New report from Údarás na Gaeltachta and EY highlights significant opportunities for Irish-language AI

Léiriú Spéise i gCláir Oiliúna san Intleacht Shaorga – Anseo

Údarás na Gaeltachta and EY launched a new report entitled AI na Gaeilge: Gap Analysis and Stakeholder Insights Report in EY’s Dublin office. The report sets out the current state of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it relates to the Irish language in the public service, identifies the key gaps that need to be addressed, and recommends a practical roadmap for developing and implementing AI solutions.

EY, the global professional services firm, carried out the research and analysis for the report. It is based on extensive engagement with public service stakeholders, including an interactive workshop held in Galway in May 2025, where representatives from various public organisations came together to discuss opportunities and challenges.

Among the key findings of the report are a lack of high-quality public Irish-language datasets needed to train AI systems, limited availability of AI tools, and fragmented development efforts across academia and industry. The report also identifies significant opportunities to develop AI solutions that support language use, education, access to public services and economic activity in Gaeltacht areas.

The report identifies three priority use cases that could deliver the greatest value for the public sector and the community.

1.      Chatbot for Public Services – a voice-to-voice AI system to handle routine citizen queries in Irish by phone and through other channels, significantly expanding the range of services available in Irish.

2.      Conversational Chatbot– an AI tool that gives people the opportunity to practise their Irish informally in their daily lives, and to provide a conversational option in Irish for fluent speakers who don’t have that opportunity on a daily basis.

3.      Voice-Based Conversational Education – an interactive learning and communication tool for students, tailored to their interests and level.

All three use cases rely on the same technological foundation – Speech-to-Text (STT), Text-to-Speech (TTS) and Large Language Models (LLMs). This commonality between underlying technologies represents a strategic opportunity to design and use a unified platform that supports all three use cases.

These findings come at a time when AI technologies are having an increasing impact on how people communicate, access information and engage with digital services. It is essential that the Irish language is central and visible within these systems.

Speaking at the launch, Tomás Ó Síocháin, CEO of Údarás na Gaeltachta, said:

“This report makes clear that we have a tremendous opportunity to embed the Irish language in Ireland’s digital future. Údarás na Gaeltachta is committed to taking on this coordinating role as we work with partners across the public sector, academia and business to develop AI solutions that serve Gaeltacht communities and Irish speakers nationally and internationally.”

Thomas Goulding, EY Ireland Technology Consulting Director, said:

“This analysis shows that both the technology and political will exist to significantly improve public services through Irish with AI. The roadmap in this report sets out the practical steps needed to achieve that.”

The full report is available here.