From AI ambition to public value

Ireland has set out a clear direction for the next phase of digital public service reform. The digital and AI strategy to 2030, Digital Ireland: Connecting our People, Securing our Future, is explicit in its ambition to move from fragmented digital activity to systemic, trusted and outcome-driven use of AI across the public service, write Robert Byrne and Keiran Barbalich from PwC Ireland.

PwC’s recent AI Performance Study supports this position, providing industry-based evidence that the organisations achieving the greatest AI returns are those that adopt precisely the kinds of practices the strategy prioritises.
Crucially, it identifies that success is not driven by experimentation or early adoption of technology alone, but also by a smaller number of structural factors i.e. strong foundations, governance, workforce capability, and trust at scale.

Where public value starts

The strategy places a strong emphasis on integrated delivery enabled by a life events approach to service design, shared digital public infrastructure, interoperable systems, and a public service data ecosystem where high-quality data can flow safely between public bodies. This is the right direction. Increasingly, people expect to experience public services in a more integrated and consistent way. Our public sector clients are responding to this.

We see this when designing digital public services for areas such as health, housing, and transport, where better coordination, stronger data-sharing, and clearer service pathways can materially improve delivery.

Organisations seeing stronger returns from AI are 2.4 times as likely to have reusable AI components and 2.2 times as likely to redesign workflows to incorporate AI rather than simply adding tools on top of existing processes.

For the public sector, the implication is that long-term value will come less from disconnected experimentation and more from shared building blocks that can be applied consistently across services.

Enabling speed, scale, and consistency

Ireland’s AI strategy commits to clear governance structures, including the establishment of the AI Office of Ireland, alignment with the EU AI Act, and coordinated oversight across regulators and public bodies.

Our findings dispel the notion that governance slows AI adoption. On the contrary, organisations that perform best with AI are more likely to have clear accountability for AI outcomes, standardised risk classification and approval processes, and reusable governance mechanisms that travel with use cases.

These organisations are better able to scale AI without proportionally increasing risk or complexity.

This strongly supports Ireland’s move away from ad hoc approval committees towards system‑level governance embedded in delivery models. The evidence suggests that clarity and consistency in governance are what make AI scalable in complex organisations like the public service.

Build trust before scale

Within the public sector, if AI is to support decision-making, transform services, and improve citizens’ experience, its use must be transparent, well-governed, and capable of sustaining public confidence.

Government strategy reflects this reality. It consistently links AI adoption to responsible and transparent use, alignment with EU regulatory frameworks, public-service guidance, and support structures that help bodies adopt AI safely and consistently.

AI leaders are 1.7 times as likely to have a documented responsible AI framework guiding use-case selection, design, deployment, and monitoring, and 1.5 times as likely to have a cross-functional AI governance board.

These are not compliance add-ons. They are part of what allows organisations to move from experimentation to scaled adoption with greater confidence and fewer avoidable delays.

“AI delivers public value not by doing more experiments, but by doing fewer things better, at scale, with trust and with strong foundations.”

When expectations are clear, accountabilities are defined, and assurance mechanisms are built into delivery, AI is more likely to be adopted in ways that are repeatable, trusted, and aligned with the public interest.

Adoption depends on capability as much as policy

AI creates value when people can apply it confidently, challenge it appropriately and integrate it into the work that shapes outcomes. The strategy recognises that AI transformation is as much a workforce and organisational challenge as a technical one i.e. even the best AI tools underperform if people do not trust or use them.

To address this, it commits to a host of initiatives to build AI awareness, literacy, and skills across the public sector. We see this practically demonstrated through the AI upskilling and adoption programmes that we provide to a range of public sector clients.

Again, our survey findings support this position with AI leaders 1.7 times as likely to provide ongoing, role-based AI learning, and employees in leading organisations 2.1 times as likely to trust AI-generated insights and act on them in day-to-day decisions. This reinforces the strategy’s emphasis on capability building alongside technology rollout.

In practice, this means that upskilling, change management, and clarity about how AI supports professional judgement are not optional; they are essential to achieving measurable public value.

Organisations that achieve successful AI adoption are those that build those capabilities deliberately, rather than assuming that access to tools will be enough on its own.

The real test is delivery

Our practical client experience supports, and our survey evidence validates, Ireland’s strategic direction for AI. Across every major theme foundations of trust, workforce capability, and governance, the practices that define high‑performing AI organisations are the same practices embedded in Digital Ireland: Connecting our People, Securing our Future.

The lesson for the public sector is clear. AI delivers public value not by doing more experiments, but by doing fewer things better, at scale, with trust and with strong foundations.

Ireland’s strategy is therefore not only ambitious; it is also aligned with what evidence shows works.

Robert Byrne is a Technology, Data and AI Partner and Keiran Barbalich is a Partner and Government and Public Sector, and Health Sector Lead at PwC Ireland.

W: www.pwc.ie