Irish Tech General Counsel (ITGC) surveyed over 60 attendees at an event in founding sponsor William Fry’s office this morning.

As well as 60 per cent of respondents saying they are using AI to power in-house legal work, over 50 per cent said the companies they work at have an established cross-functional team in place dedicated to AI governance.

ITGC founder Sarah Irwin, former general counsel at Tines and now an entrepreneur and community builder, said: “Ireland is at the cutting edge of AI regulation with many big tech and big pharma EMEA headquarters based here.

“Our sophisticated in-house legal workforce is heavily focused on AI governance, yes, but we are also embracing these new technologies in a safe way to operationalise and deliver faster services to the businesses we work at. In that sense, we are very much getting ‘AI literate’.”

Barry Scannell, partner in William Fry’s technology team, said: “This is an incredibly exciting time to be a lawyer working in the technology sector.

“AI is a transformative technology which will affect all aspects of society, and with legislation in place like the AI Act, in-house lawyers are leading the way in terms of how this new tool is being adopted and implemented, and in a real way are shaping Ireland’s future.”

Intercom’s principal legal counsel and director Niall Doyle, who attended the event, said: “In-house legal teams have a key role to play in the development of AI based products, particularly in understanding and operationalising the obligations and responsibilities the company may be taking on under the AI Act and other applicable AI legislation.

“It’s imperative that, as legal counsel, we have a solid understanding of how an AI product works to be able to effectively advise the R&D/Engineering teams and to draft customer-facing terms that accurately reflect how the AI product operates.”