Workers in Ireland are amongst the highest levels of AI usage in the world, with more than 70% of employees using the merging technology more than once per month.
The figure puts workers in Ireland significantly ahead of their peers in the US, where 43% of workers use AI on a regular basis and 41% in the UK, with just 18% of Japanese workers using the technology. The data comes from the Indeed Workforce Insights Report, which surveyed 80,000 workers across eight countries.
It found that employer encouragement plays a decisive role in the adoption of AI technology. In Ireland, 37% of workers said there were high levels of employer encouragement to use AI, compared to just 12% in Japan.
Across all eight countries, the report highlights that workers whose employers actively encourage AI use are significantly more likely to actually use AI at work, with the gap ranging from 28 percentage points in Ireland to 54 percentage points in Japan.
In Ireland, 72% of respondents report using AI personally, suggesting workers may be more comfortable experimenting with AI independently.
“Ireland’s high level of AI adoption shows the country is well-positioned to benefit from the technology, but the findings make clear that uptake alone isn’t enough. Waiting for workers to adapt on their own risks leaving some behind,” Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Indeed.
In Ireland, the majority of AI users report meaningful time savings from the technology. More than half save between one and two hours per day (43%), while a further 44% report saving three to five hours daily, the highest share in this category among the countries surveyed.
Only a small minority report no time savings at all, suggesting how AI is already being integrated into day-to-day work in ways that deliver substantial productivity gains.
Around 16% of Irish workers are disengaged from AI, defined as rarely using the technology and seeing no need for training, the lowest share among the countries surveyed.
Disengagement increases with age, rising from around 14% among workers aged 18 to 24 to just over 20% among those aged 55 and older, and is most common in manual and care occupations, while remaining relatively low in knowledge-based roles.
Nearly six in 10 Irish AI users (58%) say they are not receiving enough training on AI, compared with 49% of non-users. This indicates that workers who actively use AI are more likely to recognise skill gaps and unmet training needs.
Globally, more than 80% report saving at least one hour per day, with many redirecting that time towards improving task quality, learning new skills, innovation or better work-life balance.
The most common use is taking on other tasks and projects (21-45%), with UK workers leading at 45% and Japan lowest at 21%.
Ireland stands out, with workers particularly likely to invest saved time toward improved work-life balance (34%), learning and professional development (26%), and innovation and creative work (25%).
