The Relevance Of Artificial Intelligence- AI's Role In The World Of Work - Employee Rights/ Labour Relations - Ireland

Artificial Intelligence ("AI") is often seen as an imminent threat to employment opportunities. According to the OECD, however, AI is more likely to become integrated with certain tasks within a role than result in net job losses. On 23 June 2022, the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (Irish government advisory group) published a report considering the skills needed in the Irish workforce to benefit from the opportunities presented by AI (the Report). While acknowledging that AI will have an impact on almost every sector of the economy and society, the Report highlighted the current skills gap as the most significant hurdle to AI development in Ireland. The Report finds that due to AI being a "general-purpose technology", it will have a broad impact on the labour market by improving efficiency, reducing costs, improving service offerings, and supporting decision making for firms.