The Irish Tech News Podcast

AI in finance is moving past potential and changing how work gets done. The question is what it can actually deliver.In this episode of One Vision Podcast, Theodora Lau talks with Fiona Ashley, VP of Product Marketing at SAP Concur, about how finance teams are shifting from using AI to get work done to using AI to change how the work gets done. Drawing on SAP Concur’s latest CFO Insights Report, Fiona explains why half of finance leaders say proving ROI is their biggest AI deployment challenge, and why measurement has to go beyond time saved and error reduction.They discuss:How real-time spend visibility moves finance from reacting after the fact to spotting risks and identifying trends and opportunities earlyHow close we are to the self-managing expense report, and why a human stays in the loopAI-generated fake receipts: 92% of CFOs now believe employees may be using AI to falsify receipts, up from 84% in 2025How CFOs should decide which AI investments to protect, pause, or reduce heading into 2027Why connected, trusted data is the foundation for scaling AI🔥Hot take: “We’re no longer asking how AI can help me get work done, but how AI can change how the work gets done.” — Fiona Ashley🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.Keywords: AI in finance, CFO Insights, SAP Concur, agentic AI, expense management, AI ROI, spend visibility, fraud, governance, data, digital transformation#AI #Finance #CFO #Fintech #SAPConcurTimestamp:00:00 Welcome and Introductions01:43 AI From Hype to Outcomes04:44 Real-Time Spend Visibility08:46 Self-Managing Expenses11:26 Fraud Risks and Governance14:03 CFOs Investing in AI16:47 Discipline and Data Foundations17:46 Closing More about our guest 🌐Fiona Ashley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionaashley/ 🌐CFO Insights Report: https://www.concur.com/resource-center/reports/how-finance-leaders-manage-spend-during-volatility?pid=social_selling&cid=akent_uk_linkedin_theo_november26%5C More about our host and One Vision Podcast 🌐Theodora Lau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theodoralau/ 🌐Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence (book): https://www.bankingonaibook.com/ 🌐Unconventional Ventures (company): https://www.unconventionalventures.com/ 🌐Listen to all One Vision Podcast episodes by visiting: https://shows.acast.com/one-vision 

As AI becomes more and more intertwined in our daily lives, how should we be dealing with it?  A HOSA Institute Report recommends that the effective governance and deployment of Al requires the establishment of three interdependent pillars: Institutional Accountability, Operational Control and Human Capacity. To find out more about HOSA and their report which can be read here I caught up with Leo Cullen, Faculty Fellow AI, Enterprise & Industry at HOSA. Leo talks about his background, What HOSA does, their report, AI, recursive self improvement, Neuralink and more.More about HOSA:HOSA is the convergence that emerged from 3 very different people who had spent most of their lives wondering "Why is it that Change holds for some people, but not others?"  Each one held a conviction that the answers to this question would be found at the intersection of Science and Lived Experience. What follows is the background story of all 3 individuals that led them to cross paths, compare notes and find themselves bringing pieces of a much larger puzzle to the table. A puzzle that would become the Human Operating System Architecture (HOSA). 

The Beta Festival, Irelands Technology and Arts Festival which starts today is taking place across Dublin till November 22nd. In its fourth year, this year's Beta Festival explores how technology is reshaping how we sense, perceive and understand the world around us. To find out more about this year’s Beta Festival I caught up with Aisling Murray, Beta Festival’s founder and DirectorAisling talks about her background, Beta Festival, festival highlights, AI, and more.More about the Beta Festival:Bringing together artists working across installation, performance, sound, games, AI and digital media, the 2026 Beta Festival programme asks what happens when we de-centre the human perspective and begin to consider the intelligence of landscapes, plants, animals and machines. Audiences are invited to encounter technologies as systems that shape our relationships with each other and with the environments we inhabit.  Renowned neurodivergent artist AlanJames Burns premieres his new exhibition, Unmasking Nature - an interactive installation featuring a rich landscape of new multi-sensory artworks. Unmasking Nature presents a sensory feast, foraged from Ireland's rich biodiversity to explore the diverse ways people connect to the world around us. The installation invites visitors to experience a number of interactive sensory activities. Society pressures neurodivergent people to mask their true selves. Yet, nature depends on diversity. Unmasking Nature is a sanctuary for restoration.Exploring the entangled boundaries between the digital and the living, Beta Festival this year launches a new strand of programming for non-human audiences. Titled ‘The Other Audience’ the inaugural exhibition begins with our most immediate non-human companions: our pets. Dublin-based artist Gabriela Waclawska has developed a new work that takes animals seriously as audiences, participants, and co-creators.Waclawska's 'woofy woofy ૮֊˕֊ა੭ bow-wow hauhau', is an interactive sound installation for dogs that explores what happens when canines are given the freedom to play, explore and simply be themselves. Dogs attending the event will even make their own music, and their owners are welcome to attend too.  Each half hour slot welcomes 5 dogs and their owners into the space. The interactive installation will run at Project Arts Centre from 17 to 19 November. 

