Getting it right on Talent: Ireland CEO Outlook 2026

For Irish CEOs, talent is becoming a defining factor in their continued ability to grow. New technologies, evolving business models, and continued investment ambitions will only deliver results if organisations have the people and capabilities needed to support them. The challenge is no longer simply attracting talent. It is building a workforce with the skills, adaptability and leadership capacity required for that next phase of growth.

Our research points to continued demand for people. Some 93 percent of CEOs in the Republic of Ireland and 80 percent in Northern Ireland expect their organisation’s headcount to increase over the next three years. Around one-third in the Republic, 33 percent, and 28 percent in Northern Ireland expect growth of at least 6 percent.

That challenge has particular significance across the island of Ireland. Both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are relatively small labour markets competing internationally for specialist skills and capabilities.

In the Republic, near-full employment, a highly mobile workforce and the concentration of major employers in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and technology create particular pressures.

Irish-owned businesses are competing for talent in the same labour market as large multinationals, often with significantly different resources at their disposal. With so many organisations planning to expand, competition for experienced people and specialist skills is likely to remain intense

1. Securing the talent needed for growth

The response cannot simply be to compete harder for the same candidates. In a constrained labour market, businesses may need to challenge their traditional assumptions about where talent comes from.

That may mean looking beyond established recruitment channels, considering talent from adjacent sectors, placing greater value on transferable skills, and creating clearer pathways for people to move into emerging roles.

The talent picture varies across the island. In Northern Ireland, 68 percent of CEOs identify attracting and retaining talent as one of their organisation's biggest workforce challenges, compared with 33 percent in the Republic of Ireland.

In contrast, skills gaps emerge as the more pressing concern for CEOs in ROI, (45 percent), while 35 percent of CEOs in NI identify them as a major challenge. Globally, skills gaps are the most widely cited workforce concern, selected by 56 percent of CEOs.

The issue may present itself differently across the island, but for CEOs north and south the fundamental, underlying question is the same: does my organisation have the capabilities it needs to deliver?

Taking a strategic approach to workforce planning

Organisations will continue to recruit externally, but workforce planning is becoming more deliberate and strategic. Competitive remuneration remains important, but career progression, leadership quality, culture, and meaningful development opportunities are increasingly influencing whether talented employees choose to stay.

According to Ryan McCarthy, Managing Partner at KPMG in Ireland, for CEOs, this means testing whether recruitment plans are sufficiently connected to business strategy.

Leaders need to get realistic about the capabilities that will be critical to their business over the next three to five years. Ask yourself: where will those people come from? And are you hiring for the skills you genuinely need for the future, or simply recruiting against job descriptions that no longer reflect the business you are building?

Ryan McCarthy

Managing Partner

KPMG in Ireland

This is also a competitiveness issue for Ireland. The ability to attract investment, scale businesses, and create higher-value employment opportunities depends heavily on access to skills. Employers have an important role to play, supported by collaboration between broader business groups, educational institutions, and government.

2. Developing skills from within

Developing existing employees is becoming increasingly important as organisations seek to build the capabilities needed for future growth.

Closing the AI skills gap

The urgency is clear in our survey findings. Upskilling and training employees in AI systems is among the biggest workforce challenges for 65 percent of CEOs in Northern Ireland and 53 percent in the Republic.

More broadly, 85 percent of Northern Ireland CEOs and 73 percent in the Republic expect AI workforce readiness and upskilling to influence their organisation’s prosperity over the next three years.

In light of this, many businesses are rethinking how their employees are developed. Some 83 percent of leaders in Northern Ireland and 78 percent in the Republic say the integration of AI has caused them to rethink how employees are trained and developed.

Meanwhile, eight in ten CEOs in Northern Ireland and almost three-quarters in the Republic believe their organisations are equipped to educate and upskill employees to realise the benefits of AI.

Turning AI upskilling into action

The next step has to be putting that confidence into practical action. In the Republic, 55 percent of organisations are providing tailored AI training linked to employees' roles, compared with 38 percent in Northern Ireland.

