From left: Lorraine Twohill, Google; Minister Peter Burke, TD; and Dr John Lonsdale, CeADAR. Image: Naoise Culhane
As part of the agreement, Google will provide €3m in Google Cloud credits, mentorship and access to AI tools.
CeADAR, Ireland’s Centre for AI, has struck a deal with Google to help Irish businesses capitalise on artificial intelligence (AI).
The strategic partnership will focus on building an AI-ready workforce and driving the adoption of AI-powered tools in order to boost competitiveness and productivity.
In order to address the AI skills gap, the partnership will create tailored learning paths with on-demand training for varying proficiency levels, including AI-driven strategy training for leaders.
To better leverage AI, CeADAR will provide access to Google Cloud resources, including €3m in Google Cloud credits and advanced AI tools such as Vertex AI and Gemini 2.0.
Training and mentorship initiatives will also be provided for CeADAR staff and interns in order to build cloud-related skills.
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD, said the partnership is the type of collaboration needed to help Irish businesses benefit from AI opportunities.
“AI has the potential to have a transformative, positive impact on Ireland’s competitiveness and the Government is committed to creating an ecosystem where businesses can fully utilise the power of AI to innovate, expand and compete on a global scale.”
Lorraine Twohill, chief marketing officer at Google, said Ireland has built “a strong foundation for a safe and reliable AI environment”.
“By combining Google’s expertise with CeADAR’s capabilities, we are confident that we can unlock AI’s full economic potential and drive sustainable growth across Irish businesses.”
As Ireland’s research centre for AI, CeADAR has been at the forefront of reaping the benefits of AI both here and abroad through its research.
Last year, the centre released a dataset and an AI chat model tailored to the financial services sector.
It is also taking part in a European research project focused on building tools and algorithms that will help reduce the amount of energy, memory and storage required to run AI models.
And in the health arena, it joined another European project that aims to combine graphene’s unique properties with AI to detect signs of Alzheimer’s more effectively.
Dr John Lonsdale, CEO of CeADAR, said unlocking AI’s economic potential “won’t happen automatically” and the new partnership will bring Irish businesses closer to that goal.
“Ireland has a unique opportunity to harness the wider expertise that exists in our bustling tech sector – bringing our expertise together with Google is one key that can begin to unlock the economic opportunity AI will bring.”
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