At the moment businesses are going through their biggest digital transformation since they adopted cloud computing, as they get to grips with AI.  Businesses risk focusing too much on the technology itself when approaching AI transformation. Daire Cunningham, COO at Spanish Point Technologies thinks that amid the rush to adopt AI, businesses can easily start with the wrong question, which AI tool should we use, rather than what problem are we actually trying to solve? I recently caught up with Daire. and he spoke to me about his background, what Spanish Point Technologies does, AI, Microsoft partnership, data centres and more.More about Spanish Point Technologies:Spanish Point Technologies is a pioneering software engineering firm and founding Microsoft Partner based in Dublin. Established in 2005 by CEO John Corley and Chairman Donal Cullen, the company’s 100+ strong team of software engineers drives growth through innovative projects and long-term customer partnerships. The business spans three core areas.Smart AIM is an Azure DevOps accelerator for ISVs and software development companies, providing prebuilt libraries and framework services that streamline development, minimise risk, and maximise ROI. Smart AIM has been implemented for over 30 organisations across 60 projects in Ireland, the UK, and the Nordics. Matching Engine is an enterprise software solution for international Collective Management Organisations that ensures rights holders are paid fairly for their intellectual property. Since its launch in 2018, the Matching Engine has expanded to 13 countries across Europe and North America. Customers using the platform distribute over €2.6 billion in royalties annually, guaranteeing fair remuneration for more than 758,000 rights holders and creators worldwide. Spanish Point’s digital transformation practice delivers award-winning, solution-focused engineering for enterprises tackling complex technology challenges in the UK and Ireland.Recognised among the top 1% of Microsoft cloud partners worldwide, Spanish Point is Ireland’s largest Azure partner and an Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP). The company holds Microsoft Azure Solution Partner designations for Digital & App Innovation, Data & AI, and Infrastructure, and is a two-time winner of the Microsoft Ireland Country Partner of the Year Award (2016, 2019). Most recently, Spanish Point became the first indigenous company in the Republic of Ireland to earn the Microsoft Azure Specialisation to Build and Modernise AI Apps.

Manage Engine recently announced plans to expand their Ireland operations after 25% year on year growth. Manage Engine,is  a division of Zoho Corporation and a leading provider of enterprise IT management and security solutions. and  has been in Ireland for nearly two decades. Their continued growth in Ireland can also be attributed to ManageEngine's local partner,Servaplex.To find out more about this I recently caught up with Rajesh Ganesan CEO Manage Engine, Gerry Cullen Sales Director and Co-founder Servaplex, and Tim McAlpin Director and Co-founder Servaplex.Rajesh, Gerry and Tim talk about their background, on prem v cloud, increased costs, AI, ticketing growth in Ireland and more.More about Servaplex:Servaplex works across government, education, financial services, construction and manufacturing, supplying, implementing and supporting enterprise IT-management technology, and has developed a particularly long relationship with ManageEngine, dating back around 17 years. 

HIQA’s recently published Ireland’s first national guidance on the responsible and safe use of AI in health. The guidance highlights the potential for ambient AI tools to reduce administrative work and give clinicians more time with patients, while stressing the need for human oversight, governance, staff training and ongoing monitoring. To find out more about this I caught up with  Jonathan Larbey, CEO of Dublin-headquartered clinical documentation company T-Pro.Jonathan talks about his background, regulation, what T-Pro does, what HIQA’s guidance means for the safe, practical use of ambient AI in healthcare, AI powered documentation and more.More about Jonathan Larbey:Jonathan Larbey is the Founder and CEO of T-Pro, which he built from an Irish digital voice technology start-up into one of healthcare's leading clinical AI platforms, now trusted by 132,000+ clinicians and 1,000+ organisations across the UK, Ireland and Australia. He was named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year finalist in 2024.Jonathan's view of the industry is that the value of clinical AI isn't in generating a note, but in completing the whole documentation lifecycle, safely and at scale. That belief shows up directly in how he leads: he builds technology around how care is actually delivered, putting clinicians and governance first rather than retrofitting workflows to the tool. Under his leadership, T-Pro has focused on lifting the clerical burden of documentation and unlocking the value of clinical data, so clinicians and healthcare leaders can spend more time with patients and less on admin.

A lot of companies are now connecting AI directly to more systems: CRM, email, meeting recorders, Slack, documents and internal knowledge. On paper, that looks like the obvious next step. Give AI access to everything, and it should be able to help with anything. But access alone does not create understanding. One person who knows all about this is Roope Heinilä, founder and CEO of optivian.ai, and he recently wrote about the hidden cost of connecting AI straight to the sales stack. Every time someone asks a question like “where does this deal stand?”, the AI often has to rebuild the picture from raw material: emails, transcripts, notes and CRM records. It can pull in too much noise, miss important context, and start from scratch again the next time. To find out more I caught up with Roope.Roope talks about his background, what Optivian does, SaaS, and more.More about Roope Heinilä:Before Roope founded Optivan. he founded Smarp, scaled it to a successful exit, and later served as Group CEO of Haiilo, a larger enterprise SaaS business with 700+ enterprise customers. 

