Young people are being hit hardest as the roll-out of AI technology negatively impacts employment in higher risk sectors, an employment conference has heard.Ireland is well placed to benefit from the roll-out of AI, Department of Finance economist Damian Hrynczuk told the Nevin Economic Research Institute labour market conference at the South East Technological University in Waterford.The State ranks first in the EU for producing graduates in science, technology, engineering and maths, producing almost twice the EU average number at present, he said, and scores well on other measures that would be taken as indicating AI readiness or adaptability.“I can’t stress this enough, though,” he said. “The impact of AI on labour markets remains uncertain. Optimistically, AI skills are in demand in the labour market and ... Ireland’s labour market is well prepared currently to benefit from continued AI diffusion.“However, the pessimistic view is that the at-risk sectors, the high-risk sectors, have experienced weaker employment more recently, and that is especially seen with young workers especially affected.”Hrynczuk said that while total employment across the economy continued to grow between the first three months of 2023 and the first quarter of this year, by 4.5 per cent overall and 2.4 per cent for those in aged between 15 and 24, the corresponding figures in the high risk sectors of information and communications technology (ICT), finance and insurance, as well professional, scientific and technological services were 1.5 per cent and -4.3 per cent.That, in turn, appears to be having an impact on the career choices of school leavers, with the number listing ICT courses as their first CAO choice dropping from a 4,047 to 3,265, a fall of almost 20 per cent. With the numbers sitting the Leaving Certificate increasing during the period, the proportion applying for ICT courses as their first choice fell from 5.2 per cent to 3.7 per cent, or by almost a third.Hrynczuk acknowledged overall job numbers in ICT, which declined by 20,300 over the 12 months to the first quarter of this year, might have been influenced by over-hiring during the pandemic, which many tech sector companies have said was behind post Covid lay-offs. But he said he believed the broader trend was replicated across many of the high risk sectors, even if the percentage declines may have been smaller.Kevin O’Kelly, as Irish representatives on the EU-backed TranFormWork project, which explores how employers, unions and stakeholders can engage on integrating AI into workplaces, agreed Ireland enjoys a number of advantages in terms of adoption but said we had slipped from 11th to 14th place across the EU between 2024 and 2025 when it came to the use of the technology within businesses.Malta, said O’Kelly, who was nominated to the project by Siptu, is ahead of Ireland having made a particular effort to achieve buy-in by stakeholders into an effort to position the country as a leader on AI but both lag well behind Denmark where 42 per cent of enterprises – more than twice the 19 per cent rate in Ireland last year – have productively integrated the technology, and other Nordic and Baltic states where integration rates are high.