Information Society Statistics Enterprises 2021

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to systems that use technologies such as text mining, computer vision, speech recognition, machine learning, deep learning etc. to gather or use data to predict, recommend or decide, with varying levels of autonomy, the best action to meet a specific goal. Examples of AI application include chatbots, face recognition, data analysis based on machine learning, and autonomous robots.

In 2021, 8% of enterprises indicated that they used AI technologies in some capacity. Machine learning (4%) was the most common AI technology used among businesses in Ireland followed by data mining (3%) and AI based software for robotic process automation. Speech recognition and image recognition was used by 2% of businesses while 1% use AI for autonomous robots, self-driving cars or autonomous drones. See Figure 6.1 and Table 6.1.

More than three in ten (31%) large enterprises (250 or more persons engaged) use AI in some capacity in their business. This compares to 13% of medium sized enterprises (50 to 249 persons engaged) and 6% of small enterprises (10 to 49 persons engaged).

In 2021, 3% of firms indicated that they use AI for marketing and sales. One in ten (10%) large enterprises use AI for this purpose compared to one in twenty (5%) medium sized firms. Similarly, 3% of firms use AI for business administrative processes with a higher proportion of large enterprises (15%) using AI for this purpose compared to 6% of medium and 2% of small businesses.

Larger enterprises were more likely to use AI in their production process (14%) compared to medium (4%) and small enterprises (1%). Larger businesses were also more likely to use AI for ICT security (12%) and human resource management (10%) compared to medium (2% use for both) and small (1% for both) enterprises. See Figure 6.2 and Table 6.2.