Client News

Taste of Dublin 2024 Bigger Than Ever with New Iconic Location at Merrion Square

New location also marks the announcement of JYSK as headline sponsor

Dublin’s legendary culinary festival, Taste of Dublin, is set to return this June with another explosion of flavours and food innovation. This iconic event will take place for the first time in one of Dublin’s most beautiful Georgian Squares – the historic Merrion Square. To mark this new location the festival has also revealed JYSK, the Danish interiors retailer, as its headline sponsor.  

This year’s edition spotlights the remarkable surge in Irish culinary creativity. The larger festival footprint will ensure a more immersive experience for food aficionados. Taste of Dublin will take place from the 13^th – 16^th of June with over 34,000 people expected to attend the event.  

Once again, the festival will bring a constellation of well-known Irish chefs, restaurants, artisan food innovators, and musical acts together for a truly remarkable experience for the senses. Cultural diversity in food will be at the heart of the festival. Furthermore, together with JYSK and other key sponsors, the organisers are planning several new and exciting activations and visitor activities as part of the 2024 line up.   

Commenting on behalf of Taste of Dublin, CEO, Equinox Events, Jo Mathews, said, “This year marks a new chapter in the story of Taste of Dublin as we host the festival for the first time in the historic surroundings of Merrion Square and welcome JYSK as our headline sponsor. It has been a pleasure to work with the creative team at JYSK to craft a truly unique festival experience while staying true to the magic that has been synonymous with our event over the last 19 years. Innovation is the cornerstone of the Taste of Dublin blueprint, and we look forward to celebrating some of Ireland’s, and indeed the world’s, top food creators and experts again this year. Together with JYSK and our wider partners, we look forward to sharing more exciting details as we move closer to June”. 

Country Director for JYSK UK & IRE, Roni Tuominen, added: “2024 is a very exciting year for us at JYSK, between opening our new flagship store in Liffey Valley, continuing our expansion nationwide and partnering with Taste of Dublin as the lead sponsor of the festival, we’re really looking forward to the year ahead.  JYSK is one of Ireland’s go to destinations for high quality, on trend products for the home and garden and we can’t wait to bring our Scandinavian design ethic and style to Taste of Dublin 2024”. 

With everything from cookery demonstrations, interactive workshops, and hands-on masterclasses, there really is something for everyone at Taste of Dublin 2024.  For more information visit tasteofdublin.ie  

 

Uisce Éireann Announces 700 New Jobs Nationwide

Ireland’s National Water Authority offers exciting career opportunities in all counties

 Uisce Éireann, Ireland’s national water authority, has today announced it will be recruiting for 700 new jobs across the country. These exciting opportunities will be available in the next year, with positions ready to be filled immediately.

The roles span a range of disciplines, offering a chance for professionals, tradespeople at all levels, recent graduates, and skilled workers to contribute to their local communities while building rewarding careers. Uisce Éireann is committed to providing ongoing training, and attractive compensation and benefits packages to ensure a secure and fulfilling work experience.

Speaking at the announcement, Uisce Éireann’s People and Safety Director, Dawn O’Driscoll said, “As we continue our development as Ireland’s national water authority with responsibility for the delivery of public water and wastewater services nationwide, we are delighted to be announcing 700 new jobs for candidates across the country. We’re filling an exciting range of roles in all counties, including front-line operations, science and engineering, administration, communications, management and IT.

“This is the largest recruitment announcement made by Uisce Éireann to date and reflects the scope and scale of the activities we are carrying out nationwide. These new positions will not only offer a chance to make a tangible difference to your community but will provide plenty of opportunities to develop your career in a growing organisation. We are looking for people with diverse skillsets to play their part in delivering transformative water services that enable their local communities to thrive.

“At Uisce Éireann, we are proud to provide all employees with equal opportunities and we continue to demonstrate our full commitment to creating an open, diverse and inclusive workplace that enables all our people to achieve their full potential.”

Uisce Éireann encourages interested individuals to visit www.water.ie/careers to explore and apply for the exciting opportunities available in their local areas.

