Chris Johnston

Whilst some of the team were in Kansas, Alex Faux headed to the Meta Advisory Board Summit in Dublin. It’s an annual exclusive event and this time we were able to get an even greater understanding of Meta's commitment to AI and R&D and how best to utilise it all for our clients goals 💥 Summary below 👇 and give us a shout if you want to know more or need a hand making sure your Meta budget is being spent in the most effective and efficient way 📱 #Meta #AI https://lnkd.in/eDBqdx2d

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Lots of discussion today about the #AIOpportunitiesActionPlan, but what could it mean for Northern Ireland? I have some thoughts: 1. Regional AI Strategy More than ever we need a tailored NI AI strategy, aligned with the UK’s plan, but focused on our regional strengths e.g., agri-tech, life and health sciences, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing. Helen McCarthy, Matrix, The Northern Ireland Science Industry Panel. 2. Secure Future AI Growth Zone We must lobby for NI as a future #AIGrowthZone, we simply won't have a seat at the table if we don't achieve this. NI's unique advantages could make this attractive (e.g., dual market access, skilled workforce, lower operational costs). 3. Build AI Talent Pipelines It's a shame there's nothing in the Action Plan about earlier AI skill education in schools. NI is world-leading at PhD and postdoc AI research (#UU #QUB), but we need to see more specialised AI courses flowing downwards to postgrad and undergrad, as well as more collaboration with businesses on industry-relevant apprenticeships, and re-skilling programs. We also need to continue attracting #FDI in the region to support competitive salaries and more quality AI job opportunities (Invest Northern Ireland). 4. Public and Private Sector Collaboration We have a proven Research & Innovation Lab model for fostering partnerships between businesses, universities, and the public sector to drive AI innovation (#CSIT #AIRC #ARC #AMIC Michaela Black Maire O'Neill). Now industry-driven labs like #AICC and #MoZ have to drive forward real-world adoption through AI testbeds and pilot programs to attract further investment in the region. David Crozier CBE Stephen McCabe 5. Invest in Digital and Physical Infrastructure We need to advocate for investment in digital infrastructure e..g, high-speed internet outside of city limits and data centres to enhance compute power for research and industry alike. 6. Engagement with DSIT We need whole-region representation in discussions around the UK’s AI policy to advocate for NI’s needs – driven via bodies like Software NI and #Matrix - to ensure NI isn’t overlooked in national initiatives. I haven't mentioned #NICS, but Dan West has written a great post about this. #AIOAP #ActionPlan #AIOpportunitiesActionPlan #NIAI

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Ireland's National AI Strategy launched in 2021 and has received a refresh recently. The National AI Strategy charts a course for the Ireland to harness AI's potential while maintaining a hashtag #peoplefirst approach to AI. The strategy positions Ireland as a future hashtag #AI leader focused on enhancing business productivity, tackling social challenges, and improving public services. The AI landscape is changing rapidly and this updated strategy responds to these technological advances and EU AI regulation changes. It reinforces Ireland's commitment to responsible AI development and aims to establish the country as a leader in capturing AI's benefits for society and the economy. Here are some of the main points from this document; - Lead in EU AI Act implementation through active participation in EU governance and establishing national standards. - Study AI's economic impact across Irish industries, with special focus on generative AI technologies. - Launch SME-focused campaign to boost AI adoption by highlighting benefits and available resources. - Create an AI sandbox environment to encourage technological innovation Build a centralized national AI research hub. - Strengthen AI expertise through Research Ireland's programs. - Develop protected testing environments for government employees to explore AI applications. - Refresh AI skills assessment with focus on EU Digital Decade targets, particularly gender balance. - Broaden digital training opportunities through Skill-net Ireland, Springboard+, apprenticeships, and other initiatives. - Enhance accessibility to advanced AI computing resources. - Develop supporting infrastructure, including data centers, to prepare for emerging AI technologies.

