Day 2: Digital Futures

“Can Europe Lead Responsible AI? Bridging Innovation, Regulation, and the Value of Data in the Global AI Race”

EMPOWER Health & Data

Ireland and the European Health Data Space: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Path Forward

The European Health Data Space (EHDS) will affect everyone, from patients and clinicians to researchers, innovators, and policy makers. This pivotal panel brings together experts from government, industry, legal, and health system leadership to explore how Ireland is preparing for this EU-wide transformation in health data access, use and governance.

Hear directly from the Department of Health on the current status of EHDS implementation in Ireland and join the discussion on critical issues such as citizen opt-out, data controller responsibilities, and the evolving legislative landscape.

The panel will also examine:

How the EHDS will transform the way health data is accessed and used
The intersection of EHDS, GDPR, and national legislation
What Irish stakeholders, industry, HSE, and policymakers must do to prepare
How do we continue to safeguard citizen data in this European wide initiative
The role of public trust, interoperability, and Ireland’s readiness to participate in HealthData@EU

Whether you’re in policy, digital health, data governance, or care delivery, this session offers vital insights on how Ireland can lead, not just comply with this major European health data initiative.

AI

The Future of AI and Policy

With this session we aim the look ahead and ask the question what is possible by 2030 with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the context of sustainability. However the key question is not only to explore what AI could do but even more important what we, as a society, choose to do with AI and how we envisage and maybe how we safeguard our society. The powerful intersection between AI and Sustainability demonstrates how sustainable societies can be achieved much faster with the use of AI. However at the same time it raises concerns and questions around ensuring responsible and ethical use of AI and ensure trustworthy AI for individuals. With this deep dive session we will explore how AI may contribute to sustainability, addressing environmental challenges but also discuss how to foster and ensuring trustworthy AI, and shaping ethical and responsible AI policies and deployment. Fostering the next generation of AI skills plays a key role in going forward. We debate the moral dilemma of balancing innovation and responsible use of technology and aim to raise awareness about the sustainability (or maybe unsustainability) of AI in a broader societal and innovation ecosystem’s context.

The event will feature a number of short input presentations around several key aspects followed by interactive discussions and a Q&A section.

Key topics include

AI and sustainable innovation Ecosystems – Entrepreneurship & Knowledge Transfer
Regulatory, Privacy and Ethical aspects
Security, Risk and Vulnerability with the use of AI
The future of jobs and the next generation of AI skills
Misinformation and Algorithmic Bias
Trustworthy and Privacy by Design – AI with Individuals in mind

The Next level of Digital Transformation:

Accelerate Innovation

Digital transformation is everywhere and obviously navigating across technical innovation and social and economic challenges is demanding for any organisation and decision maker. Each new innovative technology and approach offers powerful new tools to enable innovation, develop new services and products and overcome barriers to productivity, creativity and security.

Therefore, future success requires to look ahead – beyond 2025! The journey into the digital future maybe complex and there is no crystal ball, but it requires a plan, change management and foresight. With this deep dive session, we aim to look ahead and discuss and explore the current and next trends organisations, leaders in the private and public sectors and researchers are observing. With input presentations and discussions, we aim to map out challenges and opportunities for innovation and research.

Digital Trend: Ecosystems and Servitization

The next level of economic success lies in intelligent and adaptive networks across entire value systems and the application of innovative technologies and artificial intelligence. Digital ecosystems enable companies to collaborate across many platforms, hyper-connected and securely share data, and drive innovation collectively. The sharing and responsible exploitation of data disrupt business models and enables new product developments, innovative processes and services. This ‘Servitisation’ involves a strategic transformation of organisations that place service, instead of product-only solutions at its core. It demands far more from organisations than technology adoption.

Digital Trend: Agentic and dynamic AI

Many experts are seeing the rise of agentic AI as a major shift in the application of AI to more dynamic decision making that will enable Enterprise systems to plan, act, and make decisions independently. These systems will integrate a range of existing data and applications and are able to plan, execute, and optimize complex tasks without continuous human interactions. In the coming years, business operations and service delivery will be driven by a powerful synergy between AI agents and skilled employees.

Digital Trend: Digital Twins

Digital (data) twins refer to virtual replicas of physical assets, systems, or processes build on real-time data streams that continuously update a digital twin. This data, collected through sensors, IoT devices, and other sources, allows the digital twin to accurately reflect the state and behaviour of its physical counterpart. Their adoption has grown significantly in recent years, particularly in advanced industries and are expected to move from single application areas to full enterprise-level simulations.