 

Sevilla FC transforms the player recruitment process with the power of IBM watsonx generative AI

• Sevilla FC introduce Scout Advisor, an innovative tool built on IBM’s watsonx platform, to enhance player recruitment process.
• “Scout Advisor” is designed to unlock the full potential of Sevilla FC extensive players database to create new competitive advantages.
• watsonx enables Sevilla FC to bridge the gap between traditional human-centric and data-driven scouting in the identification and characterization of potential recruits.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Sevilla FC has introduced Scout Advisor, an innovative generative AI tool that Sevilla FC will use to provide their scouting team with a comprehensive, data-driven identification and evaluation of potential recruits. Built on watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform designed for enterprises, Sevilla FC’s Scout Advisor will integrate with their existing suite of self-developed data-intensive applications.

Sevilla FC’s data department worked with IBM Client Engineering Team to build Scout Advisor, leveraging watsonx’s natural language processing and foundation models to search and analyse massive amounts of information present in the club’s existing databases to evaluate potential recruits. This includes both quantitative data such as height and weight, speed, number of goals or minutes played, and qualitative unstructured data such as the textual analysis contained in their more than 200,000 scouting reports.

The solution’s natural language processing capabilities have enabled Sevilla FC to use multiple large language models (LLMs) to help enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of their player identification. Using language prompts from Sevilla FC scouters that describe the key characteristics of the players searched, Scout Advisor generates curated lists of candidates based on stated requirements and summarises the full set of scouting reports for each individual player. Additionally, Scout Advisor links every player to the Sevilla FC’s own data-applications to obtain deep insights about their quantitative performance figures.

Player scouting and recruiting decisions at elite sports teams, especially in the football industry, involve multi-million-dollar investments, long term contracts and high levels of uncertainty on performance and ROI. Traditionally, player recruitment has relied on a combination of subjective human observation and manual data analysis. However, this approach has several limitations, as it is both time-consuming and considers only a limited number of factors.

Already widely recognised for its massive database of quantitative player evaluations, the Sevilla FC scouting team has attracted the global attention for its successful track record of identifying rising football stars. In addition, Sevilla FC is a pioneer in the development of its own data-intensive applications targeted to characterise players based on a wide spectrum of quantitative figures. Now, Scout Advisor offers Sevilla FC further competitive advantage — combining their existing capabilities with the use of generative AI to bridge the gap between metrics-based scouting and human-centric observations that cannot be as easily measured on the pitch. This automated approach is designed to further enhance their player identification process, to help them to make more efficient and informed recruitment decisions.

IBM watsonx capabilities allow Scout Advisor to unlock the full potential of Sevilla FC’s extensive players reports database making it possible to search for players using natural language and retrieve potential recruits based on their key quantitative indicators and the detailed opinion that scouting experts have about them. This provides Sevilla FC with potential competitive advantages, in terms of being able to make better-informed recruitment decisions with technology empowered insights.

“We are excited to work with IBM as this project can be a game-changer for Sevilla FC and the whole Sports Industry” José María del Nido Carrasco, Sevilla FC’s President. “Our team of scouters and analysts is committed to finding the best players to support our team’s success and have worked tirelessly to build an impressive database of player reports, and now, with the support of IBM, we can utilize this asset to its full potential. This gives us a significant advantage in the player recruitment process and enables us to find the best players for our team and continue to improve our performance on the pitch. We believe that this collaboration will have a positive impact not only for Sevilla FC but for the sports industry as a whole. With this tool, Sevilla FC also demonstrates that technology is not just a goal but an intimate companion on the journey towards the future of our entity; it is part of its DNA”.

“We are proud to collaborate with Sevilla FC to use the power of IBM watsonx generative AI to help enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of their player recruitment process” said Ana Paula Assis, Chair and General Manager at IBM EMEA. “With the appropriate guardrails and governance in place, AI continues to be a game-changer for businesses across many industries looking to modernise operations. In this instance, by producing trusted and explainable insights that advance the goals of a competitive football club while transforming the work of a football scout.”

