Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is growing at pace. According to a Digital Business Ireland (DBI) survey of businesses in Ireland earlier this year, 65 per cent of companies indicated that they plan to invest in AI in 2026. However, for 60 per cent of them, the spend was likely to be less than €10,000.Workplace and personal AI usage is also on the rise, with an Indeed study finding that 70 per cent of workers in Ireland are using AI at work more than once per month, the highest rate among eight surveyed countries including the US, the UK and Japan.Most of those Irish AI users reported meaningful time savings from the technology, with only a small minority reporting no time savings at all. Personal AI usage was even higher, at 72 per cent. But just what are businesses using AI for? Has it moved from shiny toy stage to business tool? Is it delivering real returns on investment?PwC’s 2025 Agentic AI survey revealed that Irish organisations are accelerating their investment in AI agents, with 70 per cent planning to increase their AI-related budget due to interest in agentic AI in the year ahead. Yet despite this investment momentum, fewer than one in 10 (9 per cent) Irish respondents reported broad adoption of AI agents, with a further 83 per cent reporting limited adoption or saying they were exploring AI agents. Some companies are using AI to transform their businesses, says David Lee, chief technology officer, PwC Ireland, but they are in the minority. “Many companies are busy rolling out AI pilots, but only a minority are converting that activity into measurable financial returns. “The leaders stand out because they point AI at growth, not just cost reduction, and back that ambition with the foundations that make AI scalable and reliable. Organisations with the strongest AI performance treat the technology as a reinvention engine, using it to reshape business models and expand beyond traditional industry boundaries.”At the same time, the survey shows that more than half (53 per cent) of Irish respondents confirmed measurable productivity gains from AI agents, but only 38 per cent said this was translating into tangible cost savings. “This gap suggests that while Irish businesses are committing resources, many have yet to unlock the full strategic value of AI agents.”Irish organisations are taking their time focusing on experimenting with AI agents, enabling them to understand and trust the technology, rather than rushing to full-scale adoption, says Lee. “They are focusing on operational and support functions, rather than leveraging AI across a wider range of business areas, including innovation and strategic functions. This suggests significant opportunity for Irish business leaders to expand the use of AI agents beyond core operations and future-proof their businesses.”David Lee, chief technology officer, PwC There’s also a hard deadline concentrating minds. From August 2nd, the AI Office of Ireland must be operational and EU AI Act transparency rules kick in for any AI system that interacts with the public, with penalties for general-purpose AI providers activating the same day.Organisations should measure AI return on investment through business outcomes rather than activity metrics, Lee says. “This means tracking tangible impacts such as revenue growth, cost reduction, productivity gains, faster cycle times, improved customer satisfaction and risk reduction, then comparing those benefits against the total cost of AI implementation. “The strongest indicators combine operational metrics with financial measures to demonstrate that efficiency gains are translating into real business value.”AI return on investment comes down to execution discipline: clear metrics, fast stop-or-scale decisions and designs built for reuse, says Lee. “Value shows up when AI is embedded in everyday workflows, not isolated pilots.”Today, businesses are using AI across a wide range of functions, with the most common applications being content creation, data analysis, customer service, software development and administrative tasks, explains Lee.“While adoption is still fragmented, the trend is clearly moving towards embedding AI into everyday workflows rather than using it for isolated tasks, with organisations focusing on areas where it can deliver the greatest productivity and business impact.” Companies seeing real value from AI investment are differentiated from others in two fundamental ways: how they prepare for AI and where they apply it, says Lee. These companies tend to treat AI strategy as core to their overall business strategy, take a longer-term view on ROI, and have adopted a responsible AI framework, which in turn builds employee trust in AI outputs. They also apply AI across full value chains rather than just back-office tasks, tackling more complex problems where the returns are higher. “In terms of where they apply AI, these companies are more likely to look across their full value chains rather than just focusing on back-office activities, have sought to solve more complex problems where the returns are higher and are more likely to have looked to use AI as a means of extending the reach of the company outside its traditional domain to related industries or sectors.” To get value from the AI and to ensure the output is accurate and can be trusted, you need clear governance and guardrails, staff training and process over the AI. “Good governance, grounded in an organisation’s risk appetite, provides clarity and a safe environment for the business to innovate and explore AI uses,” explains Lee. “The business can then focus on faster adoption of AI without exposing it to unnecessary or unforeseen risks.”