Gary Ryan

The Power of Data Report 2025 is live 🚀. How are organisations unlocking the value of data? Find out here: https://lnkd.in/dxJ5QNvG The Information Lab Ireland #PowerOfData2025

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Yesterday, Acuity celebrated the official opening of its Digital Centre of Excellence in Penrose Two, Cork, marking the next phase of its long‑term investment in Ireland. First announced in September 2025, the Centre will create more than 100 highly skilled software engineering roles over the next three years and serves as a global hub for software innovation and data‑forward engineering.  Supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland, the new Cork office brings together Acuity’s expanding local leadership team and a growing pipeline of talent to drive the next generation of intelligent, scalable, data-forward solutions. Today’s ribbon cutting also welcomed partners from UCC, MTU, the Cork Chamber, and broader regional stakeholders who play an integral role in cultivating Ireland’s world‑class innovation ecosystem. #Acuity #Cork

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Got the chance to write an op-ed for Irish Tech News this week on AI Search. You can read it below, where I duscuss some emerging trends and advice on how to optimise your content and website. Here's some of my main points👇 1) Make yourself findable. Welcome reputable crawlers and curate a focused AI sitemap. 2) Make yourself quotable. Write concise introductions, provide explicit answers, deploy focused FAQs, present data in clean tables, and showcase credible authorship. 3) Work cross-functionally. Align SEO, content, development, and paid media teams around assistant-layer outcomes. 5) Become actionable. Address accessibility debt and ensure forms support4) programmatic submission. 6) Prepare for agency. Expose appropriate APIs, consider building an assistant integration, and pilot simplified checkout flows. #aisearch #aioverviews #agenticcommerce #aiireland https://lnkd.in/eGF8uahV

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The Business Post is tops for tech. In today's issue: Amazon Web Services (AWS) in talks with Echelon Data Centres as Irish revenues surge Exclusive interview with Sarah Friar, OpenAI's chief financial officer Analysis: Jenny Melia is a safe pair of hands as the new CEO of Enterprise Ireland, but is that what the state agency needs right now? Pat Phelan and his co-founders at Momntum seek to fix customer service with AI Irish medtech sector seeks reprieve at tariffs talks continue between US and EU

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“Dublin-based security services provider Ekco has announced the acquisition of Cork-based IT managed services provider Adapt IT. This is Ekco’s sixth acquisition in two years, bringing its total acquisition investment to €57m. “

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❌ Amazon Web Services (AWS) is moving ahead with 350 redundancies in Ireland, as part of a global restructuring, The Journal reported this week. The tech giant had announced last month that it planned to cut 16,000 roles globally, in an effort to prioritise AI and increase efficiency. https://lnkd.in/dEhDsNUk

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After a turbulent year of global and Irish tech layoffs, new findings from the Stelfox Tech Recruitment Salary Guide 2026 indicate that stability and selective growth are returning to the sector. The latest research by one of Ireland’s leading technology recruitment specialists, Stelfox Tech Recruitment, shows that 37% of Irish tech employers plan to grow headcount next year, while 56% expect to maintain their current teams. This signals a shift towards more strategic, sustainable growth. What’s driving hiring? 🔹 Increased demand for products and services 🔹 Expansion into new markets 🔹 Long-term talent pipeline development 🔹 The continued rise of AI-driven roles Commenting on the findings, Jennifer Dillon, Managing Director of Stelfox Tech Recruitment, said: “Despite tighter margins and cost pressures, Ireland’s technology sector remains in a strong position. The market has matured, and businesses are being more deliberate in their hiring, focusing on critical skills rather than volume. The fact that almost four in 10 employers still intend to grow teams next year demonstrates continued confidence in Ireland as a hub for innovation and talent". 💡 Most in-demand skills for 2026: – Software engineering – AI & LLM integration – Data science & analytics – Cybersecurity – Cloud computing – IoT Stelfox Tech Recruitment also highlights a key challenge: skills shortages could become the biggest barrier to transformation. Employers are responding by investing in upskilling, reskilling and long-term workforce planning. Looking ahead, the recruitment specialists note that investment in infrastructure, connectivity and R&D will be essential to strengthen Ireland’s digital foundations and support sector-wide innovation and scaling. #Stelfox #TechRecruitment #RecruitmentTrends #TechIreland  https://lnkd.in/ey-cze58

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Luck of the Irish + AI vibing? Nope. Tines is phenomenal humans delivering wisdom + a platform weaving all forms of intelligence to dynamically de-risk & accelerate how your enterprise works.

