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Connected growth thinking
Commercial notes on brand, systems and growth. Written for owners and leaders, not for search engines.
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DataIreland's AI Adoption Gap Is a Size Problem, Not a Technology ProblemCSO figures for 2025 show 57.7% of large Irish enterprises using AI against 17.2% of small ones. The gap isn't access to models — it's the operating system around them.6 min readResearch88% Use AI. 39% See Profit From It. The Difference Is Workflow RedesignMcKinsey's State of AI survey found near-universal adoption and a minority reporting enterprise-level EBIT impact. Of 25 organisational attributes tested, one predicted the difference.6 min readSearchAI Summaries Halve Search Clicks. Pew Measured It on Real Browsing DataPew Research tracked the actual browsing of 900 US adults: 8% clicked a link when an AI summary was present, against 15% when it wasn't. Only 1% clicked a link inside the summary.5 min readPerformance0.1 Seconds Moved Conversion 8%. The Speed Evidence Is Better Than You ThinkDeloitte Digital and Google analysed four weeks of mobile data across 37 brands. A 0.1s improvement lifted retail conversion 8.4% and travel 10.1% — and the effect ran through the whole funnel.6 min readDataTwo-Thirds of Irish Websites Show Prices. Under a Third Take an OrderCSO 2025 data: 66.5% of enterprises publish goods, services or price information online, but only 28.6% offer online ordering, booking or reservation. That gap is a manual sales process.5 min readSystemsOnly 23% of Small Irish Firms Run a CRM. Growth Stalls Exactly ThereCSO 2025: 66% of large Irish enterprises use CRM software against 23.3% of small ones. The absence isn't a missing tool — it's the absence of a single customer record.6 min readGovernance€652m in Irish Data Fines. The Common Factor Was Poor Record-KeepingThe Data Protection Commission's 2024 report shows €652m in fines and over 32,000 contacts. Access requests were the leading complaint type — and they are an operational problem before a legal one.6 min readResearchInference Costs Fell Roughly 280x in 18 Months. Rebuild Your Business CaseStanford's AI Index tracked the cost of GPT-3.5-level performance falling from about $20 to $0.07 per million tokens. Any AI business case written before that is using the wrong denominator.6 min readSecurityPhishing Is 60% of Initial Access. ENISA's Data Says Fix the Human Path FirstThe ENISA Threat Landscape 2025 puts phishing at around 60% of observed initial access and vulnerability exploitation at 21.3%. Most SME security spend is aimed at the smaller number.6 min readOperationsAt €31.22 an Hour, Manual Admin Has a Hard Payback NumberCSO figures put average hourly earnings at €31.22 in Q4 2025, rising 3.4% year on year. That converts vague 'efficiency' arguments into an arithmetic you can actually decide on.5 min read
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