Ekco has invested €4 million in Ekco AI, a platform giving employers visibility and control over how staff use AI tools at work, addressing the "shadow AI" gap that leaves HR and IT teams unable to see which applications employees are actually using or how company data is being handled. No deal consideration applies, as this is a product investment rather than a transaction.

Ekco is a Dublin-headquartered, security-first managed services provider, bootstrapped with no outside funding, generating around $211 million in revenue and employing approximately 828 people. Steve MacNicholas is CEO of Ekco Ireland, and Cian Prendergast is CEO of Ekco MSP.

The strategic logic reframes AI governance as a shared HR and IT responsibility rather than a pure security exercise, converting shadow AI risk into a productivity opportunity instead of a blanket restriction. Ekco's own research found that a typical business environment may have as many as 28 AI applications in use, leaving employers unable to see which tools staff rely on or how sensitive data is handled.

The structural driver is regulatory as well as behavioural: transparency obligations under the EU AI Act took effect on 2 August 2026, with further obligations due in 2027 and 2028. Steve MacNicholas said today's CIOs don't always know what AI platforms their employees are using, while Cian Prendergast said a blanket ban is not an effective answer because people may simply continue using the tools they already know.

The platform pairs monitoring and guardrails with role-based training on tools including Microsoft Copilot and Claude, alongside broader data protection and AI risk awareness training, positioning it as a workforce capability programme rather than a restriction tool, with Ekco citing potential savings of €2 million for every €10 million of operating costs through improved employee productivity.

For the sector, the launch signals that AI usage policy and workforce training are converging into a single HR and IT governance function, with employers increasingly expected to combine oversight, enablement and compliance as regulatory transparency requirements tighten.

Source: RTE / TechCentral.ie / Irish Tech News / ThinkBusiness