Irish business leaders are increasingly convinced that AI agents — autonomous systems capable of analysing information, making decisions and taking action — will reshape the workplace more profoundly than the internet did. Yet despite that conviction, adoption remains stubbornly slow.
In this episode of The Tech Agenda, Ian Kehoe explores the findings of PwC Ireland’s new survey on AI agents, speaking with Robert Byrne, Technology Data & AI Partner at PwC Ireland, and Laoise Mullane, Director and AI Adoption Lead in PwC’s Workforce Advisory practice. Together, they unpack the contradiction at the heart of Agentic AI among Irish businesses: soaring ambition on one side, cautious adoption on the other.
Byrne explains how Irish organisations are starting with back-office productivity gains but have yet to take the bigger leap toward rethinking process and operating model transformation. Mullane highlights the workforce dimension — the trust gaps, the mindset barriers and the cultural unease that arise when technology begins to act rather than simply assist.
The Tech Agenda with Ian Kehoe podcast series is sponsored by PwC.
A new survey of veterinary practices by the accountancy firm HLB Ireland shows that up to one third of vets are planning to sell their business in the coming year, yet only 2 per cent of their employees are interested in owning their practice. The firm's managing director Mark Butler and vet Pete Wedderburn join Thomas Hubert to discuss an industry where work culture, business organisation and customers are changing fast, and hundreds of Irish businesses are increasingly looking towards a corporate ownership model.
As tensions rise between performance culture and employee self-care, David Barrett, a psychometrics specialist, sorts what works from what doesn't. He talks to Rosanna Cooney about what constitutes a good investment in employee wellness. The Talent Matters podcast series is in association with Talent Summit and sponsored by Employee Financial Wellness.
AJ Thomas is chief chaos officer with Google's secretive innovation lab: X, Moonshot Factory. She talks to Rosanna Cooney about setting personal moonshots and using simple certainties to chart a path through the unknown. Talent Matters is a podcast series digging into some of the biggest issues facing employers today. This series is in association with Talent Summit and sponsored by Employee Financial Wellness.
Billy Magra has led an extraordinary life. One of his gifts during a career in comedy, music and television was identifying the coming trends. Now he wants to be part of a third-act revolution.
April Jordan is the manager for astronaut selection at NASA Johnson Space Centre. In this podcast, she talks to Rosanna Cooney about the space agency's rigorous two-year selection process and how it tests candidates for temperament, team skills, and resilience.
Talent Matters is a podcast series digging into some of the biggest issues facing employers today. This series is in association with Talent Summit and sponsored by Employee Financial Wellness.
Eddie Wilson served as Ryanair's chief people officer for two decades before migrating to the airline's chief executive chair. He talks to Rosanna Cooney about flexing the boundaries of an HR role to make it indispensable to management and the naivety of workplace loyalty. Talent Matters is a new podcast series digging into some of the biggest issues facing employers today. This series is in association with Talent Summit and sponsored by Employee Financial Wellness.
Talent Matters is a new podcast series digging into some of the biggest issues facing employers today. In this first episode, Rosanna Cooney talks to Nick Lawlor, CEO of Employee Financial Wellness, and Antonia King, head of employee engagement and internal communications at Stepstone, about the disconnect people feel between their salaries and the life they want to live. They also talk about where the responsibility for educating employees on financial literacy lies. This series is in association with Talent Summit and sponsored by Employee Financial Wellness.
Sinn Féin’s spokespeople on climate action and transport, Darren O’Rourke TD, and on climate justice, Senator Lynn Boylan, answer Thomas Hubert’s questions on the party’s developing climate policy.
From their proposals to reform the funding of renewable electricity development to the re-allocation of home retrofitting grants and their support for BusConnects, a picture emerges of how Ireland would attempt to cut its greenhouse gas emissions under a Sinn Féin government. They also explain why key elements, such as the level of climate effort expected of agriculture, are still missing from the party’s manifesto.
Cork-based Treemetrics is working with the European Space Agency to use satellite imagery and its own measurement technology to provide more accurate forest carbon credit estimates in a rapidly growing industry. In this podcast, chief executive, Enda Keane, talks to Rosanna Cooney about the eighteen-year journey to get to this point and the future regulation of carbon offsets.
