On Thursday, 18 September at The Galmont Hotel, Galway, over 400 leaders from industry, academia and the public sector gathered for TechIreland’s National AI Meet.
Technology Ireland ICT Skillnet was proud to co-sponsor and support an event programme that moved well beyond the “AI hype” to showcase real adoption, capability building and a fast maturing ecosystem.
From experimentation to enterprise value
Niamh Smyth, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation, opened the event with a clear signal that Ireland intends to lead in responsible adoption, reminding the room that “investing in people is just as important as investing in technology.” That frame set the tone for a day that repeatedly connected AI progress with workforce capabilities, organisational readiness and trust.
Sean Blanchfield’s (Jentic) keynote, Ireland in the Age of AI, challenged decision-makers to “grab the moment.” He warned that junior pipelines will compress as entry-level tasks automate, and argued for decisive national moves on energy, infrastructure and pragmatic regulation so Ireland becomes a leader rather than a consumer.
CeADAR’s John Lonsdale highlighted the adoption gap across sectors. Ireland is an AI talent hub, yet many organisations still sit at “superficial use.” Closing that gap will depend as much on leadership and skills as on technology choices.
What organisations are sharing from the front lines of AI
Google Cloud’s Elise Landman demystified agentic systems with a four-step playbook: prioritise low-risk, high-reward use cases; put data governance first; build internal champions; and test, then scale. Her message was simple and actionable for leaders who want impact without overreach.
Irish Rail’s Clement Egan described a “self-orchestrating railway ecosystem,” where networks of AI agents support operations and customer journeys, underpinned by responsible innovation. It was a concrete view of agentic AI in critical infrastructure.
In HR, Welliba’s David Barrett argued that “we’ve entered the agentic era,” and made the case for glass-box, as opposed to black box, explainability in high-stakes decisions. Trust, transparency and compliance were presented as foundations for adoption, not afterthoughts.
Financial services is shifting “from efficiency to intelligence,” said InsTech.ie’s Gary Leyden. The sector’s next horizon is continuous, personalised engagement and risk prevention, delivered with fairness and zero tolerance for bias.
Panels: startups, skills and Ireland’s R&I edge
The Enterprise Ireland panel revisited speakers who were on a panel from a couple of years ago, bringing Amelia Kelly (Curriculum Associates), Marie Toft (Emotionise.ai) and Iman Zolanvari (Jarvic.ai) back to the stage to show how startup opportunities have evolved since 2023. Moderated by Donnchadh Cullinan, the through-line was sharper product-market focus, clearer value from data, and more disciplined go-to-market.
The Skillnet Ireland panel, moderated by Eoin McDonnell, centred on building the AI skills advantage. Leaders from Fexco (Ailish Hansen), Pinergy (Damian Boylan), Millennium (Pat Lenihan) and CSCL (John McGrath) examined how to frame AI with the workforce, secure investment, and scale capability company-wide. The message landed: sustainable impact comes from skills, structures and culture as much as tools.
IDA Ireland’s panel session, hosted by John Durcan, underscored why this island is a European research and innovation hub, with perspectives from Workday, CVS Health, Logitech, Valeo and Cisco on talent, applied research and enterprise-scale deployment.
Signals to watch: GPT-5, agentic VC, and the Challenge pipeline
OpenAI’s Ciarán Doyle demoed GPT-5 and its implications for productivity and decision-making, reinforcing why governance, literacy and change management must keep pace with capability jumps.
Sure Valley Ventures’ Barry Downes introduced AgenticVC.org, showing how AI agents can transform origination, diligence and portfolio support, an indicator that agentic workflows are moving from lab to line-of-business across domains.
The National AI Challenge showcased the momentum in the ecosystem, culminating in the 2025 winners announcement. Community growth and regional participation continue to surge, and this year’s winning teams – HandSpeak AI who qualified from the AIM Centre hub, Launchloop who qualified from the WorkIQ hub and Liberty Lumens (Liberty IT) who qualified from the PorterShed hub – signal a pipeline that is both ambitious and applied.
What this all means for Irish businesses right now
- First, the adoption gap is closing, but unevenly. Leaders should pair top-down ambition with disciplined use-case selection and a skills-first plan to operationalise value.
- Second, agentic AI is becoming practical. Start internally with orchestrated workflows where risk is manageable and outcomes are measurable, then expand to customer-facing journeys.
- Third, trust is a differentiator. Explainability, fairness and data governance will decide whether solutions scale. Treat them as enablers, not constraints.
- Finally, talent is the multiplier. The organisations moving fastest are investing in literacy for all, deep skills for builders and operators, and leadership capability to steward change.
Following the event, Susan Kelly (Operations Director for Technology Ireland ICT Skillnet) commented that “the National AI Meet Galway showed Ireland at its best – ambitious, practical and collaborative. We saw a clear shift from experimentation to enterprise value, with leaders prioritising responsible adoption, robust data governance and the skills to scale. Our focus now is to help organisations turn these insights into action through targeted upskilling, so teams can deploy agentic AI safely, deliver measurable ROI, and build long-term competitiveness.”
Our commitment: building Ireland’s AI skills advantage
Congratulations to the team at TechIreland – Sree Nagabhushana, Shauna Keny, Brian Caulfield, Sheila Harte, Paddy Flynn and John O’Dea – and all event partners for delivering a day that balanced ambition with pragmatism, and inspiration with practical guidance.
As a co-sponsor and long-standing partner to industry and research, we left Galway energised, aligned, and focused on the work ahead, and will continue to help businesses move from pilots to production through targeted upskilling, executive education and hands-on programmes aligned to real use cases. If your organisation is ready to turn intent into impact, we’d love to collaborate.
Learn more about our AI upskilling initiatives
