Expleo’s research explored how, in the age of AI, for many organisations, empathy is a fundamental skill.

Technology and consulting company Expleo has released the results of its AI Pulse sentiment tracker, Expleo AI Pulse for Ireland. The organisation collected data from 200 respondents across Ireland, Germany, France and the UK, to identify the levels of worry, excitement, trust and confidence in AI-led technology.

The research found that business leaders in Ireland, ahead of their contributing European counterparts, are far more likely to value empathy as a fundamental skill for managers in the age of AI, despite ongoing concerns around the impact AI will have on the global jobs market.

Data taken for the month of April found that Ireland’s business leaders believe human-centric, empathetic coaching and people leadership are among the most critical skills a manager can wield in the context of increased AI adoption. This was true for 28pc of participants based in Ireland, compared to 21pc in the UK, 18pc in Germany and 15pc in France. 

“The high proportion of business leaders valuing human-centred leadership actually shows a great level of AI maturity. Business leaders here understand that it is people who transform organisations, not AI,” said Phil Codd, managing director for Ireland, at Expleo. 

AI transformation 

In regions outside of Ireland, the most valued skill on average across the market was found to be the ability to integrate AI into workflows and drive change (25pc), however, Ireland by comparison was less convinced, with less than 20pc sharing this opinion.  

There is also significant concern among Ireland’s business leaders, 45pc of whom are worried about how AI is transforming their organisation, up from 43pc since March. This fear is not as strongly felt outside of Ireland, standing at 41pc in the UK and only 34pc in France and Germany. 

Codd said, “The organisations that will get the most from AI are not the ones racing to implement it fastest, but the ones investing in the human side. Ireland’s focus on empathy as a core management skill isn’t a reluctance to embrace AI, it’s an advanced understanding of what successful adoption actually requires.”

Late last week International Data Corporation (IDC), in partnership with Dell Technologies, published a new global study exploring how European governments and public sector organisations are approaching sovereign and agentic AI and what it will take to deploy the technology at scale.

The report found that leaders in Europe’s public sector are showing strong drive in accelerating modernisation through agentic AI, however, efforts are being hampered by a gap in the skills needed to effectively operate advanced technologies. Almost 70pc of European public sector IT leaders, who participated in the research, stated that the current workforce is unable to keep pace with evolving technologies. 

This was not dissimilar to a report published by Irish technology consulting company Accenture, which found that, for many employees, there is a growing disconnect between expectation around results from AI and the level of preparedness among employees.

Commenting on the findings of the Accenture report, Hilary O’Meara, the country managing director for Accenture in Ireland, said: “Ireland has all the ingredients to lead in the age of AI – a skilled workforce, a public and private sector proven to deliver, deep connections with the global technology industry, and genuine national ambition. Now the question is whether Irish business will play its part.

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Asus isn’t waiting for Apple’s lower-cost laptop story to settle. Its new Intel Wildcat Lake Vivobook 14SE and 16SE have launched in China, giving Windows laptop makers an early chance to crowd Apple on price and visible hardware.

The sharper threat is the Vivobook 16SE, which starts at CNY 4,599, about $675, with a higher-end display model at CNY 4,999, around $734. That pricier version adds a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, variable refresh rate support, and a 400-nit brightness rating.

That gives Asus a clean comparison against the MacBook Neo before Apple’s affordable laptop gets more breathing room.

How much screen does Apple lose

The Vivobook 16SE gives Asus its clearest opening. The upgraded IPS panel has more resolution than the base screen option, plus the 144Hz refresh rate that can make scrolling and motion feel smoother.

For shoppers, the tradeoff is easy to understand. Apple still has ecosystem pull, but Asus can put a larger, faster display in front of buyers at a launch price that looks aggressive. If global pricing stays close to the China range, that advantage gets harder to shrug off.