What do you do when your customers love you for being local and expect you to work like a big global bank? In this episode of One Vision Podcast, Jerry Siegel and Joanna Watts join Theodora Lau to discuss the priorities and challenges that shaped AuburnBank's digital strategy and the decision to select Alkami’s Digital Sales & Service Platform. Nick Weston from Alkami joins the conversation to explain how an integrated platform can help financial institutions connect account opening, digital banking, data, and marketing as they plan for the future.🔥Hot take: “There is a risk to staying where you are.” – Jerry Siegel, Sr. Vice President / CTO, AuburnBank🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.Keywords: Digital Transformation, Banking Industry, Financial ServicesTimestamp:00:00 Welcome and meet the guests02:20 Jerry and Joanna backstory04:01 Balancing legacy and tech07:38 Why AuburnBank needed change13:26 Implementation game plan17:17 Training and change management22:54 What success looks like26:23 Wrap up and thanksMore about our guests 🌐Jerry Siegel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-siegel-2b6409/ 🌐Joanna Watts on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-watts-8726aa3a7/ 🌐Nick Weston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick--weston/ 🌐AuburnBank: https://www.auburnbank.com/🌐Alkami Technology: https://www.alkami.com/ More about our host and One Vision Podcast 🌐Theodora Lau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theodoralau/ 🌐Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence (book): https://www.bankingonaibook.com/ 🌐Unconventional Ventures (company): https://www.unconventionalventures.com/ 🌐Listen to all One Vision Podcast episodes by visiting: https://shows.acast.com/one-vision 

We've reached a point where a phone call from your child, a video from your boss, or an email from a trusted friend can no longer be accepted at face value. Artificial intelligence isn't just changing how we work. It's changing how we decide who and what to believe. While most AI experts focus on productivity and automation, Aaron Painter, CEO of Nametag argues that the technology's most immediate threat is much more personal: the erosion of trust. Aaron’s book Deepfaked: Restoring Trust in the AI Era was published today and it examines how AI is changing the way we recognise truth and why rebuilding trust may be the defining challenge of this decade.  I caught up with Aaron to find out more about his book and deepfakes. Aaron talks about his background, his book, deepfakes, and more.More about Aaron Painter:Aaron Painter is the CEO of Nametag, the identity verification company helping organisations restore trust in an era of AI-generated impersonation. Nametag pioneered a new category of identity verification that protects organisations from impersonators and AI-generated deepfakes, helping leading enterprises prevent fraud, reduce support costs, and securely verify customers during high-risk interactions. Named a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Identity Verification, Nametag is helping redefine how trust is established online.Aaron has spent his career helping people earn trust in a world transformed by technology. That journey has taken him across six countries and four continents. Aaron has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Hong Kong, mainland China, and the United States, and has visited more than 100 countries. Those experiences shaped his belief that while technology continues to change how people live, work, and connect, trust remains the foundation of every successful relationship, organisation, and society — and that it must be earned differently across cultures.

Briana Marbury grew up in Detroit with one bank in the neighborhood. She opened an account after her first job. Then came the overdraft fees, and the fees on the fees. She had a choice: gas and groceries, or the bank. The bank account closed. So she went to the check-cashing place on the corner, five dollars at a time, for years — while the unpaid fees went to collections and marked a credit file that had barely started.  Financial exclusion doesn't always look like someone outside the banking system. Sometimes it looks like a closed account, a check-cashing counter, and a damaged credit file. Briana Marbury, President & CEO of Interledger Foundation, joins Theodora Lau to talk about living it — and about the unglamorous infrastructure work that could stop it happening to someone else.But technology in and of itself was not going to be enough. They close the conversation on what’s next: Mexico, Colombia, and a growing push into US community banks and CDFIs. And on what gives Briana hope: that when she walks into a room with a government, they're not asking whether interoperability matters. They're asking how fast it can happen.Hot take 🔥"I have a choice between either buying gas, buying groceries, or paying a bank fee bill — when I can go access my money right away at this corner store for five dollars."🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.Keywords: fintech, personal finance, financial inclusion, payments, cross-border payments, remittances, Interledger Protocol, Briana Marbury, Interledger Foundation#FinancialInclusion #CrossBorderPayments #Fintech #PaymentsTimestamp:00:00 Welcome and Introductions01:09 Interledger Foundation Origins02:59 Hidden Financial Exclusion05:54 Personal Stories and Literacy07:55 Interoperability for Inclusion09:16 Fixing Cross Border Payments13:48 Why Fees Persist15:50 Lessons Working with Regulators18:11 Plans for 2027 More about our guest 🌐Briana Marbury on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianamarbury/ 🌐Interledger Foundation: https://interledger.org/  More about our host and One Vision Podcast 🌐Theodora Lau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theodoralau/ 🌐Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence (book): https://www.bankingonaibook.com/ 🌐Unconventional Ventures (company): https://www.unconventionalventures.com/ 🌐Listen to all One Vision Podcast episodes by visiting: https://shows.acast.com/one-vision **