Digital Transformation Blog

Posts by:

Rob Farrell

A Directors Guide To Building An Artificial Intelligence (AI) Roadmap

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly shifted from a futuristic concept to a central pillar of business strategy. For CIOs and directors, the challenge is no longer whether to embrace AI, but how to do so in a way that delivers tangible, scalable business value. Building a robust AI roadmap is essential for organizations aiming to unlock the full potential of AI while aligning technology investments with strategic objectives and operational realities.

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What Is Your Company's AI Maturity Level?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a cornerstone for business transformation, driving innovation, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage. However, not all organizations are equally adept at leveraging AI. Research from the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) at MIT Sloan School of Management has identified a clear link between a company’s AI maturity and its financial performance, with more mature organizations outperforming their industry peers. This blog explores the four stages of enterprise AI maturity and how businesses can progress through them to achieve "AI future-ready" status.

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GenAI success requires training, certainty and trust

Generative AI: Ireland's Digital Consumer Trends in 2025

Generative AI (GenAI) is rapidly evolving from an emerging technology to a mainstream tool, presenting both opportunities and challenges for businesses in Ireland. A recent Deloitte Ireland study dives deep into digital consumer trends surrounding GenAI, revealing crucial insights for business leaders looking to integrate this technology effectively. This blog post will summarise the key findings of the report, highlighting the current state of GenAI adoption, the factors influencing its usage, and strategic recommendations for employers to maximise its potential.

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What is Agentic AI and AI Agents?

Agentic AI is an advanced form of artificial intelligence that can autonomously make decisions, take actions, and continuously learn from interactions without constant human oversight. It represents a significant evolution in AI technology, combining contextual awareness, decision-making capabilities, and adaptability to handle complex, multi-step problems.

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AI Adoption is Strong in Ireland But Staff Need Upskilling To Secure Value

It is interesting to read about AI adoption and impact in industries across Ireland, check out the recent report from PWC (Jan 2025). While 98% of respondents use AI in some manner, 62% has seen only a small or reasonable impact in their org (not very encouraging). This high adoption rate demonstrates the widespread integration of these technologies across various sizes and types of organisations in Ireland.

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Creating an AI-Ready Workforce

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept but a present reality reshaping industries across the globe. As AI continues to transform business operations and decision-making processes, organizations face a critical challenge: developing a workforce that is not only comfortable with AI technologies but also capable of leveraging them to drive innovation and productivity. This blog explores the essential components of creating an AI-ready workforce and provides strategies for organizations to prepare their employees for the AI-driven future.

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DeepSeek's Release, Global Bans, and the Future of Artificial Intelligence

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has recently made waves in the artificial intelligence industry with its claims of developing highly efficient and cost-effective AI models. However, the company now faces scrutiny and bans in several countries amid concerns over data security and allegations of intellectual property infringement. DeepSeek claims to have developed AI models that rival or surpass industry leaders like OpenAI's ChatGPT at a fraction of the cost. The company's two main models, V3 and R1, are open-source and reportedly deliver impressive performance on reasoning tasks. DeepSeek asserts that its V3 model was trained for just two months at a cost of $5.6 million, significantly less than the billions spent by Western AI labs. DeepSeekis an emerging AI company founded in May 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, which has quickly gained attention for its innovative and cost-effective AI models, particularly DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1. These models are designed to perform a wide range of tasks with high efficiency while requiring significantly fewer resources compared to competitors. DeepSeek-V3 serves as a general-purpose model, while DeepSeek-R1 is tailored for advanced reasoning and deep-thinking tasks.

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AI Highlights from Davos 2024

Perhaps you have been intently following the recent coverage of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos or just catching highlights, either way it's easy to mistake the theme as solely focused on Artificial Intelligence given the significant coverage it received. In this article, I will capture some of the highlights that you can use to catch up on all things AI for the months ahead.

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Demystifying the EU AI Regulation

The European Union (EU) has introduced the world's first comprehensive regulation on artificial intelligence (AI), known as the EU AI Act. The regulation aims to ensure the safe and ethical use of AI while promoting innovation and investment in the technology. Let's briefly explore the EU AI Act, its implications for organizations, and its impact on society.

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Digital Transformation - A Recent Review

In the fast-changing digital landscape of today, businesses must undergo digital transformation in order to remain competitive and relevant. It has become a necessity rather than a luxury, as organizations that fail to adapt run the risk of being left behind. Digital transformation refers to the integration of digital technologies into an organization, with the aim of enhancing productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. The term gained significant attention during the COVID-19 pandemic and represents a broader cultural shift towards agile and intelligent business practices. Core transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and the cloud are widely applied across various industries, while sectors like manufacturing are embracing specialized robotics. Many companies have already embarked on their digital transformation journey, with nearly three-quarters of global organizations citing it as their top IT priority in 2022, a significant increase from around half in 2021.

The Focus on Cloud Technologies

Global spending on digital transformation surpassed $1.59 trillion in 2021, experiencing a growth of over 20 percent compared to the previous year. The pandemic played a crucial role in driving digital transformation efforts, as businesses embraced cloud technologies due to the rise of remote work. Adapting existing IT solutions through cloud extensions emerged as the most common approach to digital transformation worldwide in 2022. The global public cloud market is estimated to have exceeded $490 billion. As of 2022, nearly 90 percent of organizations worldwide had implemented cloud technologies, marking the highest adoption rate among all emerging technologies.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Adoption

Artificial intelligence represents the forefront of digital transformation initiatives, but the adoption rates of AI technologies vary significantly across business sectors. The technology and telecommunications sector leads the way with high adoption rates in product and service development, while the financial services sector has embraced AI for service operations. When effectively implemented, AI and machine learning enable intelligent decision-making for executives through predictive modeling and enhance customer service through personalization and automated chatbots. However, the complexities associated with AI implementation present challenges for smaller organizations with limited budgets, setting a high bar for entry.

Workforce Transformation

The widespread adoption of new digital processes has prompted organizations to reassess the role of their workforce, as certain technologies require specialized skills and competencies. While new hires are often integral to business transformation, an increasing number of organizations prioritize upskilling or reskilling existing employees through learning and development programs. For instance, a quarter of organizations worldwide planned to implement data analysis or analytics programs in 2022, up from 18 percent in 2021. Additionally, 30 percent planned to run digital fluency or transformation programs. Digital upskilling is seen as crucial for employees to succeed in the job market, with a particular emphasis on learning digital skills in emerging economies such as India and China.

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Next Generation Boards  Managing Digital Transformation

Digital disruption and transformation are reshaping the business landscape, making it more important than ever for companies to have a board of directors with the right skills. In this article, we will explore the benefits of digital transformation and what to look for when appointing a digital transformation director.  Whether a company is a start-up or a well-established enterprise, understanding the impact of digital disruption and having a board with the right skills is crucial for success in today's rapidly evolving business environment.

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