Why does Wildcat Lake raise pressure

The Intel Core 5 320 inside both Vivobook models is another part of the squeeze. Asus is bringing Wildcat Lake to mainstream buyers early, giving the Vivobook 14SE and 16SE a newer chip story without pushing them into premium-laptop territory.

The rest of the spec sheet leans practical. Both models include 16GB of RAM, 512GB of PCIe 4.0 storage, two USB-C 3.2 ports with power delivery, two USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, and a headphone jack. For many buyers, that means fewer dongles and a more familiar setup than Apple’s minimalist approach.

When does this become real competition

For now, Asus has only launched these Vivobooks in China. The company is expected to share global launch and availability details, but the price outside China is still missing.

That price will decide how serious the threat becomes. Apple can still lean on macOS, battery efficiency, and ecosystem loyalty, but Asus is making the entry-level comparison less comfortable. The next thing to watch is whether these same configurations come overseas without losing the value edge.

In the Dutch municipality of Waalre, 10 older adults are now living under the quiet watch of artificial intelligence. Ceiling-mounted sensors from Kepler Vision Technologies scan their homes continuously, feeding an AI trained to distinguish a fall from a sit-down and automatically push a notification to family members or emergency contacts when the algorithm flags an incident. Depending on how you feel about surveillance tech, that either sounds like a great way to protect independent older people who live alone or like a dystopian nightmare. The pitch, at least on paper and given the alternative, leans toward the former.

According to Statistics Netherlands, just over a quarter of the Dutch population will be over 65 by 2040, yet the country’s care infrastructure is not growing at nearly the same rate. This isn’t a problem unique to the Netherlands. In the US, we’ll reach similar numbers by 2050. Japan’s over 60 population is already around 30% today and the World Health Organization predicts that the global population over 60 is expected to nearly double by 2050. That means there’s more pressure for older adults to manage independently at home, for longer, with less institutional support every year. Falling — more specifically, lying undiscovered after a fall — is one of the more dangerous consequences of this unfortunate calculus, but the faster someone is found after a fall, the better their chances of recovery are.

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This Dutch pilot, run through a collaboration between connectivity provider WeConnect, care network Leefsamen, and Brainport region partners, is designed for people already at elevated fall risk who want to stay in their own homes. The hardware and software are similar to the AI fall-detection systems Kepler has been running in nursing facilities for some time. So, this first application in private residences is a logical extension, not necessarily a conceptual leap.

And yet, the idea of an all-seeing eye inside a home seems, well, weird.

A sensor that can reliably detect the movement pattern of a fall can, by definition, detect a great deal else about how someone moves through their home — when they get up at night, how often they visit the bathroom, whether their gait is changing. Even if the system is designed to suppress that data, the infrastructure for collecting it exists. If the pilot scales, what happens when the commercial incentives of the companies involved diverge from the privacy interests of a 78-year-old who signed a consent form she may not have fully understood? What happens in the event of a data breach?

These aren’t hypothetical concerns — heck, they aren’t even limited to this pilot program, since the tech is already monitoring more than “15,000 elderly people around the clock” in care facilities, according to Kepler’s release. The partner companies have made the familiar pledges to protect privacy with Kepler specifying compliance with international information security standards which is a little reassuring, but data breaches happen.

None of this makes the technology bad; it’s just complicated. For someone who’s living alone, the choice may not be between AI monitoring and unmonitored freedom; it may be a choice between AI monitoring and a fall that goes undiscovered for two days. Framed that way, the sensor in the hallway starts to look less like surveillance and more like a smoke detector with better software.

The company is also expected to lay off 8,000 workers this week.

Lenovo quietly launched the G02 into online marketplaces a few weeks ago, and it has already piqued the interest of retro gaming fans. Aside from being lightweight (around half a pound), you can get it in black, white, or, if you’re feeling daring, a bright red and black combination. The packing is entirely Lenovo, and when you boot it up, the splash screen matches.

