Without trust, digital transformation and technology adoption is nigh on impossible. If employees, customers and other stakeholders don’t trust the technology, transformation goals are unlikely to be met.
“Responsible AI, strong data governance and transparency will set businesses apart during transformation and play a critically important role in their success in the long term,” says PwC Ireland partner Keith Power. “Trust is fundamental because digital transformation is no longer theoretical – it underpins how organisations operate every day. As we’ve seen in financial services, when critical systems fail, the impact on consumers and markets is immediate and highly visible. Transformation introduces extraordinary opportunity, but also new risks that can quickly erode confidence if not well managed.”
Embedding responsible AI, transparency and robust governance helps organisations stay ahead of regulatory expectations while ensuring that the technology they deploy is reliable, explainable and safe, he adds.
“When customers and employees trust the systems in place, organisations can scale innovation with confidence. Ultimately, trust isn’t a ‘nice to have’; it’s the currency that determines whether transformation accelerates growth or exposes the business to reputational and operational risk.”
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Liam Cotter, partner, management consulting with KPMG in Ireland explains that digital transformation isn’t just about technology, it’s about people. “Digital transformation often introduces new systems, processes, and ways of working. However, employees, customers, and partners are much more likely to embrace these changes when they trust the technology, the leadership driving the change, and the purpose behind the transformation. Without trust, people can often resist transformation, which can slow or even block progress.”
Communication is key. “Digital change can create anxiety about things like job security and changing skill requirements,” Cotter notes. “Therefore, it’s crucial that leaders commit to transparent communication and building trust, to reassure their teams.”
EY Ireland partner and head of strategy and transformation Katie Flood describes trust as the quiet but essential engine of digital change. “For digital transformation to succeed, both organisations and customers need confidence that systems are reliable, that processes will work as expected, and that their data and transactions are protected,” she says. “When trust is present, digital transformation is experienced as safe, efficient, and beneficial rather than disruptive or risky.”
Trust must be earned across a broad constituency, says Power. That includes customers, regulators, employees, boards and external partners.
“Customers need reassurance that increasingly automated processes will serve them fairly and transparently, particularly as AI becomes more visible in core functions like onboarding, fraud detection and customer support,” he says.
“Regulators expect demonstrable governance as AI capabilities evolve and compliance obligations intensify. Employees must trust that new tools will augment rather than undermine their work, especially as organisations move from piloting AI to large-scale adoption. Boards and investors, meanwhile, need confidence that transformation efforts are sustainable, well controlled and future proofed, not tied to legacy constraints or rapidly outdated platforms. Without trust across these groups, digital transformation becomes fragmented, slow, or ultimately ineffective.”
Flood adds: “Staff must trust the new ways of working so they feel confident and supported and customers need to trust that the services they use are safe, fast, and seamless.”
Earning that trust, in Cotter’s view, requires fairness, accountability, data integrity and security. “Digital and AI solutions should be designed to reduce or eliminate bias against individuals, communities and groups,” he says. “Human oversight and responsibility should be embedded across the life cycle to manage risk and comply with applicable laws and regulations. Data used in digital and AI solutions should be acquired in compliance with applicable laws and regulations and assessed for accuracy, completeness, appropriateness and quality to drive trusted decisions. Robust and resilient practices should be implemented to safeguard AI solutions against bad actors, misinformation or adverse events.”
Power emphasises the need for trust by design. “Trust is built through responsible deployment – making transparency, explainability and governance part of the design, not an afterthought,” he says. “Organisations should clearly communicate where and how AI is being used, particularly as customers increasingly want to know whether they’re interacting with a human or a model.”
Strong AI governance structures, staff training and ongoing monitoring are essential to ensuring systems behave reliably under real world conditions, he continues. “Demonstrating proactive risk management – whether in fraud detection, regulatory compliance, or operational resilience – shows that AI is being used to enhance stability as well as efficiency.”
EY advises clients to build trust by involving people early in the transformation process, according to Flood. “Explaining what is changing, why it matters, and giving people the skills and confidence to use new systems – builds ownership and reduces resistance,” she points out. “When people see their ideas reflected in the design, new tools feel like improvements rather than impositions. EY recently partnered with Oxford Saïd Business School on a research project which found that putting humans at the centre of transformation increases the likelihood of success by 2.6 times, reinforcing that trust and people centred design are essential drivers of adoption.
“In short, people trust what they help to create and buy in to transformation they feel part of,” she adds.
Ultimately, trust is earned by combining innovation with accountability, Power contends. “When organisations embed responsible AI principles into the entire value chain, they not only mitigate risk but unlock the full transformative potential of AI at scale.”
And trust brings additional benefits beyond digital transformation. “When trust is positioned as a core pillar of transformation, organisations move faster, not slower,” says Flood. “With trust embedded in the culture, transformation becomes an accelerator, enabling organisations to innovate continuously and deliver long-term value.”
