Mr. Ryan Meade:

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and members of the joint committee for inviting me to speak today on the topic of artificial intelligence and its impact on businesses. Consideration of this topic is extremely timely, given the advances in generative AI technology in recent months, and I welcome the committee's initiative to hear stakeholder perspectives.

Google's mission is to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. The AI era is no exception. We are committed to developing AI technologies that benefit society, uphold ethical standards, and foster trust and transparency in the use of AI. Since 2016, we have been an AI-first company and in 2018 we were one of the first companies to establish a set of AI principles that describe our commitment to developing AI technology responsibly and our work to establish specific application areas we will not pursue. AI already powers many of our products that people use every day, from getting up-to-date travel information on Google Maps and eco-friendly routing giving the most fuel-efficient route, to scanning for spam messages in Gmail.

While AI has been a part of Google's global innovation story over the past decade, we stand at a pivotal moment in its development. The pace of progress is accelerating. Millions of people are now using generative AI across our products to do things they could not do even a year ago, from finding answers to more complex questions to using new tools to collaborate and create. At the same time, developers are using our models and infrastructure to build new generative AI applications, and start-ups and enterprises around the world are growing with our AI tools. At Google we are approaching this work boldly and responsibly. This means being ambitious in our research and pursuing the capabilities that will bring enormous benefits to people and society, while building in safeguards and working collaboratively with governments and experts to address and mitigate potential risks while working to realise the potential we want to achieve.

Ireland was among the first EU member states to adopt a national AI strategy - AI - Here for Good - setting out how Ireland can be an international leader, and seize the opportunity to drive productivity across our economy. The strategy in particular stresses the enormous benefits of widespread adoption of AI technologies across all types and sizes of businesses, including start-ups and SMEs. A total of 75% of larger businesses with more than 250 employees told us that they expected generative AI to significantly improve the productivity of their business in the next five years. By contrast, smaller businesses were less aware of the potential benefits of generative AI. For example, businesses with fewer than 50 employees were only half as likely to say that they were already using generative AI for help with writing and drafting documents as those with more than 250 employees. In the next five years, just 31% of small businesses thought they would be likely use it. As we all know, SMEs are the backbone of the economy, employing well over 1 million people in Ireland and 100 million across Europe. In our previous research, SMEs named knowledge and skills as one of the main barriers to starting, or continuing, their digital journey.

With every digital transition, we have seen how skills are vital to unlocking new opportunities for workers and businesses and to helping them innovate and grow. According to research undertaken by Public First, generative AI can save the average worker more than two weeks' worth of work a year. AI can help workers accomplish more with their resources and focus on the more rewarding aspects of their work. To ensure these opportunities are truly available to everyone and AI's benefits are widely shared, we need to take a collaborative approach and deploy a comprehensive, thoughtful workforce strategy that considers a wide range of perspectives.

We must continue to invest in people and in education and training programmes that help workers and small businesses of all backgrounds learn to use AI effectively. At Google we are building on our long-established digital literacy and skills training programmes to help ensure the opportunities presented by AI can be open to all. Since 2022, we have been partnering with Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise offices on You're the Business, a digital upskilling initiative for Irish SMEs, with training that is free of charge and open to everyone. Yesterday we added a new educational pillar to our website, Get ahead with AI. There, SMEs can access AI tools and training through on-demand videos. The courses cover the basics all the way up to showing how to overcome challenges a business may currently face, such as assisting customers through chatbots, streamlining operations or boosting marketing abilities.

We have also collaborated with Coursera to offer Google AI Essentials, a 15-hour self-paced online course taught by AI experts at Google to help people across roles and industries get essential AI skills to boost their productivity, with zero experience required. With the Insight SFI Research Centre we have established a €1.5 million scholarship fund to support AI education in Irish third-level institutes for students from under-represented communities.

We are currently seeking applications for a €15 million AI Opportunity Fund for Europe from Google.org. The fund is an AI skilling initiative designed to equip workers, especially those who need more support to upskill themselves, with the foundational AI knowledge and tools needed for long-term positive professional outcomes. We have issued an open call, and organisations which reach those workers are invited to apply for support. Successful applicants will receive funding and comprehensive training based on Google and external AI courses. This call is open until June 28, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to plug it here today.

Enabling businesses to capture the benefits of AI will require partnership between governments, industry and civil society to invest in AI infrastructure and innovation, support training, develop sensible regulatory frameworks and promote widespread adoption and accessibility. We look forward to continuing this collaboration.