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Looking forward to taking part in this masterclass later in the month. My module "From Tech to Transformation: The Human side of Gen AI adoption" will speak about the operational and human obstacles to successful implementation of Gen AI and other AI initiatives. If that is something that your company struggles with or hasn't yet considered then come along. You won't just hear from me but a range of experts across different topics as Gearoid Kearney outlines below. You will also get to meet others in the same boat through engaging breakout sessions! #masterclass #genai #ai #artificialintelligence #leadership #strategy #irishbusiness #rdihub

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A massive thank you to Ronan Leonard, Founder of Intelligent Resourcing, for joining me on the latest episode of the DevReady Podcast!   In this episode, Ronan shares powerful insights on how creating systems, standard operating procedures, and delegating tasks can free up business owners to focus on high-impact areas like strategy and growth. One of his key takeaways: "If you’ve created a system and a process, someone else can follow that."   Ronan’s approach to blending technology and human resources is all about giving business owners the tools they need to scale sustainably and succeed. It’s all about leverage, and his advice is for anyone looking to take their business to the next level.   Check out the full episode and get inspired to innovate and scale—links in the comments. If you're in the process of building a roadmap for your business, DevReady. can help streamline your project planning and ensure your vision is development-ready. #DevReadyPodcast #BusinessInnovation #BusinessGrowth #ScalingBusiness #SystemsAndProcesses #RoadmapToSuccess #TechAndPeople #Leadership #DevReadyAi #BusinessStrategy

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💡 Want to find good quality evidence on small businesses, but short of time? Our State of the Art or 'SOTA' Reviews series provides concise evidence summaries on a range of issues in enterprise research. Why not take a look at the wide range of topics we have covered? https://bit.ly/3UaxE8D

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The industry panel is unanimous on the challenge of the rapid pace of change in both the market and the regulatory requirements. John Healy chairing the discussion between Christopher Owers, Neil Sinclair, Emma Pollock and Andrew Parsons. On #AI, perspectives covered: 🎯 Human-in-the-Loop is vital in AI implementation 🎯 Good, clean, well-integrated data is paramount 🎯 #Unstructureddata offers a real chance to progress with AI capabilities 🎯 Bad actors are rapidly accelerating AI usage 🎯 …but harnessing AI offers a chance to enhance the detection of these bad actors. Good panel, good insights - thanks to all the panellists. #regtech #forum

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Reflections at the 6K FOLLOWER mark 🤔 👇 For me, Followers aren't JUST a vanity metric. It's a reminder of how far I've come and the value and power of this platform. I started engaging with LinkedIn a few years ago whilst living at home in rural Donegal Ireland. Here are 4 tips if you are just starting out your LinkedIn journey but don't know where to start: ➡️ Make a list of 20 Top "Influencers" or opinion makers in your niche and follow them ➡️ Spend time watching and observing how they interact ➡️ Cold DM 20 of those people complimenting them and asking them for a coffee to learn more about how to get into your target niche/industry. ➡️ Test, learn, and fail with your content. If you find something that works look to regularly work it into your weekly posts ➡️ If someone more junior than you reaches out with a nice note. Take the call. It's good karma - you never know where they might land next. __ Invest your time and effort into the community here. Share value first but don't expect short-term rewards. It WILL reward you long-term.

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With Leximancer’s concept map, you can visualise connections, identify themes, and explore relationships hidden in your qualitative data. Unlike manual coding or pre-set frameworks, Leximancer lets your data speak for itself—free from bias and faster than ever. Whether you’re analysing interviews, survey responses, or focus groups, the insights are clear, reliable, and ready to support your next breakthrough. Ready to see the bigger picture? 🧠 Start your free trial today and experience the difference Leximancer can make. #QualitativeResearch #CognitiveMapping #QualitativeDataAnalysis #QDA #DataAnalysis #UnbiasedResults #AcademicTools #PublishOrPerish #TextAnalytics #ResearchSimplified #DataDriven #Leximancer #ResearchTools

