BearingPoint’s director of software engineering talks AI use cases, and the cybersecurity threats and opportunities the tech poses.

Recent major developments in AI technology – especially generative AI (GenAI) – have resulted in the tool becoming commonplace in business, with nearly all industries employing its wide-ranging capabilities in day-to-day activities.

According to analysts, business leaders are already upping their aims this year, focusing on getting returns from their GenAI investments. This, while an Accenture report from December 2024 found that the technology has the potential to contribute up to €148bn to Ireland’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2038.

SiliconRepublic.com spoke to Karl Byrne, the director of software engineering at BearingPoint, about GenAI’s use cases, and he says that the technology is “all over” assisted code development and automated code reviews.

“From an adoption perspective, we see it more proliferating into the public sector as well as the private sector … whether it’s sales, marketing, even product development, legacy application transformation from product development,” he says, adding that as the technology gets better and more reliable, its use cases will expand.

However, the increased adoption of GenAI in business has exposed vulnerabilities in cybersecurity systems, with a 2024 PwC report finding that GenAI increased the risk to cyberattacks for businesses in Ireland by 68pc that year, while only 28pc of companies in the country reported having “robust” cybersecurity measures in place.

According to Byrne, AI-assisted cyberattacks and supply-chain attacks are his biggest concerns in the coming years, and his top solution is to adopt a “zero-trust architecture framework”.

However, countering AI-assisted attacks requires employing more AI tools to “proactively recognise issues” within a business’s networks and ecosystems, Byrne says, adding that supply chain attacks can be mitigated with “rigorous assessments of different suppliers and third parties” that businesses use and employing tools that address any security issues in software build materials.

This will result in an increased demand for cybersecurity skills, AI specialists, data analysts and employees skilled in infrastructure as code, he says. Byrne adds that these new changes will also increase the demand for soft skills.

“Because of the changing situation and changing scenario we need to make sure that we have people who are adaptable to change and have got strong communication skills.”

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