{"id":473786,"date":"2026-05-07T22:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473786\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T22:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:51:11","slug":"use-of-artificial-intelligence-among-senior-civil-servants-increasingly-common-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473786\/","title":{"rendered":"Use of artificial intelligence among senior civil servants \u2018increasingly common\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost half of senior civil servants say they use artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) in the course of their work at least weekly, with just over a quarter saying they use the technology on a daily basis, a union survey has found.<\/p>\n

In advance of the Association of Higher and Civil Public Servants\u2019 annual conference in Dublin on Friday, the organisation released the results of its research in which almost half of its 4,500 members participated.<\/p>\n

It found AI was becoming an increasingly common feature <\/a>of work in the public sector and Civil Service, but also that a majority of senior staff using it (68 per cent) feel they have been inadequately trained.<\/p>\n

Forty-nine per cent, meanwhile, said their department or place of employment lacked sufficiently clear guidelines on how the technology should be used, while 85 per cent suggested they remain cautious about its deployment<\/a>, believing it represents both an opportunity and a risk in their workplaces.<\/p>\n

AI <\/a>has been at the heart of several recent high-profile announcements regarding job losses <\/a>in the private sector, particularly around tech companies.<\/p>\n

Public service unions have argued for improved consultation with regard to introducing the technology<\/a>. But they are required by the last national pay agreement to co-operate with moves to modernise and digitise the delivery of services across the Civil Service and public service, something that was set out in the last national pay agreement.<\/p>\n

Association general secretary Ciar\u00e1n Rohan said it was critically important that governance standards <\/a>remain high and engagement between management and staff strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members recognise the opportunities that technologies such as AI can bring to public service delivery. But they are also clear that implementation must be supported by robust governance, clear policies, proper training and ongoing engagement with workers,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

More than a quarter of the union\u2019s members, meanwhile, said they were working longer hours than they did before the pandemic because it was harder to switch off when working at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that blurring of the lines when you\u2019re at home,\u201d said Rohan. \u201cThere\u2019s that thing that you are always on. And I think the way people worked during Covid created that expectation that people are always on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue is the subject of several motions at Friday\u2019s conference, with those behind them seeking to have blended working policies applied uniformly across the public service where practical. They also wish to prohibit individual departments from making changes, a reference to the Department of Social protection which recently required the minority of staff working at home up four days a week to come into the office for at least a second day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost half of senior civil servants say they use artificial intelligence (AI) in the course of their work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,18,19,17,82,20828],"class_list":{"0":"post-473786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-work-from-home"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116535747165758236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}