Dublin AI summit ‘will not be affected by industrial action’

The International AI Summit in Dublin's RDS will bring together EU heads of state and global business leaders 

Microsoft president Brad Smith is one of the world business leaders who will speak at the International AI Summit on Wednesday. File picture: Virginia Mayo/AP

A major global artificial intelligence (AI) summit which will bring EU heads of state to Dublin will go ahead next Wednesday despite public sector industrial action.

The International AI Summit will be one of the largest gatherings of AI leaders and policymakers in Europe this year with around 1,500 attendees at the RDS. It comes as part of Ireland’s EU presidency in a bid to help shape Europe’s approach to AI competitiveness, innovation, and trust.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin will open the summit, and European Commission executive vice president Henna Virkkunen will then give a keynote on Europe’s vision for AI, while the morning session will end with a keynote address by Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith.

A Department of Enterprise spokesperson confirmed that the event will go ahead.

“The planned public service action on 14 October may have some implications for the AI Summit,” the spokesperson said. “The event management services in place for the Summit are being delivered by an external contractor, and these will not be affected by the action. 

Union sources said it was unlikely that the event would be picketed given that it is not happening in a place of usual employment for public sector staff.

The strikes are set to be undertaken by more than 100,000 public sector workers, who are demanding a new public pay deal that keeps pace with spiralling inflation. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has claimed that a previous public pay deal that expired in June fell 5% below the rate of inflation.

Pay talks yet to begin

Public expenditure minister Jack Chambers earmarked €1.2bn of Budget 2027 towards reaching a new deal, but talks have yet to begin. The 19 unions wrapped under ICTU’s public services committee have all begun or plan to begin industrial action before all-out strikes on October 14.

Members of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation will not work any non-contractual hours, and children dropped off to school before official school opening times will be left unattended.

Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation are refusing to take on any work that is seen as unnecessary in aiding patients’ health. 

Google, OpenAI, and Meta among attendees 

The AI event will hear from the likes of Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, Sarah Friar of Open AI, Eileen O’Mara of Stripe, and Edmond Scanlon of Kerry Group, as well as organisations including AMD, Amazon, Anthropic, Ericsson, Intel, Jentic, Meta, NVIDIA, Nuritas, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Siemens, and Zalando. 

A focus of the agenda will be on the “potential AI offers to reinvent business models” according to a Government statement.

Sessions will examine how AI is transforming sectors including manufacturing, healthcare, food production, communications, mobility, financial services, and public administration. 

Enterprise minister Peter Burke said AI “represents one of the greatest opportunities of our generation”.

“Ireland’s ambition is clear: To be a leading applied AI economy where businesses of all sizes can use AI to improve productivity, strengthen competitiveness and create new opportunities for growth.”

The agenda includes sessions on Europe’s AI competitiveness, AI-driven enterprise transformation, healthcare innovation, the development of global AI scale-ups, the future of work and skills, critical infrastructure and the next phase of AI-enabled economic growth.

The summit will conclude with a keynote address from Michael McGrath, European Commissioner for democracy, justice, the rule of law and consumer protection.

• Paul Hosford, Deputy Political Editor