AIB announces AI rollout for bank staff
The move will see the widespread deployment of Microsoft 365 Copilot to the vast majority of AIB employees.
The bank said the rollout would reduce time spent on repetitive tasks, freeing up staff for higher-value work.
"At AIB, we see responsible AI as having a transformative effect on the experience of our customers and the empowerment of our colleagues," said AIB's Chief Technology Officer Graham Fagan.
"We've been exploring its potential with our employees through collaboration and testing, and now we're scaling it across the organisation to deliver smarter, faster, and more meaningful outcomes for our customers and our people," Mr Fagan said.
The Financial Services Union (FSU) said the AI rollout had been announced without an agreed approach between the bank and the Union.
"The FSU has submitted a draft AI specific agreement to AIB management with the aim of agreeing a negotiated agreement on AI and build on previous commitments from the bank on this fundamental issue for bank workers," said John O'Connell, General Secretary of the FSU.
"The FSU has recently agreed an AI specific agreement with Bank of Ireland, and it was our expectation that a similar agreement could be reached with AIB," Mr O'Connell said.
AIB said it remains committed to engagement with the FSU on the continued implementation of AI capabilities.
"AIB and the FSU have a comprehensive agreement on consultation and change, called the Foley Agreement," an AIB spokesperson said.
"In line with the existing commitments in the Foley Agreement, the Bank and the FSU have agreed, as part of our 2025 pay agreement, to consultation and engagement as any potential changes from the introduction of AI become apparent."
"We are committed to both agreements and are implementing them both through early and comprehensive consultation with the FSU on this initiative and we will continue to do this," AIB said.
Last month, the chief executive of AIB Colin Hunt took part in a panel discussion at a Bloomberg event in Dublin.
Asked what impact AI will have on staffing numbers at the bank over the next five years, Mr Hunt said it may lead to a small reduction in net headcount.
"I do think that there are certain manual processes that we do now that will be done by AI in the future, and probably net headcount will be broadly stable with a slight downward bias maybe," Mr Hunt said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
7 hours ago
- Irish Times
Financial and healthcare stocks drag down European shares
European shares ended lower on Tuesday, dragged down by heavyweight financial and healthcare stocks as investors awaited news on a potential US-EU trade deal while assessing the latest US inflation data. DUBLIN The Iseq All-Share index ended the session narrowly in the black, up 0.06 per cent at 11,262.29, on Tuesday. Hotel group Dalata closed down 2.6 per cent to €6.37 after a Scandinavian consortium reached an agreement to buy the business for €1.4 billion. READ MORE Permanent TSB was 1.91 per cent weaker on €2.05 after news broke early in the day that NatWest Group had sold its remaining 11.65 per cent shareholding in the bank, raising €126 million. Ryanair also fell, giving up 0.88 per cent to €23.57 on the day, alongside healthcare services group Uniphar which dropped 1.08 per cent, continuing losses from yesterday. Irish Ferries brand owner Irish Continental Group was the strongest performer on the index, closing up 1.44 per cent to €5.64. Gains by bankers kept the market in the green, with AIB rising 1.19 per cent and Bank of Ireland adding 1.25 per cent. LONDON The FTSE 100 retreated from record highs as rising US inflation raised concerns about the impact of tariffs. Investors also focused on the Bank of England's monetary policy path. The blue-chip FTSE 100 dropped 0.7 per cent to 8,938.32, having crossed the 9,000 mark for the first time earlier in the day, while the domestically oriented FTSE 250 index fell 0.2 per cent. British stocks have largely shrugged off concerns about chaotic US trade policies, with the UK being the first country to secure a trade deal with the United States. Among individual stocks, GSK fell 1.5 per cent after the US Food and Drug Administration raised safety concerns that the drugmaker's blood cancer drug Blenrep, when used in combination with other treatments, may cause eye damage in patients. Experian rose 4.3 per cent after the credit data firm reported 8 per cent organic revenue growth in its first quarter and reaffirmed its annual forecasts. Britain's largest home builder Barratt Redrow slumped 8.9 per cent after it said home completions missed expectations for fiscal 2025. EUROPE The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.36 per cent. Several big European defence stocks were weaker after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose stiff economic penalties on Russia if it doesn't end hostilities with Ukraine within 50 days. The threat came as he pledged fresh weapons supplies for Kyiv. Rheinmetall dropped 2.77 per cent and Dassault Aviation fell 2.47 per cent. In the euro zone, the banking index slipped 1.1 per cent. Germany's Commerzbank, Italy's Banco BPM and France's Société Générale each fell more than 2 per cent Healthcare also lagged, with Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk sliding 2.3 per cent. Ericsson reported upbeat results but the Swedish telecom equipment maker's shares declined 7.7 per cent after it warned that tariffs could crimp its margin growth. Danish offshore wind developer Orsted gained 8.3 per cent after Morgan Stanley raised its rating to 'overweight' from 'equal weight'. Accelleron rose 8.7 per cent to a record high after the engine components maker increased its revenue forecast for 2025. NEW YORK The Nasdaq cruised to a fresh record high in midafternoon trading on Tuesday, powered by a jump in Nvidia, while the S&P 500 hovered below its peak as investors digested an inflation report and a flurry of big bank earnings. AI-chip leader Nvidia was higher after unveiling plans to resume sales of its H20 AI chip to China. Other chipmakers also advanced, including Advanced Micro Devices and Super Micro Computer. The gains led the technology sector to a record high. JPMorgan Chase slipped despite raising its 2025 net interest income outlook, while Wells Fargo fell even as its profit rose on reduced loan-loss reserves. BlackRock notched a new milestone, managing a record $12.53 trillion in assets amid optimism over trade deals and rate cuts, yet its shares were also weaker. The KBW Bank Index sank to a two-week low, but Citigroup bucked the trend by climbing after its traders delivered a windfall that boosted second-quarter profits. – Additional reporting, Reuters, PA.
