Intelligent government

Artificial intelligence presents a transformative opportunity for Ireland’s public service. With rising citizen expectations and a national goal to digitise all services by 2030, the potential to deliver smarter, more responsive, and inclusive public services has never been greater.

Across government, pilot projects are evolving into scalable solutions - driven by ambition, innovation, and a commitment to public value. Success will depend on continued investment in technology, skills, and collaboration, underpinned by a citizen-centred and ethical approach.

By focusing on these foundations, Ireland’s public sector is well-positioned to lead a deliberate and impactful transformation journey - moving from experimentation to intelligent, trusted government.

Intelligent government

This research outlines a detailed blueprint for AI in government and public sector organisations, helping to chart a path towards unlocking AI’s immense value. (PDF, 3MB)

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Cormac Deady

Partner, Head of Infrastructure & Government

KPMG in Ireland

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At-a-glance insights:

Government is in the early stages of AI but belief in the transformative potential of AI is high

0%

have been using AI for less than two years

Only 16%

state that leaders fully trust AI, only 12 percent state that AI is integral to their organisation. Plus only 18% have integrated AI into their 5-year plans

0%

agree that organisations that embrace AI will have an advantage over those who do not

Operating models are proving to be a major inhibitor to widescale adoption, with systems and data management reflecting a siloed structure

56%

state that their operating model enables AI strategy alignment, but only 23% say their operating model enables this consistently

26%

have a predominantly cloud-based technical infrastructure, and 55% do not yet have a unified data warehouse of enterprise data management

Strategic barriers are holding the Government sector back, with internal resistance and privacy risks the leading challenges when integrating AI

Enable

The Enable phase focuses on enabling people and building AI foundations. Organisations appoint a responsible executive, create an AI strategy, identify high-value use cases, boost AI literacy, align with regulations and establish ethical guardrails. AI pilots are launched across functions, while cloud platforms and pre-trained models are leveraged with minimal customisation.

Embed

The Embed phase integrates AI into workflows, products, services, value streams, robotics, and wearables, delivering greater value. A senior leader drives enterprise-wide workforce redesign, re-skilling and change, embedding AI into operating models with a focus on ethics, trust and security. AI agents and diverse models are deployed, supported by cloud and legacy tech modernization, while enterprise-wide data enhances operations.

Evolve

The Evolve phase evolves business models and ecosystems, using AI and frontier technologies like quantum computing and blockchain to solve large sector-wide challenges. AI orchestrates seamless value across enterprises and partners. Emphasizing ethics and trust with real-time security, this phase uplifts human potential with broad and deep workforce training, fostering a creative, innovative and value-driven future.