Dublin-Based. Vendor-Neutral.
AI Governance Consultancy Dublin
Independent AI governance advisory for Irish boards, regulated entities, and public sector organisations. No vendor relationships. EU AI Act enforcement begins August 2026.
The short answer
Acuity AI Advisory is a Dublin-based independent AI governance consultancy. We help Irish boards, regulated entities, and public sector organisations build the accountability structures, oversight policies, and risk controls that the EU AI Act requires.
What AI governance means in practice
Accountability frameworks
Defining who is responsible for AI decisions, who reviews AI outputs, and how accountability flows from board to operational level. This is the foundation of any governance structure.
Oversight policies
Written policies covering which AI systems are in use, what they are used for, what human review is required, and how decisions made by AI can be challenged or overridden.
Risk controls
Identification and classification of AI-related risks — including EU AI Act risk levels — and the controls that mitigate each. Documented, tested, and reported to the board.
Board education
Directors cannot govern what they do not understand. Board-level AI literacy briefings that equip non-executive directors to ask the right questions and discharge their oversight responsibilities.
Governance needs to come before AI adoption
Most Irish organisations have already adopted AI in some form — through software vendors who have embedded AI into their products, through Microsoft Copilot licences, or through staff using AI tools without formal oversight. The AI is already there. What is missing, in almost every case, is the governance.
Building governance after adoption is harder than building it before. But it is still considerably easier than responding to a regulatory finding, a data protection complaint, or a board-level accountability failure. Governance now — however imperfect — is better than governance after an incident.
The EU AI Act: August 2026
The EU AI Act's main obligations for deployers of high-risk AI systems take effect from August 2, 2026. Irish organisations that deploy AI in areas such as recruitment, lending, credit assessment, HR management, or essential public services will need to demonstrate conformity with the Act's requirements — including risk management systems, human oversight mechanisms, and record-keeping obligations.
Organisations that have not yet assessed which of their AI systems are high-risk under the Act should treat this as a matter of urgency. The August 2026 deadline is not an aspiration — it is an enforcement date. Our EU AI Act Readiness Review is a fixed-scope four-week engagement that delivers the inventory, classification, and remediation roadmap your organisation needs.
Learn about the EU AI Act Readiness ReviewWhy Acuity
- Former Microsoft COO — operational AI experience at enterprise scale across Western Europe
- Current Non-Executive Director at Dublin Airport Authority and Tailte Eireann
- Contributor to the Law Society of Ireland AI Toolkit
- Fixed-fee engagements — scope and cost agreed before work begins
- Vendor-neutral: no technology platform, no platform partnerships
Common questions
What is AI governance?
AI governance is the set of policies, oversight structures, accountability mechanisms and risk controls that an organisation puts in place to manage the AI systems it uses. It covers who is responsible for AI decisions, how AI systems are monitored, what happens when something goes wrong, and how the organisation demonstrates compliance with regulation. Good AI governance is not a compliance tick-box — it is the foundation that allows an organisation to use AI confidently and responsibly.
Do Irish organisations need AI governance frameworks?
Yes, and urgently. The EU AI Act imposes mandatory obligations on organisations that deploy AI systems in Ireland, with enforcement from August 2026. Beyond the Act, the Central Bank of Ireland, the Data Protection Commission, and sector-specific regulators all expect organisations to demonstrate that AI is being used with appropriate oversight and accountability. A governance framework is not optional for any regulated Irish organisation using AI in material processes.
What does AI governance cost?
At Acuity AI Advisory, AI governance engagements are fixed-fee. A foundational AI governance framework engagement starts from €15,000 + VAT and typically runs over four to six weeks. This includes an AI systems inventory, a risk classification assessment, a governance policy, board reporting templates, and a 90-day implementation roadmap. For organisations that need to begin with a scoped diagnostic before committing to a full framework, an AI Clarity Session is available from €1,500 + VAT.
Build your AI governance framework
Fixed-fee engagements with defined deliverables. Start with a conversation or an AI Clarity Session.
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