Irish Daily Mirror
13 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Irish workers say AI is increasing opportunities and competition in jobs market
Irish workers say artificial intelligence (AI) is both creating opportunities and intensifying competition in the jobs market, according to a corporate survey. The hiring software firm's survey indicated that half of Irish workers fear for their jobs amid economic uncertainty and nearly two in three are struggling to navigate the jobs market – with AI intensifying competition. Hiring company Greenhouse conducted a survey of 2,200 candidates, including 169 Irish-based workers along with workers from the UK and the US. 73 per cent of Irish workers indicated they are using AI when looking for a new job, mainly for interview preparation (42 per cent), analysing job ads (28 per cent) and generating work samples (25 per cent). A further 54 per cent said AI is making job hunting harder by increasing skill standards and intensifying competition, while 41 per cent said it created and helped uncover new opportunities. The survey also indicated there is a lack of clarity on whether AI can be used when applying for jobs, with 82 per cent of workers stating that employers provided little or no guidance on using AI in interviews. A photo taken on January 2, 2025 shows the letters AI for Artificial Intelligence on a laptop screen (R) next to the logo of the Chat AI application on a smartphone screen in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images) Nearly half of Irish job seekers said they feel insecure in their current role, while 42 per cent said the job market is very competitive. Chief executive of Greenhouse, Daniel Chait, said hiring is "stuck in an AI doom loop". "As this technology advances, it makes it easier than ever to apply, flooding the system with noise," he said. "With 25 per cent of Gen Z saying AI has made it harder for them to stand out, candidates entering the market are up against more applications, more automation, and less clarity." The survey also indicated that 49 per cent of Irish job seekers said they had been asked inappropriate or biased questions during job application processes. The most common of these was about health or disability status (21 per cent), parental responsibilities (20 per cent), and age (18 per cent). A further 69 per cent said they had removed older experience from their CVs to try and avoid age-based assumptions, according to the survey. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
Irish Times
19 hours ago
- Irish Times
We need to talk about AI's staggering ecological impact
For school leavers, the choice of career is always daunting, but today's Leaving Cert students are facing multiple global-scale crises: the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) , climate change , war, economic turmoil and the concentration of power and wealth in ever-fewer hands. For the first time since the Second World war, higher education is not delivering the pay premium and secure employment it once did. Because of advances in technology, the friendly receptionist is gradually being replaced by a screen, chatbot and intelligent security system. Bookkeeping can be done easily by an app that links to your bank account. The data entry clerk may be a vanishing tribe. AI can design a website, a marketing strategy and a business plan in seconds, for free or very little cost. It can generate legal documents, intricate engineering designs and write code. It will revolutionise healthcare and education and open up many new ways to access knowledge and solve intractable problems. The technology could also eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar roles within five years, according to Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic. However, many of the 'green' skills that the energy transition requires will still be in demand. Jobs that require on-the-spot problem-solving skills, along with caring roles and strategic and creative thinking, are probably the most secure for the moment. When asked on a podcast recently what careers young people should train in, the so-called godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton answered emphatically: plumbing. Robots can't (yet) navigate awkward spaces like attics or conduct manual tasks that require high levels of skill and dexterity. There's probably an AI chatbot capable of diagnosing your plumbing problem, but only an actual plumber can fix it. READ MORE AI will have social, psychological, ethical, organisational and ecological impacts that are difficult to fully predict. And that is the most benign version of what might happen. Many leading AI developers are now concerned about the potential for AI to do serious harm, with lethal autonomous weapons just one of the grim possibilities, alongside concerns about privacy, manipulation and algorithmic bias. [ Why 'godfather' of AI Geoffrey Hinton quit Google to speak out about risks Opens in new window ] One of the impacts of AI that is too little discussed is the ecological one. It has what has been described by environmental news website as having a 'a staggering carbon footprint'. OpenAI researchers have estimated that since 2012, the amount of power required to train AI models, which often have billions of parameters, has doubled every 3.4 months . A ChatGPT query is estimated to consume about five times more electricity than a simple web search. The International Energy Agency estimates that the aggregate energy demand and climate impact of data centres alone will match that of Japan by 2026. While the tech companies argue that digital technologies can lead to efficiency gains (for example, 'smart buildings' and 'smart grids'), these gains can be offset by increased demand for digital services and devices, leading to a net increase in energy consumption, material use and emissions. And while renewable energy sources can displace fossil fuels, there is simply not enough land, water and raw materials to meet the ever-growing demand for data centres and digital services. In Ireland, data centres are already consuming 50 per cent of the electricity in the Dublin region and over 20 per cent nationally , requiring higher levels of fossil energy to balance the grid. The Cambridge Minderoo Centre has warned of a potential 25-fold increase in global tech sector energy use by 2040 due to AI, which will put net-zero goals in jeopardy. [ Data centres and other large users of electricity to be allowed to build and operate own lines to power plants Opens in new window ] At some point we will have to decide whether the profits of the tech sector's investors and shareholders are more important than the future of humanity and this fragile planet. By the time we start asking the right questions about AI, it will already be too late: the genie is well and truly out of the bottle. The data centre boom, with all its energy and water demands, will already have happened. Our data will have been fed into the AI systems and used to target us with bespoke advertising and even political content. AI tools have already been dropped into typical computer software and applications without any of us asking for it. If the strategy of the tech sector is to make us dependent on chatbots and AI so that it can start charging for their use, they have probably already succeeded. Sadhbh O'Neill is a climate and environmental researcher
