The Irish Tech News Podcast

The market has evolved and the technology has evolved Sheila Kavanagh, female engineer and Network Director Vodafone Ireland
Last month, Vodafone made telecoms history with Ireland’s first-ever mobile video call via satellite through a smartphone. Satellite video calls happen when data is beamed directly to and from satellites orbiting Earth. It means regular phone users in Ireland will soon be able to access the internet and make video calls via satellites, without needing to own a clunky satellite phone.
It’s a significant move in the right direction for Ireland’s telecommunications industry, which regularly experiences connectivity challenges due to flooding, big freezes and heatwaves. I caught up with Sheila Kavanagh, engineer and Network Director Vodafone Ireland to find out more about this.
Shelia talks about her background, Ireland’s first-ever mobile video call via satellite through a smartphone, the growing popularity of video calls and audio messages and more.
More about Ireland’s Ireland’s first-ever mobile video call by Vodafone via satellite: 
Powered by AST SpaceMobile BlueBird satellite, Vodafone hopes this new technology will help people stay connected, even in the most hazardous climate conditions. In January last year, it was estimated that over one third of mobile phone users were affected by Storm Éowyn.
In addition, the National Climate Change Risk Assessment (NCCRA) published by the Environmental Protection Agency last June identified 115 risks to Ireland from climate change, the most pressing being risks to energy and communications infrastructure due to extreme winds.

While the conversation around AI often centers on automation and efficiency, the real opportunity lies in AI’s ability to act as a decision-making layer. In this episode of One Vision podcast, Theodora Lau hosts Bianca Zwart, Chief Strategy Officer at bunq, to unpack what it truly means to be AI-native. For bunq, AI isn't a feature bolted onto an existing model. It's the operating system. Bianca shares how bunq's obsession with the user experience drives every technology decision. The conversation also explores what's next for agentic AI — and why the future isn't about AI taking over, but about making users smarter supervisors of their own financial lives.
Plus: bunq's bold move into the US market, the needs of the people navigating life on both sides of the Atlantic, and why Bianca believes trust — not technology — is ultimately the only thing that matters.

📍Hot take: “...  the first question that you always need to answer is, what is in it for the user?”
📍Hot take: “You can copy features. But you cannot copy DNA (of a company).”

00:00 Welcome and Introductions
00:47 Why bunq Is AI Native
03:42 Meet Finn GenAI Platform
08:26 US Expansion Strategy
13:00 User First AI Mindset
18:39 Privacy Trust and Transparency
22:10 AI Fraud Prevention Journey
24:11 What Keeps Bianca Going
27:20 Closing and Farewell

Keywords: AI, Fintech, User Experience, Banking Industry, User Centricity, GenAI, AI Ethics, AI in Banking, Fraud

More about our guest 
🌐Bianca Zwart on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bianca-zwart/ 

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 
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Bharat Sharma, is the founder and CEO of Apex, and he spent over a decade building complex B2B commerce platforms through Monsoon Consulting, gaining firsthand insight into the recurring operational challenges mid-market merchants face. Some of those challenges, such as manual and fragmented processes involving multiple buyers, layered approval, and strict financial controls, could not be solved with traditional B2C platforms, and this was when he noticed  a pattern in B2B commerce platforms and why B2C tools are not fit to meet their challenges. Bharat also noticed that almost 65% of B2B executives reported that B2B online commerce is "broken" due to poor data, inefficient processes, and an inability to meet B2C-like convenience standards. Noticing these patterns across multiple projects, and this inspired him to create Apex, a purpose-built platform that addresses these pain points at scale. 
I recently caught up with Bharat and he spoke to me about his background, what Apex does, the challenges of B2B commerce and more.
More about Apex:
Apex is an out-of-the-box ready B2B eCommerce product for manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers. Apex knows B2B e-commerce is hard which is why it makes it easy, providing everything you need, from pricing and quoting to self-serve dashboards. It is ready to go out of the box, so you can focus on growth, not setup.

I Wish is a multi-award-winning programme dedicated to driving the power of STEM to female students in Ireland and across the globe. I Wish brings STEM education to life in a high-energy, fun space, igniting a flame in the minds of girls.
In the past 12 years, I Wish has engaged with 65,988 girls. 23,365 girls have shared their voices through the annual surveys to date. Initiatives include showcase events. To find out more about iWish I spoke to Caroline O’Driscoll the co-founder of I Wish
Caroline talks about her background, What I Wish does, STEM, gender bias, the speakers at this year I Wish event and more,
More about Caroline O’Driscoll:
As well as being the co-founder of I Wish, Caroline is a Corporate and International tax partner with Deloitte Ireland focused on the technology sector.  Caroline is an Adjunct Professor in the College of Business and Law at University College Cork (UCC).
Caroline is a former member of the gender balance advisory group for the Department of Education to achieve better gender balance in STEM education at the post-primary level. Caroline has held a number of board positions in the not-for-profit and charity sector.

In the ever-evolving world of digital banking, understanding the shifts and trends is crucial for industry practitioners and innovators. In this episode of One Vision, Theodora Lau hosts Dharmesh Mistry and Dave Wallace to explore the transformative moments in banking and fintech over the past decade, the impact of technology on the financial services industry, and the future of work. They discuss the rise of 5G, smartphones, digital banking, and the need for industry revaluation to adapt to rapid technological convergence.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
02:20 The Game Changers and Misreads
11:57 The Role of Fintechs and Neobanks
21:24 The Future of Banking: A New Paradigm
32:16 Rethinking Banking for the Future
34:09 AI Native Banking
37:03 Jobs and the Human Contribution 

📍Hot take: “ We've had a new layer of financial services by the fintechs …  and we totally overestimated the impact of these new players to the existing players.”
📍Hot take:  To create a better industry industry. It doesn't have to be FinTech completed. It's. Destroying banks. It doesn't have to be banks, completely destroying newcomers. There are so much, there's so much room for us to all play together to create a better ecosystem for all of us. 

Keywords: AI, FinTech, Digital Banking, Financial Services, Disruption, Future of Work, 5G, Banking Innovation

More about our guests 
🌐Dave Wallace on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davejvwallace/ 
🌐Dharmesh Mistry on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dharmesh-mistry-b81207/ 
🌐Demystify Podcast on Fintech Futures: https://www.fintechfutures.com/keyword/demystify-podcast 
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 

#AI #Fintech #FutureOfWork #BankingIndustry #DigitalTransformation #5G