Predictions of the mass demise of positions and entire job functions through the widespread deployment of AI have given rise to many a dramatic PowerPoint slide at business and technology conferences in recent years. While AI will certainly impact jobs and functions significantly, the outlook for employment appears to be more nuanced and not as pessimistic as some forecasters had predicted.
“At present, AI appears more likely to be a net contributor to employment in Europe, though down the line this will ultimately depend on how the technology is adopted and scaled up by firms. So far, there is little evidence of widespread job displacement. In fact, reviewed studies suggest that the employment effects of AI have been small but generally positive,” says Sara Riso, senior research manager at Eurofound – the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
“AI is not just automating tasks but increasingly augmenting existing roles, especially in higher-skilled occupations. Rather than triggering mass lay-offs, companies are mainly adjusting through job redesign, organisational changes and internal mobility. The types of jobs most at risk of being replaced by AI, such as routine clerical, middle-skill administrative, and basic service roles, were already experiencing slow or stagnant growth even before the AI wave accelerated with the launch of ChatGPT and similar applications.”
Projecting the future impact of AI remains inherently uncertain. The predictions of a widely cited 2013 study by Frey and Osborne, which estimated that 47 per cent of US jobs were at high risk of automation within a decade or two, have largely not materialised.
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As Riso notes: “One reason is that such projections often fail to account for how humans adapt, how firms redesign roles and how new types of jobs emerge alongside technological change. Many new jobs have emerged that didn’t exist just two decades ago, such as social media manager, prompt engineer or app developer, and it is also difficult to anticipate the impact of technological breakthroughs.”
According to PwC’s 2025 AI Jobs Barometer, the outlook for people whose roles are displaced or fundamentally changed by AI is more hopeful than often assumed. It notes that AI is reshaping work in both automatable roles – AI-exposed jobs in which AI can carry out many tasks autonomously – and augmentable roles – AI-exposed jobs in which AI enhances or supports human judgment and expertise on many tasks. The implication of this is that workers are increasingly able to focus on higher value tasks, complex problem solving and creative thinking.
“Our report finds that while some traditional roles may no longer be needed in their previous forms, many are evolving into new, often more valuable positions. For example, data entry clerks may transition toward data analysis, and customer service agents can now handle more complex or nuanced interactions, focusing on enhanced customer connection and experience, as AI takes over routine queries,” says Laoise Mullane, director, workforce consulting and AI adoption, PwC Ireland.
For those whose roles are affected, the key lies in upskilling, reskilling and embracing lifelong learning. Organisations and leaders have a role in providing upskilling and opportunities for people to transition into new roles for a future where AI continues to make workers more valuable.
“Preparing the Irish workforce for the future of work requires a strategic, inclusive and forward-looking approach that places continuous learning at its core. This approach will require collaboration by government, organisations, educational institutes and workers. While AI brings transformative opportunities, realising its value depends on people being empowered to adapt, innovate and lead with this technology,” says Mullane.
Dr Patrick Mannion of UCG’s Computer Science Department, meanwhile, sees both positive and negative impacts, with low-skill and entry-level positions threatened but AI creating more job opportunities than it makes obsolete.
“We see now, for example, in the software industry that GenAI tools can produce very good drafts of source code that only need minor refinement by a skilled human. This may reduce the number of entry-level software engineer positions, as one more experienced engineer using GenAI could work at the same pace as a full team of junior engineers.
“On the other hand, AI will have both positive and negative impacts on employment in Ireland. We will see a strong expansion in AI-related roles in the multinational sector in the coming years. I think that the outlook is good for Ireland – we are in a strong position to capture a high proportion of new AI-related jobs relative to our small population size, but it is important that we provide the upskilling and reskilling opportunities in AI that are necessary to enable this future growth.”
Ivan Jennings, senior manager, solution architecture, at Red Hat, agrees that there’s an urgent need to address the IT skills gap in Ireland, including in AI.
“We know from a survey we conducted in 2024 with IT leaders in Ireland that there is an urgent technology skills gap in this country. A number of leading organisations in Ireland have also pointed to this issue. The skills deficit extends beyond technical expertise to encompass strategic AI implementation. We have an opportunity, provided we close the skills gap and deliver on the AI strategy for Ireland, to expand roles and create new jobs, enabling us to lead in AI development and adoption as we have done in previous technology or economic shifts,” he says.
“Ireland needs to take the initiative as a country to ensure we are at the forefront of AI across the EU and globally. Technology is advancing at a pace way ahead of our education system, and a large portion of the Irish population require upskilling. This creates a dual challenge: equipping new graduates with relevant skills while providing upskilling for the existing workforce. We also need to cultivate a culture of lifelong learning, where we fearlessly embrace change to ensure Ireland is a leader in this space.”
Stephen Redmond, head of data analytics and AI at BearingPoint, says AI has changed the rules of the employment game, with massive implications for those who once relied on structured, entry‑level programmes to climb the professional ladder, for example.
“Traditional paths offering gradual skill-building via junior roles are disappearing. Instead, the opportunities now lie in learning to work with AI tools, developing skills like AI literacy, prompt‑design, ethics and critical thinking. Future professionals will need to embrace continuous learning and adapt to fluid roles that blend technology with strategic insight.”
While jobs will disappear, those who develop deep knowledge of AI can thrive. He advises early-stage professionals to master tools, platforms and prompt techniques, upskill in complementary capacities such as communications, ethical judgment and systems thinking, and to follow the shift from execution to oversight, as roles evolve to managing AI, interpreting its outputs and adding human judgment. “Future careers won’t be about competing with AI. They will be about partnering with it,” he says.
Most experts agree that job displacement will result in more mundane tasks being automated, something that will free up capacity for more added-value work.
Liam McKenna, partner in the consulting practice at Forvis Mazars, cites an example from his own experience of a medical consultant who has saved two hours a day by employing a large language model to handle administrative tasks such as patient referrals. The time saved is being invested in his core medical function. There’s an important distinction, however, between tasks and roles, which is where displacement will occur.
“Where the tasks are not fundamental to the primary role there’s an obvious case for deploying AI to augment a person’s role and that’s brilliant. Where the role is something like software development, however, you won’t need as many junior developers.”
David O’Sullivan, director at Forvis Mazars, also sees an increased role for large language models in strategic planning tasks for professional services firms such as his own in what he refers to as “an extra voice in the room”.
“With the right model, refined to the right level to your specific task, they can be used to help create strategies and they can provide really deep analysis. However, someone needs to be responsible for advising clients on those strategies and AI isn’t going to have the level of experience that a senior or strategic-level accountant is going to have.”
Mark Kelly of AI Ireland sees organisations looking at traditional roles and considering if they can be redesigned involving an AI component.
“Let’s say a vacancy arises in an organisation; instead of automatically filling it as you normally would, I can see organisations putting their foot on the ball and saying: That job description was written five years [ago]; is it still fit for purpose? Do we really need to fill this or could we reimagine the role?”
With an increasing number of roles ripe for automation and displacement through AI, Kelly says that those entering the workforce should consider taking a more entrepreneurial attitude and seeing if they could use AI to create their own small enterprises where possible.
