Outputs From WIIS 2 

GenAI Use in Work: its reach, effects, risks and limits​

 

This report examines the adoption of generative AI (GenAI) in the workplace and its effects on workers across the island of Ireland. The data are drawn from the Working in Ireland Survey (WIIS), 2025. This is the second such WIIS survey; the first was conducted in 2021 and was confined to the Republic of Ireland. The 2025 survey covers both the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and Northern Ireland (NI) and draws on a nationally representative sample of 4,300 workers in paid employment, 3,040 in the RoI and 1,260 in NI. Here, we look specifically at the incidence of intentional GenAI use among workers, the tools they use and the tasks for which they use them, the intensity and depth of that use, the training they receive and the competence they acquire, the governance frameworks within which they operate, and the effects of GenAI use on their productivity, innovativeness, work quality and working conditions. A particular concern is whether AI is being used primarily to augment and complement workers’ skills and capabilities, making them more productive, innovative and better able to do their jobs, or whether it is being used to automate and displace human effort. A further question is who captures the productivity gains that GenAI generates: the employer, the worker, or both. Our findings from the current survey are compared, where appropriate, with evidence from the international literature and are set against the public policy context, in particular the implications of GenAI adoption for training provision, workplace governance, and the fair distribution of AI’s economic benefits across the workforce. ​

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