Ireland
Fractional AI officer for Ireland companies
Last updated
Justas Butkus is a fractional AI officer based in Vilnius, Lithuania, working with Irish mid-market companies and scale-ups at two to four days a month. He owns AI strategy, governance and the roadmap, and builds the production systems that follow.
Short answer
Irish companies hire fractional AI leadership for the same reason everyone else does: a board asking questions nobody internally can answer, and pilots that never reach production. What differs is the regulatory frame and the practicalities of working with someone outside your office.
What does the market look like in Ireland?
Ireland has an unusual concentration of companies that are small in headcount and large in regulatory exposure – financial services, insurance, medical devices and the European operations of much bigger groups.
That combination suits fractional leadership well: the AI decisions carry real consequences, but the volume of decisions does not justify a permanent executive.
What is the regulatory position?
Ireland applies the EU AI Act. For companies here the practical pressure usually arrives commercially before it arrives from a regulator.
- Article 50 transparency applies from 2 August 2026 for systems that interact with people.
- Group and customer diligence often sets the real standard. Where the Irish entity is part of a larger group or serves enterprise customers, the questionnaire is the gate.
How does working remotely from the EU actually work?
- Vilnius runs two hours ahead of Dublin, so the whole Irish working day is available. Enough overlap that the working day is shared rather than a narrow window.
- Most of this work is better done remotely anyway. The reading, the analysis and the building do not improve by being done in your building.
- Travel where it earns its place. Board sessions and workshops justify it; routine work does not, and pretending otherwise inflates the engagement.
- One accountable person throughout. No account team, no rotation, no handover to someone more junior after the sale.
When is this the wrong answer?
Three situations where I will say so rather than take the work.
- You already know exactly what your AI function should look like – hire permanently instead.
- Nobody owns technology at all – you need technology leadership before you need AI leadership.
- You cannot name a repeating process that is expensive enough to be worth automating – the role is premature.
Frequently asked questions
Can a fractional AI officer work with a Irish company remotely?
Yes, and most of this work is better done remotely. Vilnius runs two hours ahead of Dublin, so the whole Irish working day is available. Board sessions and workshops justify travel; routine work does not.
Does the EU AI Act apply to Irish companies?
It can. The Act has extraterritorial reach: if an AI system is used in the EU, or its output affects people in the EU, obligations can apply regardless of where the company is established. Many companies meet it first through a customer procurement questionnaire rather than through a regulator.
What size of Irish company does this suit?
Typically fifty to five hundred employees, or a funded scale-up with an engineering team and nobody owning AI direction. Below roughly twenty people the role is usually premature.
Working with Irish companies
The fastest way to find out whether this fits is a short conversation about one specific process.