AI in Irish Admissions Statistics 2026: Sourced Data

The numbers worth quoting, with publisher, sample and date

Ireland is an EU member, so the most relevant regional data point is Eurostat's EU-wide measure of AI use. We could not open a verified Irish survey on how Leaving Certificate students or CAO applicants use AI, so the Irish-specific part of this article is about the system and the law, not about a made-up local percentage. None of the numbers comes from Skolbot.

A note on method: no paid keyword-volume tool was available for this piece. The topic was scoped from public search results and primary sources.

Young people in the EU: one in three adults, two in three under 25

Eurostat measured generative AI use for the first time in 2025: 33% of EU residents aged 16-74 had used it in the previous three months, and 64% of 16-24-year-olds. The article names Denmark, Estonia, Malta and Finland among the highest, and does not give an Irish figure in the text we opened, so we do not state one.

The nearest English-language student evidence is from the UK. HEPI's 2026 survey found 95% of full-time undergraduates using AI in some form, with only 36% feeling encouraged by their institution. Irish and UK students are not the same population, so this is context, not a local measurement.

The search stage: signals from the UK and US

EAB surveyed 5,000+ US high school students in autumn 2025: 46% use AI in the college search, up from 26% in spring 2025, and 18% removed a college because of AI-surfaced information.

The UCAS study reported by Wonkhe surveyed 4,485 people: 43% start with a university website, 13% with a chatbot; 48% would drop a university after a bad open day, 8% after a negative AI review.

Ireland's route is different from both. Almost all undergraduate places are handled through the CAO, with a points system based on the Leaving Certificate, a deadline in early February and a Change of Mind period. A prospective student will ask an assistant questions like "how many points was this course last year" or "what are the alternatives at Level 7 or Level 6". Your own pages, not an AI's guess, should answer them, including for the Technological Universities that now sit alongside the traditional universities.

Institutions: no Irish data to quote

The only institution-side figure we could verify concerns applicant rules. Kaplan (press release, 3 November 2025) polled US admissions officers in July-August 2025: 2% allow generative AI to write the essay, 30% ban it, 68% have no policy.

The CAO model does not rely on admission essays for most courses, so this transfers weakly. Where portfolios, interviews or supplementary materials are required, an AI policy is still useful. We found no verified data on AI use inside Irish admissions offices and do not quote any.

The regulatory frame: GDPR, the DPC and the EU AI Act

GDPR applies directly in Ireland, supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Data Protection Commission is the supervisory authority. Where applicants are under 18, information and consent must stay understandable.

The EU AI Act lists, in Annex III, AI systems used to determine access or admission to educational institutions as high-risk. An FAQ assistant does not decide an admission; a tool that scores or ranks applications comes closer. According to the European Commission, Annex III rules now apply from 2 December 2027 after the AI Omnibus. Confirm the date there before planning.

On quality, QQI accredits and validates programmes against the National Framework of Qualifications, and the Higher Education Authority oversees funding and governance. Neither is an AI regulator, but inaccurate claims about a programme's level or award carry real risk.

How to vet an AI statistic before you quote it

Ask four questions before a figure goes into a board paper, a deck or a press release. Who ran the survey, and who paid for it? How large was the sample and whom does it represent: Leaving Certificate students, first-years, adults? When was it fielded? What exactly was asked, "do you use AI every day" or "have you ever used AI"?

The Eurostat number is a good example. It covers adults and young people in the whole EU, over the previous three months, and 2025 is the first year it was collected. It is reliable for that scope. It is not a statement about Irish sixth-year students, and it says nothing about whether they use AI to choose a course.

Many percentages about Irish teenagers and AI circulate on social media without a link to a report. If you cannot open the report, do not publish the number. Always cite the publisher, the year, the sample and the link.

What the figures do not show

They do not show that a chatbot raises enrolment: no source measures conversion. They are not comparable with each other, since populations, countries, questions and dates differ. And they say nothing about Irish institutions.

For published conversion references, see our article on school website conversion rate benchmarks.

What an admissions team can do with this

• Make course pages answer the CAO questions: points history, minimum entry requirements, Level 6, 7 and 8 options, mature and QQI Level 5/6 routes.
• Publish a position on AI in applications.
• Keep people in offer decisions. Use AI for answers, routing and booking events.
• Track your own data: top questions, response time, open day registrations.

Further reading: AI agents for student recruitment, the definition of an AI admissions agent and the AI chatbot student recruitment guide.