New Deloitte research across 15 countries shows that Ireland is emerging as a major AI investment hub, ranking number one for AI strategy integration in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Deloitte's latest survey reflects the perspectives of nearly 2,000 C-suite executives when it comes to AI adoption.

The findings, which include perspectives from 105 senior leaders of large enterprises in Ireland, show that Ireland is punching above its weight in AI leadership, with one in four Irish firms now having a Chief AI officer. This is compared to one in five (19%) in the 15 EMEA countries surveyed. Ireland is the second highest in this regard, only behind Belgium (29%).

The data also signals that Ireland is showing leadership in formalising AI governance and accountability, with four in five (81%) companies integrating AI into their corporate vision, the highest number of the 15 countries surveyed.

AI investment in Ireland is both sustained and accelerating, with nearly half (46%) of Irish companies seeing a return within two years on their most successful use case, and more than half (52%) have seen an ROI of greater than 41%.

Over the next 12 months, 91% of organisations in Ireland plan to increase financial investment in AI, with 27% saying it will increase significantly or drastically.

87% have already increased AI spending in the last year.

Organisations favour a hybrid investment approach - 38% plan to buy more tools, 33% plan to build more, while 28% will do a mix of both.

"What we are seeing is that Ireland is emerging as a true leader in AI value realisation," points out Ita Langton, Head of Technology and Transformation at Deloitte Ireland. "This is being driven by C-Suite leadership in Ireland, with 30% of AI use cases being identified by this group. This is one of the highest in Europe following the UK (36%), Belgium (33%) and Germany (32%).

"With nearly half of organisations already reporting returns within two years from their most successful AI use case, it means investment is no longer speculative, it's delivering real business impact and reinforces Ireland's position at the forefront of AI maturity across EMEA. At Deloitte, we're seeing Irish clients move from exploration to execution, making sure innovation happens responsibly and at scale."

Other findings include:

Over half (51%) of organisations are investing 11%-20% of their total technology budget in AI initiatives, 28% are spending over 21% of their budget.

Nearly half (49%) say AI initiatives have created revenue growth opportunities, and a similar number (46%) have made a return on investment on their most successful AI use case in two years or less.

More than one-third (35%) say between 6% and 10% of their total revenue is attributable to the successful implementation of AI. This rises to 53% in financial services.

While 23% overall attribute a higher 26%-50% of their revenues to AI use, this rises to 33% and 38% in the consumer and energy, resources and industrial sectors, respectively.