures in place

PwC Ireland today publishes the results of its GenAI Business Leaders Survey at the launch of the PwC GenAI Business Centre enabled by Microsoft. The survey aims to obtain a snapshot of how AI and GenAI are impacting Irish businesses and where the priorities lie. Key findings in the survey include: 

Few Irish organisations have adopted AI widely - much greater adoption in the US 

Less than one in ten (7%) respondents admitted that they have rolled out AI on a large scale in their organisations. This compares to 26% in a previous PwC survey carried out amongst US business executives*.  However, a further 61% of Irish business leaders said that they are either considering adopting AI or are using it to a limited extent. 

A quarter do not plan to use GenAI in the year ahead

Nearly a quarter (24%) of Irish business leaders admitted that they have no plans to use GenAI, such as OpenAI’s GPT models, in the year ahead.  Where they are planning to use GenAI there are a wide range of expected applications such as supporting financial, sales and marketing planning (21%), enhancing supply chains & operations (15%), developing new products (11%) and helping forecast market conditions (10%).  

Very few have AI governance structures in place

The EU AI Act is expected to be passed into law in the coming months and will drive the importance of good AI governance. However, just 6% of Irish business leaders confirmed that they have an AI governance structure in place. A further 72% have not even started to implement such a plan or are not sure.    

No leader

AI is a business wide initiative and there should be a leader who is responsible to set the strategy. However, the survey highlights that a large majority (70%) of Irish organisations have not yet started the implementation of putting a head of AI in place.      

Ability to assess return on investment poor

Over half (55%) of Irish respondents are not confident in their organisation’s ability to assess the return on investment on current AI initiatives. Where investments were made, 92% said that their organisation did not realise value from AI initiatives in the last 12 months or the value was small. Given GenAI will have a very significant impact on their businesses, measuring and realising the impact of these technologies will become very important.  

Where value was received through AI initiatives these were improvements in the following areas with US companies doing better:  decision making (Ireland: 15%; US: 30%), customer experience (Ireland: 17%; US: 30%), employee experience (Ireland: 13%; US: 27%) and developing new data-driven business models through their AI initiatives (Ireland: 12%; US: 25%).  

Positive impact on economy 

A large majority (74%) of respondents are of the view that GenAI will have an overall positive impact on Ireland’s economy in five years time.  82% said that GenAI will either increase or will have no net impact on jobs. 

Over three-quarters (76%) of Irish executives believe that GenAI will have a significant impact on their businesses in the next five years. However, seven out of ten (70%) do not have a plan to use GenAI to solve labour shortages or increase automation in the workplace.   

Speaking at the launch Aisling Curtis, Market Leader, Strategic Alliances, PwC Ireland, said: “Our business-driven approach, deep industry experience and technical knowledge, can help our clients identify business areas that can be improved with GenAI. Our GenAI Business Centre enabled by Microsoft will identify use cases, design and build applications to better serve clients and employees - focusing on governance, privacy, security, ethics and responsible design.” 

“Our 2023 GenAI Business Leaders Survey highlights that, despite the opportunities, AI and GenAI adoption is slow in Irish business and there is more to do on improving AI governance. At the same time, Irish business leaders overall are positive about the potential impact of GenAI on the  economy and their businesses. To secure the opportunities from AI and GenAI businesses need a clear strategy to ensure return on investment in a safe and secure way. Going forward there will need to be a better understanding of the AI and GenAI capabilities, better governance, more focus on measuring and achieving strong return on investment and trustworthy algorithms with the right data to train them.”

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