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Everyone is a salesperson and everyone is a coach. I've previously discussed these topics separately, but after a recent evening with the inspirational Marcia Kilgore made me realise how closely intertwined both of these are for pretty much everyone. Every one of us has to sell, whether it’s pitching for a new marketing budget, convincing stakeholders to hire a new team member for scaling your SaaS product, or securing extra FP&A resources to compile a board report for your new PE owners. Learning how to position, describe, and tailor your pitch to your audience so they get that value is a crucial life skill. We all possess this skill to some extent; it may just need awakening, refining, or some support from someone to help secure that desired outcome - we are all sales people! Similarly, each of us has valuable experience. We've all been on journeys where we've acquired new skills, grown through experiences, and developed tools and techniques to manage, grow, and flourish in our careers or new adventures. These experiences shape our hard and soft skills, making each of us a potential coach. By combining our sales acumen and coaching abilities, focusing on the powerful lessons we've learned, we can support others embarking on their journeys or support communities of others in our verticals. This not only helps create the next wave of #futureleaders and #entrepreneurs but also fuels the next wave of vital #growth. Change can be scary, and stepping out of our comfort zone can be daunting, but every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Now, go out there and smash it!

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AI can really help with drudgery and create unique and new opportunities that were not possible. I am working with a range of NDIS service providers to help them manage policies, work with staff better, empower them to enhance client well-being. The big thing I am seeing is the nuance needed to understand an organisations' strategy, their challenges, and AI and Automation can support that and rethink processes that enable staff and customer well-being.

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Unlocking Behavioural Data & Building an Evidence-Based B2B Platform. To learn more about your host, Alex Abbott... Alex Abbott is the founder of Supero, host of Walking Digital Corridors, and creator of Critical Convo—a cutting-edge technology designed to empower people to master the art of social selling at their own pace and in their own time. Alex is passionate about helping professionals build authentic connections, scale meaningful conversations, and achieve sales success in the modern digital landscape. If you’d like to explore how Alex and his teams are transforming sales: Visit Supero: https://buff.ly/3SQjDfY Join the Walking Digital Corridors Community: https://buff.ly/4fuAKfP Discover Critical Convo: https://buff.ly/3O8Hnbx Connect with Alex on LinkedIn: https://buff.ly/3CDJf9I Let’s walk these digital corridors together, one conversation at a time. #WalkingDigitalCorridors #SocialSelling #MentalHealthMatters #PersonalBrand #SocialNetworking #SalesTransformation #PersonalChange #DigitalSelling

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Recordsure and TCC CEO Joe Norburn clarifies the key distinctions between generative and predictive AI. In a recent Money Marketing article, Joe emphasises that predictive AI is the more reliable option for accurate data analysis and strategic planning - while generative AI excels at creating new content and ideas, predictive AI is particularly adept at interpreting existing data. Curious about how to navigate your way through the AI landscape? Read the article here >> https://bit.ly/3BBkcUu #wealthmanagement #financialservices #AI #RegTech #technology #customerconversations #oversight #compliance #FCA #governance #documentation 

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It was a huge honour to be invited to be the after dinner speaker at GDS's European #CIO Insight conference in Dublin earlier this week. With around 100 #Digital experts in the room mixed with great food and the odd Guinness the pressure was on to both provoke and entertain! One of the key themes of this year's conference was on the implementation and possibilities of AI. Many of the presentations focused on the early use cases for introducing Generative AI along with the capabilities, business case ROI and the necessary data strategy needed to train AI models. There is great interest in AI but most of the initiatives and pilots are so far largely being driven out of IT with the business often unclear on its applications and use cases. Today's pilots are mainly focused on internal efficiences rather than ones that help organisations to re-imagine how they can serve their customers. This is still a time of learning and exploring the potential. In my presentation I took a much bigger view on the state of our current world and the growing role and responsibilities of organisations and institutions in shaping the world around us. The rise of business has worldwide economic activity has lifted much of the world out of poverty and brought higher living standards and life expectancy to many. There is a catch to this story however... a focus on maximising short term financial performance has led to increasing harms being externalised to the the commons in the form of unsustainable extraction. As the whole world adopts the same competitive race to the bottom dynamics we are seeing the accumulation of harms now creating blowbacks that threaten the very foundations on which business and economic activity depends. Attempts to achieve perpetual growth on a finite planet is leading to the crossing of many planetary boundaries and tipping points as well as driving greater social inequalities and political radicalisation. These all increasing the risks of conflict and breakdowns in our deeply interconnected and entangled world. AI in its current and future forms provide transformational super powers that will rapidly accelerate the power and possibilities for organisations and their impact on the world. The key message of my presentation was that we are at a pivotal moment in human history. As we move into an increasingly AI driven world we have an important choice to make: Do we double down on legacy business practices of #value extraction... and drive the world ever more quickly to the precipice? Or do we take this moment to reflect collectively on the world we are responsible for stewarding.... and harness the potential of #AI in pursuit of creating real generative value for the people and societies we serve and the #planet we depend on? I finished with a provocation to lift our collective sights to ensure that AI enabled organisations create value in ways that align with the collective betterment of us now and for future generations.