The collaboration between IBM and Sevilla FC is part of the club’s wider business and technology strategy, which aims to leverage the power of data and AI to enhance their football operations. By integrating the watsonx-based solution into their existing data architecture, Sevilla FC aims to increase the ROI on existing resources with faster, more efficient, and better-informed recruitment decisions.

Research Commissioned by IBM Suggests Growth in Enterprise Adoption of AI But Barriers Keep 40% in the Exploration and Experimentation Phases

New research commissioned by IBM (NYSE: IBM) has found that about 42% of enterprise-scale organisations (over 1,000 employees) have AI actively in use in their businesses. Early adopters are leading the way, with 59% of the enterprises already working with AI intending to accelerate and increase investment in the technology. Ongoing challenges for AI adoption in enterprises remain, including hiring employees with the right skillsets, data complexity, and ethical concerns continue to inhibit businesses from adopting AI technologies into their operations.

“We’re seeing that the early adopters who overcame barriers and have deployed AI are already experiencing the benefits and making further investments. More accessible AI tools, the drive for automation of key processes, and increasing amounts of AI embedded into off-the-shelf business applications are top factors driving the expansion of AI at the enterprise level,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, IBM Software. “We see organizations leveraging AI for use cases where the technology can most quickly have a profound impact like IT automation, digital labour, and customer care. For the 40% of companies stuck in the sandbox, 2024 will be the year of tackling and overcoming barriers to entry like the skills gap and data complexity.”

Highlights from the “IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023,” conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, include:

Over the last several years, AI adoption has remained steady at large organisations:

• Today, 42% of IT professionals at large organisations report that they have actively deployed AI while an additional 40% are actively exploring using the technology.
• Additionally, 38% of IT professionals at enterprises report that their company is actively implementing generative AI and another 42% are exploring it.
• Organisations in India (59%),China (50%), Singapore (53%), and the UAE (58%) are leading the way in active use of AI, compared with lagging markets like Spain (28%), Australia (29%), and France (26%).
• Companies within the financial services industry are most likely to be using AI, with about half of IT professionals within that industry reporting their company has actively deployed AI. 37% of IT professionals within the telecommunications industry state that their company is also deploying AI.

The majority of companies actively deploying or exploring AI have accelerated their rollout or investments in the past 24 months:

• 59% of IT professionals at companies deploying or exploring AI indicate that their company has accelerated their investments in or rollout of AI in the past 24 months.
• China (85%), India (74%), and the UAE (72%) are the markets most likely to be accelerating AI rollout, while businesses in the UK (40%), Australia (38%) and Canada (35%) were the least likely to accelerate the rollout.
• Research and development (44%) and reskilling/workforce development (39%) are the top AI investments at organisations exploring or deploying AI.

Easier to use AI tools and the need to reduce costs and automate processes are driving AI adoption:

• Advances in AI tools that make them more accessible (45%), the need to reduce costs and automate key processes (42%), and the increasing amount of AI embedded into standard off the shelf business applications (37%) are the top factors driving AI adoption.
• For IT professionals, the two most important changes to AI in recent years are solutions that are easier to deploy (43%) and the increased prevalence of data, AI, and automation skills (42%).
• The AI use cases driving adoption for companies currently exploring or deploying AI are not limited, but cut across many key areas of business operations:
  • Automation of IT processes (33%)
  • Security and threat detection (26%)
  • AI monitoring or governance (25%)
  • Business analytics or intelligence (24%)
  • Automating processing, understanding, and flow of documents (24%)
  • Automating customer or employee self-service answers and actions (23%)
  • Automation of business processes (22%)
  • Automation of network processes (22%)
  • Digital labour (22%)
  • Marketing and sales (22%)
  • Fraud detection (22%)
  • Search and knowledge discovery (21%)
  • Human resources and talent acquisition (19%)
  • Financial planning and analysis (18%)
  • Supply chain intelligence (18%)

The same set of barriers are keeping the next wave of companies from benefiting from AI:

• The top barriers hindering successful AI adoption at enterprises both exploring or deploying AI are limited AI skills and expertise (33%), too much data complexity (25%), ethical concerns (23%), AI projects that are too difficult to integrate and scale (22%), high price (21%), and lack of tools for AI model development (21%).