On board, there is a single analog stick as well as a full complement of buttons, including a directional pad with some clever subtle illumination. This tiny guy has shoulder triggers on the top edge, as well as volume and power controls on the side. There are two USB-C connections for charging and data transfer, a headphone socket for music playback, and a microSD slot that can accept a 1 terabyte card, providing peace of mind for those with extensive game collections. As an aside, the charger that comes with it is very slow, so you may find yourself searching for a faster charger from another device.

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The 4.5-inch IPS screen has a typical 4:3 aspect ratio with a resolution of 1024 x 768. It does a good job of highlighting the colors, while some early users have noticed a minor wash in bright settings. Brightness is only changeable in the menu; I can’t find a quick toggle, however it remains readable in most indoor lighting.

A Rockchip RK3326 CPU and 1GB of RAM power a lightweight Linux installation with an EmulationStation interface. The device comes pre-loaded with tens of thousands of titles from a variety of classic platforms. Users can easily replace out the included generic storage card for a better one and load up their own collections.

The battery life is decent, lasting 3-6 hours depending on what you’re playing and how bright the screen is. Given the lightweight OS, it manages to go a little further than some of the bulkier Android or Windows handhelds with comparable technology. You can get your hands on this for roughly $60 on big import sites (AliExpress), but prices drop considerably lower if you buy in volume.

There are still unanswered questions about whether Lenovo actually created this device. They have not published a public comment, and there is no product page on the main websites. It’s possible that some customers simply purchased the Lenovo branding on the side, given the box and emblem appear to be legitimate, while others believe it was a third-party operation that slapped the Lenovo label on the thing.
[Source]

Stream BioEnergy’s project is set to become Ireland’s largest biomethane plant using mixed food and garden waste.

Gas Networks Ireland has signed an agreement with Stream BioEnergy that will see the national energy provider connect a new €80m biomethane facility in Little Island, Cork, to the national gas network. 

Stream BioEnergy’s new facility in Little Island is expected to become operational in 2027 and when completed will process roughly 90,000 tonnes of domestic and commercial food and garden waste yearly. 

Using anaerobic digestion technology, the plant will produce 80 GWh of renewable biomethane each year, which is enough renewable gas to meet the annual heating demand of approximately 6,000 homes.

The project will be Ireland’s largest biomethane plant using mixed food and garden waste and represents a significant step forward in the country’s transition to renewable energy and circular waste management. 

The facility will also reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and artificial fertilisers and is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. 

The Stream Bioenergy Little Island facility is the seventh biomethane production plant to be contracted to connect to the national gas network in the last three years with further contracts currently at an advanced stage of discussion.

Commenting on the announcement Gas Networks Ireland’s head of business development Karen Doyle said: “This agreement with Stream BioEnergy marks another important milestone in the development of Ireland’s renewable gas sector. Biomethane has a vital role to play in supporting Ireland’s transition to a lower-carbon energy system while also delivering sustainable solutions for organic waste management.

“Connecting facilities such as this to the national gas network demonstrates how existing infrastructure can support Ireland’s climate action targets, energy security and circular economy ambitions.”

Morgan Burke, the chief operating officer of Stream BioEnergy, added, “Our project in Little Island will provide for sustainable management of organic waste, enhance energy security, whilst contributing to our energy transition and decarbonisation targets in a meaningful way.”

Also in Cork, a new onshore renewable energy company has launched following the completion of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP)’s acquisition of Ørsted’s European onshore business. Cork was chosen as the European headquarters. Perigus Energy, formerly part of Ørsted, has 373MW of operational onshore wind farms across the island, with a further 179MW currently under construction.

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These days, there are about 550 Apple Stores around the world, with locations popping up in countless major cities and across five of the planet’s continents. They are, in other words, a serious success story for Apple.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of the world’s first two Apple Stores. Found in McLean, Virginia, and in Glendale, California, they were opened on this day way back in 2001.

The company has yet to reveal its price and availability.