Looking to the future with AI
As existential threats converge, many companies are taking steps to reinvent themselves. Is it enough? And what will it take to succeed?
Generative AI (GenAI) is a very new and exciting set of capabilities with over a third of Irish CEOs reporting that their organisation had adopted it in the last 12 months, while similar proportion (35%) say it has caused them to change their technology strategy.
But some organisations are struggling to understand and identify the value it can bring them and are slow to embed the new technology – and this is where the new PwC GenAI Business Centre, enabled by Microsoft, comes in.
Established a few months ago and based at PwC’s headquarters at Spencer Dock, the new centre will help organisations to achieve returns on their investments in a safe and secure way.
Martin Duffy, GenAI Leader, PwC Ireland, says the ‘strategic collaboration’ between PwC and Microsoft, combines their strength to help clients
by ‘connecting them with appropriate technology solutions and supporting them in the adoption of GenAI’.
“We ask clients to identify inefficiencies in their own organisation, then turn that into a dialogue about what AI tools exist today which might solve that problem,” he said. “So, we are turning our AI and GenAI experience and knowledge into better business for our clients.”
According to Duffy, the new Centre will help boost GenAI adoption, driving the necessary investment returns safely and securely.
“It builds on PwC’s global strategic collaboration with Microsoft, creating scalable offerings to help support clients in reimagining their organisations,” he said. “Indeed, Gen AI has the potential to transform industries by automating tasks, revolutionising problem-solving and creating new business opportunities – and companies which harness its power, gain a competitive edge and are better equipped to navigate the challenges of the modern business landscape. However, Gen AI adoption in Ireland is slow by comparison with other countries, so the new centre will offer opportunities for PwC to work with clients to help them on their adoption journeys in a very practical way.
“Overall, it will act as a kind of living lab where different GenAI applications can be trialled and demonstrated – and already, demonstrations have been developed for new finance processes, documenting and writing programming code and analysing transcripts of customer service calls and performance evaluation of the agent.”
But while PwC’s 2024 Irish CEO survey reveals almost two-thirds (63%) of Irish CEOs believe that GenAI will significantly change the way their company creates and delivers value in the next three years, this figure is lower than that of their global peers at 70%. And while 60% of Irish CEOs also said that GenAI will increase the competitive intensity in their industry, the global figure is 68%.
“Over the next 12 months, 51% of Irish CEOs expect GenAI to improve the quality of their products or services (Global: 58%) and 40% say GenAI will enhance their ability to build trust with stakeholders (Global: 48%),” said Duffy.
“The survey also showed that 69% of Irish CEOs expect GenAI to have a positive impact on their employees’ time at work, 38% expect it to increase profitability in the year ahead and 32% expect it to boost revenue.”
But while CEOs are increasingly looking to the transformative benefits of GenAI, the great majority (60%) say it will require workforce upskilling in the next three years – and 76% expect it to increase cybersecurity risks in the year ahead.
However, while 62% of Irish CEOs are concerned about GenAI increasing the spread of misinformation, new laws will soon be in place to help with online security.
“Regulation alone will not give you trust in the new technology,” said the PwC GenAI leader. “In the past, ethics and governance were optional when it came to a lot of new technologies, but the EU AI Act is in the final stages of becoming law and responsible use of AI will not be optional, it will be a legal requirement.
“The first thing for organisations however is to look at is governance. It has multiple layers including ethics, risk and regulation, internal audit, oversight committees, external audit, regulators and more. There is a flow of trust throughout the organisation, and you need a good governance structure based on a responsible AI framework to preserve it.”
As advancement continue apace, it is clear that this technology is the way of the future, so training is essential in order to stay ahead of the game.
“There is a long road ahead in upskilling for this new technology and this is something our GenAI Business Centre is helping with,” said Duffy. “We also continue to upskill ourselves, as for us to be credible in the market talking to any company about GenAI, it can’t be an abstract conversation.
“So, we’re taking our partners and all our professional staff through a level of digital and AI upskilling to make sure that they are familiar with the tools and capabilities needed.”