Generative AI poses different barriers to entry from traditional AI models:

• Data privacy (57%) and trust and transparency (43%) concerns are the biggest inhibitors of generative AI according to IT professionals at organisations not exploring or implementing generative AI.
• 35% also say that lack of skills for implementation are a big inhibitor.

AI is already having an impact on the workforce:

• One-in-five organisations do not have employees with the right skills in place to use new AI or automation tools and 16% cannot find new hires with the skills to address that gap.
• Among companies citing AI’s use to address labour or skills shortages, they are tapping AI to do things like reduce manual or repetitive tasks with automation tools (55%) or automate customer self-service answers and actions (47%).
• Only 34% are currently training or reskilling employees to work together with new automation and AI tools.

The need for trustworthy and governed AI is understood by IT professionals, but barriers are making it difficult for companies to put into practice:

• IT professionals are largely in agreement that consumers are more likely to choose services from companies with transparent and ethical AI practices (85% strongly or somewhat agree) and say being able to explain how their AI reached a decision is important to their business (83%) among companies exploring or deploying AI).
• But, with many companies already deploying AI facing multiple barriers in the process, well under half are taking key steps towards trustworthy AI like reducing bias (27%), tracking data provenance (37%), making sure they can explain the decisions of their AI models (41%), or developing ethical AI policies (44%).

Methodology:

This survey was conducted in November 2023 among a representative sample of 8,584 IT Professionals in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, UAE, UK, US and LATAM (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru). To qualify for the survey, participants must be employed full-time, work at companies with more than 1 employee, work in a manager or higher-level role, and have at least some knowledge about how IT operates and is used by their company. The global results have a margin of error of +/- 1 percentage point.

IBM Commits to Train Two Million in Artificial Intelligence in Three Years, with a Focus on Underrepresented Communities

• Learners will benefit from a new generative AI course roadmap and collaborations with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) worldwide.
• Dublin City University (DCU) and Fast Track into Information Technology (FIT) are the first partners to lead the initiative in Ireland

To help close the global artificial intelligence (AI) skills gap, IBM have announced a commitment to train two million learners in AI by the end of 2026, with a focus on underrepresented communities. To achieve this goal at a global scale, IBM is expanding AI education collaborations with universities globally, collaborating with partners to deliver AI training to adult learners, and launching new generative AI coursework through IBM SkillsBuild. This will expand upon IBM’s existing programs and career-building platforms to offer enhanced access to AI education and in-demand technical roles.

According to a recent global study conducted by IBM Institute of Business Value, surveyed executives estimate that implementing AI and automation will require 40% of their workforce to reskill over the next three years, mostly those in entry-level positions. This further reinforces that generative AI is creating a demand for new roles and skills.

Deborah Threadgold, Country General Manager, IBM Ireland said: “As Ireland’s National AI Strategy recognises, providing workers with the right skills for AI jobs must go hand-in-hand with a much wider skills agenda, to ensure that everyone in society can benefit from the digital transformation that AI will bring. This should include a wide range of AI and digital courses across secondary, further and higher education, and raising the level of digital skills amongst the general public. That’s why we are investing in AI training, with a commitment to reach two million learners in three years, and expanding IBM SkillsBuild to collaborate with universities and nonprofits on new generative AI education for learners all over the world.”

Peter Davitt, Chief Executive Officer of Fast Track into Information Technology (FIT) added: “During the past twelve months, FIT has seen Ireland’s education system and business community interface with generative AI solutions, posing some challenges and promising future growth. FIT looks forward to complimenting the Tech Apprenticeships and broader provision with IBM AI course content.”

AI training for universities

IBM is collaborating with universities at a global level to build capacity around AI leveraging IBM’s network of experts. University faculty will have access to IBM-led training such as lectures and immersive skilling experiences, including certificates upon completion. Also, IBM will provide courseware for faculty to use in the classroom, including self-directed AI learning paths. In addition to faculty training, IBM will offer students flexible and adaptable resources, including free, online courses on generative AI and Red Hat open source technologies.