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Next.js 15 RC Now Available I've made a short post with the highlights: https://lnkd.in/eCd5CPDP

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🚀🔧🌟 3 days to go 🌟🔧🚀 Are you grappling with tech troubles? Struggling to decipher cryptic error messages? Fear not! The Techie Problem Solver is swooping into Belfast like a digital superhero! 🦸‍♂️ 📅 Date: Tuesday, 14th May ⏰ Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 📍 Location: 2 Royal Avenue, Belfast What can you expect? 1. Expert Guidance: Our tech-savvy wizardry will demystify jargon, untangle cables, and decode those pesky blue screens. 2. Hands-On Help: Bring your laptops, phones, and gadgets—we'll troubleshoot together! 3.. Community Bonding: Connect with community and swap tips. Whether it's a weird error message, a frustratingly slow device or you need to learn more about your device, Vivian's got your back. 🤝 See you there #belfast ! 🎉🔍🔌

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𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹, 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 - 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻? A few years ago most of us hadn't heard the term "Fractional" and now it is infiltrating the consulting and tech realms with increased frequency. From my vantage point, I think Ireland is a little behind the US on this trend but is certainly catching up! I've seen people asking "Why not just say part-time or contract?" and I think it's worth reflecting on the different origins and benefits of this approach to understand that while those words might be accurate they don't fully portray the different intention. The rise of fractional executive positions has come along in a post-pandemic reality where flexibility has become more important to the global workforce. Another term we hear more and more, "portfolio careers", is strongly related as people (myself included) seek to build out their full-time employment from a variety of different engagements versus just one job. This offering is a perfect fit for startups that cannot afford the full-time salaries of experienced senior staff and so they can enlist them on an advisory or part-time basis but with the ongoing commitment to their strategy that they might not get from arms-length consultants. If you are in a different industry or the perks outlined above don't resonate with you personally then you might dismiss this and continue to prefer terms like freelance or independent. Maybe it is just semantics. But I think it tells a lot about the future of work and the opportunities that exist for multiple companies and ideas to benefit from a range of experienced professionals without the price being crippling! What have I missed? What is different about a fractional executive? Why does it work for your business? #fractional #consultant #cxo #executive #leadership #strategy #futureofwork #flexibility #freelance

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⏳ 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝟏𝟎 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐆𝐨: Data Storytelling Workshop with best-selling author and data-designer, David McCandless, in partnership with The Analytics Institute of Ireland. This sold-out 4-hour online workshop will enhance your data skills to convince, convey and communicate with global data visualisation guru, David McCandless. His “information is beautiful” approach has gained a cult following from data analysts, data scientists – in fact, any kind of data worker wanting to communicate insights for comprehension, clarity and conciseness. - How do you create effective, interesting, impactful, and, above all, useful data-visualisations, charts, and infographics? - How do you combine visual thinking, statistical rigour & organisational goals without compromise? Best-selling author and data-designer, David McCandless will share his process, tricks, and techniques for communicating ideas and telling stories with data. Find out more and join the waiting list here: https://lnkd.in/d9t7-dfu Skillnet Ireland | Technology Ireland #DigitalSkillnet #DataSkills #DigitalTalent #DigitalTransformation

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