AI Ireland made it’s way to Microsoft’s stunning European HQ in Leopardstown last Wednesday morning, as our guests were treated to some world-class presentations at One Microsoft Place.

Microsoft‘s Cloud Solution Architect of Data and AI Roy Wilson got things underway as he talked about the modern data landscape and how it has changed. Roy spoke from his 20 plus years experience in applying technology to solve real-world problems and more about his role at Microsoft helping key customers with design, deployment and adoption of the hybrid Microsoft Data Platform, including Big Data, Machine learning, AI and Azure-based IoT solutions.

AI has grown rapidly over the past few years and it will continue to do so for many years to come. It is predicted that digital storage will reach 190 zettabytes by 2025 and the 54 Azure regions as of March 2018 will double around the world. Artificial Intelligence is already at the heart of many organisation’s digital transformation efforts globally and Microsoft are not wasting any time in building their AI ecosystem.

Roy shared some applications of AI to Modern Data and discussed Microsoft’s platform which ranges from Azure AI Services, to coding and management tools, to their work in Deep Learning & Machine Learning. He told us a range of examples on how Microsoft help companies apply AI to their business, including training a Machine Learning model in the cloud on the edge and using a deep learning model across them, as well as an intelligent kiosk that can upload their own images to the cloud among others.

Kainos‘ Head of AI Austin Tanney discussed what is hype and what is real? AI is not Japanese scientists looking into your imagination, but rather it is making ground-breaking discoveries to improve our lives. He spoke about many incredible AI applications in healthcare from treatment for Type1 diabetes, patient surveillance, predicting strokes and detecting diseases early to name just a few.

He gave an overview of AI at Kainos with the teamwork for over four years to help establish Kainos provide a range of AI-driven solutions to solve real-world problems in both the public and the private sector. He shared some really interesting examples of case studies at Kainos, including helping the HSE to build a chatbot to compliment their customer service and creating a personalised recommendation engine for a holidaymakers company.

Austin has without a doubt got a burning desire to give back to the community and it also led to the growth of the AI NI community. AINI aims to educate people on the positive impact AI will make on our lives through meetups and hackathons. AI is already very much a part of our everyday lives and it is Kainos’ mission to establish themselves as premier thought-leaders in the Northern Ireland tech sector.

From one highly ambitious mind to another, Alldus International’s Chief Customer Officer Mark Kelly discussed what he learned from interviewing 100 AI leaders across the world over the past year. He told us about worldwide innovations such as AI-created paintings and robots riding motorcycles to breakthrough products right here in Ireland in areas such as the future of driving, voice recognition technology and healthcare.

Not a single industry will be left untapped by AI, but it is important that organisations embrace this change or risk being left behind. The likes of France, United States, UAE and Finland are developing national AI strategies and Mark hopes Ireland follows suit. AI Ireland and the AI Awards was set up to highlight this and increase public awareness of AI because to many people, this is still an unknown world.

More and more businesses are making this shift and with the growing demand for data scientists and AI Engineers, there is a risk of demand outweighing supply. This inspired Mark and his partners to set up Alldus AI Workforce Solutions. The Alldus team is going above and beyond the traditional staffing company with meetups, podcasts and mentoring aimed at both clients and candidates to help them achieve success in the growing AI-driven workplace.

We would like to thank Paul Shanahan and Microsoft for inviting us to their impressive One Microsoft Place to host the AI Ireland meetup. A big thank you also goes to our speakers Austin and Roy for their brilliant talks and to all our guests to braved the heavy rain to come join us for an enjoyable event.

AI Awards 2018: Limited Tickets Remaining
Connecting Ireland’s AI ecosystem for a higher purpose

The excitement levels keep rising by the day as we are now just nine days away from the inaugural AI Awards, which takes place the Gibson Hotel on Thursday 22 November. Come Join us to celebrate the great work being done in AI on the island of Ireland.

The AI Awards, in conjunction with principal sponsor Microsoft, is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting, advancing and rewarding corporate and academic excellence in Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation, research & development and products.

It is our mission to support the AI community by recognising the hard work and dedication of those working in the field and to help promote and market Ireland globally as the first-choice home for AI investment and job creation in research and product development.

There are limited tickets remaining so click here now to get your tickets for the 2018 AI Awards</