Professor Theo Lynn, Full Professor of Digital Business, DCU commented: “Ireland is emerging as a significant player in AI worldwide and the government has set out ambitious goals for 75% of all enterprises to be using AI, cloud and big data by 2030.  We are delighted to be the first university in Ireland to incorporate the IBM SkillsBuild generative AI learning and teaching resources into our business analytics modules for this Academic Year and extend our use of IBM SkillsBuild in postgraduate business analytics programmes. By integrating IBM SkillsBuild into our modules, faculty and students have access to training, coursework, resources, and certification to ensure that they are ahead of the curve when it comes to the opportunities presented by AI, Data Science, Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity and Enterprise Design Thinking.”

Research shows eight out of ten believe pet ownership positively impacts mental wellbeing and prevents loneliness

• Over a third found their beloved pet through an animal shelter
• Findings shows six out of ten buy gifts for their pet
• Pet nutrition brand Purina renews partnership with DSCPA to support over 1,700 cats and dogs annually

Eight out of ten Irish adults believe that having a pet has a major positive influence on their mental wellbeing – while in the past year over a third have sourced their pet from an animal shelter, with four in ten looking to family and friends.

The research findings coincide with Purina announcing the renewal of its long-term partnership with the DSPCA. This sees Purina providing all the food and nutrition for cats and dogs in the care of the DSPCA, contributing positively to the charity’s work to rehome cats and dogs annually.

It is anticipated that Purina’s support will help with the care of over 3,500 cats and dogs over the course of the next two years alone.

The findings also show that some eight out of ten Irish adults cite having a pet as key to preventing them from feeling lonely. Meanwhile, over 90% of those surveyed said their pet is an integral part of the family unit, with nearly 60% buying gifts for their pet at milestone moments such as birthdays and Christmas.

The survey of 1,000 adults found that Ireland is very much a nation of animal lovers, with 64% owning a pet:  dogs (45%), cats (33%) and fish (6%) ranked the top three most popular choices.

On a yearly basis the DSPCA supports almost 3,000 animals at their headquarters in Rathfarnham, Dublin, through the provision of rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming services, as well as educating the public on responsible pet ownership through engagement and advocacy work.

Commenting on the announcement, Joanne McKenna, Country Category Manager Ireland, Purina PetCare said:

“Purina is delighted to build further on its long-standing, decade plus partnership with the DSPCA, where it has supplied nutrition equating to over 300,000 meals and tasty treats. The partnership renewal will now see both organisations come together to further promote the importance of animal health and wellbeing and demonstrate the positive impact of pet ownership for individuals and families.

“Our recent survey underscores the deep bond between pets and their families, with an overwhelming majority considering their pets as integral family members. Central to this is the positive impact that an animal has on mental and physical wellbeing and contributing to an overall positive sense of self. There is an incredible bond between owner and animal and the benefits for both are many.

Pat Watt, CEO of the DSPCA said,

“We are pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with Purina, who have to date, played an integral role as the official nutritional partner to the DSPCA, providing unwavering support over the last decade.

“As you can appreciate one of the key pillars of our work is animal care, in many cases nursing animals back to full health and in other cases, caring for their needs before they go to a new home. Central to this care and recovery process, is the type of nutrition that an animal is provided with, and we would like to acknowledge the support provided by Purina.

“We are now entering an exciting new phase for the DSPCA as we look to further amplify the message of responsible pet ownership and importance of animal welfare, among the public through our public awareness and advocacy work. The renewal of our partnership with Purina is timely, and provides much needed support for this, with both organisations aligning on the value of pet ownership but equally the roles and responsibilities that come with that.”

Bláthnaid Treacy, TV & Radio Presenter, RTÉ 2FM said,

“As Ireland’s largest animal welfare charity, the DSPCA make an amazing contribution to safeguarding and promoting animal welfare, supporting over 1,700 cats and dogs each year. It’s fantastic to see the renewal of this long-standing partnership between DSPCA and Purina with an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the importance of pet ownership and how this can positively impact physical and emotional wellbeing. In my own life, we were so lucky to adopt Mabel, our beautiful dog from the DSPCA and she has made an enormous difference in our household, bringing us lots of joy and laughter.”