Closing the AI gap in digital transformation

As AI broadens the scope of digital transformation possible today, Breda O’Callaghan warns against squandering its potential

Large-scale transformation programmes are, by nature, complex. They involve multiple stakeholders, new systems and significant organisational change.

Increasingly, they also involve artificial intelligence (AI), embedded across processes, systems and delivery models.

In practice, AI within transformation is often approached in a fragmented way. It may be introduced as part of a specific technology implementation, layered into tools used by delivery teams or adopted by individuals seeking productivity gains.

Each of these approaches can deliver benefits. They rarely coalesce into a single, coherent transformation narrative, however.

As a result, organisations can find themselves making significant investment decisions without a clear view of how AI is shaping outcomes.

For many organisations, the issue is not a lack of ambition. It is a lack of clarity on how AI fits into the end-to-end transformation story.

In many cases, AI is still viewed primarily as a tool for individual productivity—often equated with copilots or digital assistants that help people perform day-to-day tasks more efficiently. This is a natural starting point but it limits the scale of impact.

At the same time, organisations are still working through fundamental decisions about their technology landscape—what to build, what to buy and how systems should integrate.

This uncertainty can slow progress and make it harder to embed AI in a deliberate, scalable way.

When transformation pressure outpaces clarity

In many sectors, such as the public sector and utilities, organisations are facing rising, and sometimes urgent, demand to deliver large transformation programmes.

Funding is secured, expectations are high and the focus then shifts very quickly to execution.

In this environment, AI is often applied tactically; used to accelerate delivery, improve efficiency or reduce manual effort.

While this can be valuable, it can also limit the opportunity to step back and consider how AI could fundamentally reshape how a programme is designed and delivered.

The risk of unclear AI value in transformation

The risk of underestimating AI in an organisation is not simply that its full potential is not understood; it is that transformation itself becomes constrained. When the value of AI is poorly defined, several missteps can follow:

• Programmes focus on incremental improvements rather than step-change impact.
• Foundational investments in data, skills and governance are deprioritised.
• AI remains confined to isolated use cases rather than being scaled across the business.
• The latest advancements in AI cause pivots/changes mid-project for which the value itself is unclear.

Over time, this can create a false ceiling on what transformation can achieve. AI is present but not fully leveraged as a driver of change.

How best can you scale AI in transformation programmes?

Organisations making the most progress tend to share three common characteristics:

• Clear vision: They define a clear vision for how AI will be used across the transformation programme, focusing their efforts on specific, high-impact problems.
• Build iteratively: They recognise the foundational capability that needs to be put in place, and take action to accelerate this, building iteratively.
• Clear roadmaps: They have clear roadmaps to ensure ongoing AI advances don’t distract from the organisation’s goals.

Crucially, they recognise that scaling AI requires intention. It is not enough to enable access to tools and simply hope value emerges organically.

Making AI integral to transformation

AI is no longer separate from transformation—it is part of how transformation itself happens.

The question to ask is whether AI is being deliberately designed into your programmes to deliver meaningful outcomes, or whether it remains an add-on, applied ad hoc.

The businesses that succeed won’t be the ones that merely adopt AI the fastest, but the ones that embed it deliberately as part of a clear, end-to-end vision for how their organisation operates and delivers.

Breda O’Callaghan is Managing Director of Management Consulting at KPMG Ireland