Market Update: We break down the business implications, market impact, and expert insights related to Market Update: Business leaders and employees all have a role to play in AI adoption – Full Analysis.
Business leaders and employees play in unlocking the business opportunities of AI, says Mark Hopkins, general manager of Dell Technologies Ireland.
Recent Dell surveys suggest that many of the most beneficial AI applications are unearthed by employees using and developing the new technology in solving practical workplace challenges. In fact, the latest Dell Innovation Catalysts Study, some 98% of Irish organisations say their employees will need new skills to unlock the full potential of AI.
Mark Hopkins says that employees all across Ireland are already using AI to summarise documents, analyse data and automate routine tasks.
He notes, however, that for many leaders and organisations, the real challenge is not access to the technology, but turning AI into meaningful business value.
The organisations seeing the greatest impact from AI are those bringing three things together: strategic leadership, the right technology foundation, and a workforce empowered to identify where AI can genuinely improve how work gets done.
Ireland’s recently published Digital and AI Strategy, which sees AI technologies as a driver of growth, reflects this approach. It highlights the need to invest not only in digital infrastructure but also in the skills and capabilities that will allow employees to harness AI responsibly and productively.
In this Q&A interview, Mark Hopkins outlines why he believes that AI represents a significant opportunity for business leaders, while highlighting their responsibility to build a clear and practical business case for AI.
The conversation around AI is evolving at speed. What began as experimentation is now focused on a much more practical question: how can AI deliver measurable outcomes?
Across Ireland, organisations are operating in a cost-conscious environment where every technology investment must demonstrate value. The strongest AI strategies therefore focus on specific business outcomes such as productivity gains, improved decision-making or enhanced customer experiences.
A common misconception is that AI adoption requires large scale investment and disruption. In reality, many successful initiatives begin with targeted use cases, such as automating routine processes, analysing data more effectively or improving customer interactions, that demonstrate value quickly and allow organisations to scale over time.
While technology provides the capability, it is employees who ultimately determine whether AI delivers real value.
Many of the most effective AI applications are discovered by employees who understand the day-to-day challenges within their roles. Teams in operations, finance or customer service are sometimes best placed to identify repetitive tasks that could be automated or improved through better data insights.
Equally important is ensuring employees feel confident using AI responsibly. Our latest Dell Innovation Catalysts Study shows the scale of this challenge. In fact, 98% of Irish organisations say their employees will need new skills to unlock the full potential of AI.
As these tools become embedded in everyday workflows, organisations will need to move beyond occasional training and adopt more continuous approaches to learning. The Government’s commitment to roll out AI training across the public sector is welcome and will help drive responsible AI adoption and ensure 100% of key public services are digitalised by 2030.
Leadership plays a crucial role in helping organisations move from AI experimentation to real business impact.
For many organisations, the challenge is not recognising AI’s potential, but unlocking value from the vast amounts of data they already hold. Leaders therefore have an important role in ensuring AI initiatives are tied to clear priorities and focused on turning data into insights that support better decisions.
From our perspective at Dell Technologies, organisations that treat AI as a business transformation rather than simply a technology deployment are the ones unlocking its real strategic advantage.
We are also beginning to see more advanced capabilities such as agentic AI, where intelligent systems can help coordinate workflows and support decision-making. As these technologies evolve, leadership will play an increasingly important role in ensuring organisations have the right strategy and governance in place to deploy AI responsibly and deliver value at scale.
While people and leadership are essential, the role of technology should not be underestimated.
AI workloads place new demands on infrastructure, including high-performance computing, secure data management and the ability to scale as projects grow. Many organisations are discovering that their existing IT environments were not designed to support these requirements.
At Dell Technologies, we work with organisations across Ireland and Europe to help them build AI-ready foundations that allow businesses to move from experimentation to real-world deployment.
Through our Customer Solutions Centre Innovation Lab in Limerick, businesses and organisations can explore how emerging technologies, including AI, can be applied to real business challenges. We are also seeing how these capabilities are transforming industries. For example, Dell Technologies is working with Studio Ulster to support one of Europe’s most advanced virtual production studios, enabling creative teams to generate complex digital environments in real time and transform how film and television content is produced.
Equally important is understanding the economics of AI. A practical cost model should consider factors such as computing power, energy consumption and data management to ensure AI investments align with real workloads and business needs.
Ireland’s unique digital ecosystem and skilled workforce position the country well to benefit from the next wave of AI innovation.
The Government’s Digital and AI Strategy provides an important national framework. But realising the strategy’s goal of becoming a location of choice for AI startups and scale-ups, and a global hub for applied AI innovation will depend on how organisations translate that ambition into practical adoption.
That means leaders creating the right environment for experimentation, employees identifying where AI can improve how work gets done, and organisations investing in the infrastructure needed to scale innovation responsibly.
The organisations that succeed will be those that bring people, leadership and technology together to turn AI potential into real progress.