Development also needs to be visible. Employees need a clearer view of where the organisation is heading, which skills are becoming more important and how new opportunities might open up to them as a result.

That requires coordination between business leaders, learning teams and people functions, supported by managers who create opportunities for their teams to apply new skills in their day-to-day role.

Colm Gorman, Global Head of People at KPMG International, emphasises the importance of “building confidence through clear communication” as organisations prepare employees to work alongside AI. His global perspective also highlights the value of combining technological capabilities with human expertise, judgement and experience.

The changing demands of leadership

Leadership capability is evolving too. While technical expertise remains important, CEOs increasingly recognise the value of qualities such as emotional intelligence, resilience, communication, and continuous learning.

Thirty-five percent of CEOs in the Republic and 30 percent in Northern Ireland identify emotional intelligence, resilience and effective communication as increasingly important leadership capabilities, while digital and technological literacy is highlighted by 35 percent and 43 percent respectively.

Preparing boards for greater complexity

Meanwhile, boards are facing their own pressures. The agenda before today's boards looks very different to that of a decade ago, encompassing issues such as AI, cyber risk, sustainability, workforce change, and business transformation.

As a result, many organisations are reassessing whether they have the right mix of skills, experience and perspectives around the boardroom table.

As Eamon Dillon, Board Leadership Centre Lead at KPMG in Ireland, observes: "Board expectations are changing as the range and complexity of issues requiring oversight continues to expand. Boards need access to a broader mix of experience across technology, cyber, sustainability, transformation, and people. Thoughtful succession planning and greater diversity of skills will strengthen the quality of challenge, support better decisions and help boards govern effectively as the business environment evolves."

3. Creating confidence in the future of work

Talent strategies depend not only on hiring and development, but also on employees’ confidence in the organisation's direction. People are more likely to engage with change when they understand how work is evolving, where new opportunities may emerge and how they will be supported through that transition.

Redesigning jobs, careers, and teams

CEOs are already reshaping workforce plans. Nine in ten organisations in Northern Ireland and 85 percent in the Republic are redesigning roles, career paths and team structures to reflect greater collaboration between people and AI.

At the same time, 88 percent in Northern Ireland and 75 percent in the Republic are focused on retaining and retraining high-potential employees, while more than 80 percent of organisations in both markets are hiring talent with AI and technology capabilities.

This suggests future workforce strategies will combine recruitment, retraining, internal mobility and role redesign. According to Conor McCarthy, Partner, Head of People and Change at KPMG in Ireland, “AI and other emerging technologies are changing the tasks people perform, the skills organisations, need, and ultimately the way teams are structured.

Workforce strategy should bring those changes together in a practical plan for roles, skills, and careers. Organisations that understand their job architecture, engage their people, invest in relevant development and create clear opportunities for human-AI collaboration will be better placed to attract critical talent and build confidence in the future of work.”

Building confidence through communication

Communication remains a critical leadership responsibility. Fewer than half of organisations are currently communicating openly with employees about the impact AI may have on roles, at 43 percent in ROI, and 45 percent in NI.

Reassuring employees about the future is identified as a workforce challenge by 30 percent of CEOs in the Republic and 8 percent in Northern Ireland.

For CEOs, this makes communication an important part of workforce transformation, particularly in helping employees understand how their roles and career opportunities may evolve.

For many CEOs, the talent challenge is becoming a barrier to growth. Organisations can invest in technology, expand into new markets and pursue ambitious transformation programmes, but progress will ultimately be shaped by whether they can attract, develop and retain the right people.

That applies equally at a national level. Ireland's ability to grow high-value businesses and attract investment will be closely linked to the strength of its future talent pipeline.

Ireland’s CEOs are ready.
Are you?

Chat with our leadership team about how the trends uncovered in CEO Outlook 2026 apply to your business and sector - connect with us to turn insight into action.