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This is a fantastic demonstration of how Agentic AI powered AWS services are enabling legacy tech debt elimination at a much faster pace. You can also find more details about this here - https://lnkd.in/efTstGnW

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"Ireland has a unique opportunity to harness the wider expertise that exists in our bustling tech sector - bringing our expertise together with Google is one key that can begin to unlock the economic opportunity AI will bring." 📈 CeADAR Ireland and Google have signed a major strategic partnership to help Irish enterprises harness the full potential of artificial intelligence. This collaboration will provide critical support for businesses looking to adopt AI through training, real-world applications, and innovation-led solutions. This pioneering initiative places University College Dublin at the centre of Ireland's AI ecosystem, empowering companies to innovate responsibly and competitively in a rapidly changing digital economy. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eGU8QGXT

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At Zero Day Con 2025, Martin Carry, Systems Engineer Manager at Palo Alto Networks, pointed to a recurring theme in Irish CEO surveys: technology and AI are expected to drive business growth. But he also highlighted a common failure in digital transformation. Teams build something users love, momentum builds… then security reviews it at the end and shuts it down. Innovation stalls instantly. Martin’s point was: security has to be part of the strategy from day one, not a last-minute gatekeeper. A simple shift, but essential for organisations that want to innovate at speed. #ZeroDayCon #SecurityEngineering #DigitalTransformation

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Kudos Sean for the responses. Some really interesting discussion here! There's a really interesting question here around data centers. Does Ireland's participation in Data Centers increase our participation levels in future AI economies. The Data Center offers an opportunity but it's not any kind of guarantee in upward mobility up the stack. The indirect benefits of data centers here have been things like increased connectivity to the island. The big players in the cloud space - Google, AWS & Microsoft all have a massive presence here and they're also going to be competing globally in the AI race. Their presence has attracted ancillary roles like network engineering, cybersecurity & SRE to the island where we have some of the best talent in the world. With that, some of these companies have increased their dev presence, but much of that still happens in other locations. However, we do suddenly now have a proximity privilege. That allows direct engagement at the government level and opportunities for future partnerships. But that provides no guarantees. Given the national security interests the biggest countries in the world have in AI, simply providing a foundational piece of the supply chain does not guarantee upwards mobility in the AI stack. A lot of the future participation will come down to talent on the island and building (and attracting) that talent will ultimately determine our future participation. The number 1 thing to increase and create that talent would be aggressively funding masters & PhD programs in AI, ML & Data Science. And doing so in partnership with those companies operating in Ireland would be ideal. I think there's a real opportunity to create an Irish sustainable data center story, but maybe that ship has sailed. However, that does not rule out meaningful participation in the real future AI economies. The converse is also true. Having data centers does not guarantee our participation or give us an unnatural right. What we do know from history is talent will attract the right companies and fuel our future. That's where we should be aggressive.

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Revenues at the Irish arm of Amazon Web Services (AWS) surged again last year, rising by just over €1 billion to €7.09 billion as pre-tax profits jumped to €22.9 million from €15.1 million

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Today marks a significant milestone as Microsoft celebrates 40 years of innovation and impact in Ireland. From our early beginnings to becoming a strategic international hub, we’ve contributed over €40 billion to Ireland’s economy and built a team of over 6,000 talented people driving transformation across industries. Today we announced €4 million additional investment in AI skilling and Expansion of Dream Space, inspiring the next generation with immersive STEM and AI learning experiences for students and educators. I’m incredibly proud to work for a company that not only leads the charge in AI but also invests in inclusive skilling and education to unlock opportunities for everyone. 

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On Monday Acuity celebrated the official opening of its Digital Centre of Excellence in Penrose Two, Cork, marking the next phase of its long‑term investment in Ireland. First announced in September 2025, the Centre will create more than 100 highly skilled software engineering roles over the next three years and serves as a global hub for software innovation and data‑forward engineering. Supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland, the new Cork office brings together Acuity’s expanding local leadership team and a growing pipeline of talent to drive the next generation of intelligent, scalable, data-forward solutions. Mondays ribbon cutting also welcomed partners from University College Cork, Munster Technological University, the Cork Chamber and broader regional stakeholders who play an integral role in cultivating Ireland’s world‑class innovation ecosystem.

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An Engineer's Perspective💡Why is hands-on experience with AI technology beneficial for technical teams? Spanish Point Technologies Copilot Champions and Kirillos Akram, Senior Partner Solutions Architect – GenAI & AI/Machine Learning at Microsoft Ireland, share how team members can move from theory to practice, including: 🔹 How Azure AI is streamlining daily workflows 🔹 How GitHub Copilot’s chat function understands the context of your work to offer more tailored, useful responses #Microsoftcopilot #MicrosoftAI #AIengineering

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