Embedding AI Is Key to Value Creation

A small group of companies worldwide is pulling sharply ahead in the race to generate real financial returns from artificial intelligence (AI), according to PwC’s new Global AI Performance study published on April 13.

The standout finding from the survey is that three-quarters of AI’s economic gains are being captured by just 20 per cent of companies — a trend that is even more pronounced in Ireland.

The research shows the top-performing companies are not simply deploying more AI tools to improve productivity. Instead, they’re using AI as a catalyst for growth and business reinvention, particularly by pursuing new revenue opportunities being created as industries converge.

PwC’s 2026 Global CEO Survey, which came out in January, highlights that reinvention and innovation will be critical to long-term success. Nearly half (47 per cent) of Irish CEOs reported that their company had entered new sectors recently, up from 32 per cent last year. 

With its capability to continually scan market signals, AI is helping businesses to identify emerging opportunities to gain competitive edge, Dennis Brown, director, Technology Consulting at PwC Ireland, says.

“By combining data on customer behaviour, regulatory and policy shifts; investment flows, emerging technologies and supply chain dynamics, AI can spot patterns traditional analysis may miss.”

For 51 per cent of Irish CEOs, keeping pace with technological change, including AI, is now their top concern. While businesses based in Ireland are investing in AI, most have not yet translated pilots into measurable results. Only 17 per cent of Irish CEOs reported AI-driven revenue gains in the past 12 months and 23 per cent reported lower costs — with the majority reporting neither.

“In 2026, AI will be pivotal. Only a small number of Irish companies are turning AI into measurable financial returns by moving to enterprise-scale AI solutions, while many others are still struggling to get beyond pilots,” Brown notes. “That gap is starting to show up in terms of confidence and competitiveness; it will widen quickly for those that don’t act.”

Firms reporting both cost and revenue gains are two to three times more likely to have embedded AI extensively across their business, the PwC AI performance study shows.

Meanwhile, the areas where Irish CEOs say AI is being applied (to a large or very large extent) are: demand generation (13 per cent); support services (11 per cent); products, services or experiences (9 per cent); direction-setting (4 per cent); and demand fulfilment (2 per cent) — rates that are all below global levels.

“Achieving measurable returns means using AI to disrupt and fundamentally change business models, deploying it at scale and identifying where it creates value. While many use AI in back-office functions, the real gains are found in customer and supply chain operations,” Brown notes.

“AI leaders invest two and a half times more than all others and are far more likely to manage that investment nimbly.”

Just under two-thirds (65 per cent) of Irish respondents to PwC’s 2026 global CEO survey report no cost savings yet from AI. Brown explains that lowering operating expenses requires digital transformation that goes beyond task-level optimisation to reimagining entire processes and operating models.

“By leveraging automation, data and AI, organisations can eliminate or simplify work and restructure operations, such as fundamentally reinventing the order-to-cash cycle,” he says.

“The greatest efficiencies emerge when digital and AI drive disruption at scale to produce fewer layers, simpler systems and faster cycle times — as well as freeing up people to focus on higher-value outcomes.”

When it comes to automating critical workflows, trust is a major bottleneck for adoption in Ireland, particularly in relation to agentic AI. PwC Ireland’s AI Agent Survey 2025 highlighted that while 53 per cent of firms were seeing productivity gains, only 7 per cent expressed high trust in AI agents across multiple functions.

As AI systems become more powerful, the risks also increase, becoming more complex and incrementally harder to understand and manage. To address this challenge, PwC promotes the use of ‘responsible AI’, a set of practices that helps organisations to unlock the full potential of the technology while addressing its inherent risks.

Responsible AI practices remain nascent in Ireland, with just 23 per cent of organisations ‘very effective’ at their implementation, compared to 49 per cent of organisations in the US, Brown notes.

“Trust is essential for achieving safe, secure outcomes from AI. Leading organisations view responsible AI as a strategic enabler that strengthens trust, reduces regulatory risk, improves customer experience and boosts returns,” he says.

“Building trust involves not just equipping employees with AI tools, but encouraging them to experiment so they become more familiar with them and can see how they improve their productivity.”

On top of this, creating effective guardrails is essential to safely automate critical customer and revenue workflows, he adds. “Firms should take a risk-based approach to this by setting development standards, communicating priorities, providing training and clarifying roles and responsibilities. This ensures responsible automation of critical workflows and underpins business value.”

Pick a few value-creating use cases and scale them. Tie AI to revenue, margin or risk outcomes; redesign end-to-end workflows rather than isolated tasks. 

Harden the data and tech stack. Ensure accessible, reliable data; modern integration patterns; and performance/guardrails that support enterprise adoption.

Embed responsible AI. Formalise risk processes so teams can move faster with trust (a known driver of adoption and returns).

Make adoption a leadership priority. Ireland’s usage levels suggest there’s room to widen access and capability.

This article was first published on www.businessplus.ie