Highlights:
- AI takes centre stage
- Cybersecurity is still top of mind
- Big data and analytics emerge as a necessary precursor of AI
With more than 8,000 attendees, 200+ international speakers and 60 countries represented, Dublin Tech Summit is considered one of the world’s premier B2B tech startup events. Keynote speakers include tech leaders from companies such as Stripe, Hubspot, Coinbase and Strava to name a few.
For many, highlights were reconnecting with old friends, elbow bumping with new acquaintances and catching up on new innovations. B2B SaaS veterans, founders, investors, engineers and end-users alike attended for the dynamic content and emerging trends, and the event did not disappoint.
3 key themes emerged from the sessions, show floor exhibits and many customer and partner meetings. Here’s a recap of what I saw and heard at #DTS23:
AI takes centre stage
Predictably, there was an incredible amount of buzz surrounding the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Every decade or so a new technology emerges that is truly disruptive. Needless to say, artificial intelligence is clearly the new global MEGA trend and was the ‘talk of the town’ at DTS23.
The public’s reaction to all the AI tools launched in the last few months feels similar to Apple introducing personal computing in the 80s. It was incredibly impressive to the public then and a moment in tech history. However, people had no idea how far and wide it would change how we live, play and work. It opened the floodgates for innovation that has lasted for well over three decades – and given rise to thousands of hardware, software and cloud companies that each offer unique capabilities and outcomes for their customers.
Leading experts, industry pioneers and entrepreneurs came together to discuss the vast array of AI applications across various sectors, including healthcare, finance, transportation and more. The summit showcased AI-driven innovations such as autonomous vehicles, intelligent virtual assistants and advanced machine learning algorithms. Dynamic panel discussions, keynote speeches and interactive sessions explored the ethical considerations, societal impacts and future implications of AI technology.
Why am I making a huge point about AI as a key theme? There are a couple of reasons. First, it’s fascinating to learn about how society is using it and developing it. On top of this, RingCentral acquired an AI conversation intelligence pioneer in 2020 called DeepAffects to embed proprietary AI natively into our applications. Over the last 3 years, this team has helped us roll out a series of industry firsts such as AI-generated meeting summaries, video highlight reels, multi-speaker recognition, emotion recognition, accent detection, sentiment analysis, background noise reduction and more.
In 2023, we introduced RingSense for Sales – a Conversation Intelligence Platform that provides conversation insights for different players within the revenue organisation. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to analyse sales calls, meetings and emails at scale in order to proactively provide insights and coaching recommendations and help all aspects of the revenue org improve sales performance. RingSense is in beta in the US only to start with but we hope to expand to global markets soon. If you are interested in joining our US beta, enter your information here.
For most businesses, hiring machine learning engineers will take considerable effort and budget. Coupling this with the fact that it’s going to be incredibly difficult to keep up with the innovation engine of Open AI and their $10B Microsoft investment, I would advise most businesses to find a way to piggyback off GPT APIs or other LLM APIs into your IT strategy to stay competitive. RingCentral adopted an open platform approach by introducing AI APIs, allowing businesses to extract valuable insights from their own MP4 recorded data. This practical application and democratisation of enterprise-grade AI signifies a significant shift in the competitive landscape.You can try our AI APIs beta for speech to text (transcriptions), audio summarisation (generative AI) and audio and video emotion analysis for free here.
Cybersecurity is still top of mind
As attendees flocked to presentations and explored booth displays, it became evident that the ever-increasing threat landscape has reinforced the importance of safeguarding digital assets. From thought-provoking talks by industry experts to eye-catching demonstrations at the exhibition floor, cybersecurity emerged as a prominent theme. Presenters delved into the evolving nature of cyber threats, emphasising the need for proactive measures, robust defense strategies and innovative solutions. Booth displays showcased cutting-edge cybersecurity technologies, captivating visitors with their state-of-the-art features and comprehensive protection capabilities. As the digital realm continues to expand, Dublin Tech Summit firmly highlighted that the quest to protect sensitive information and preserve digital privacy remains a critical priority in today’s interconnected world.
At RingCentral, Security is in our DNA. With over 100 years of experience collectively, our IT security veterans take a multi-dimensional approach to the safety of your data by applying best-in-class technologies and rigorous processes.
RingCentral’s security posture consists of numerous controls that reflect the best practices from established information security industry standards. Collectively, these stringent controls allow us to achieve world-class security practices for our customers.
Big data and analytics emerge as a necessary precursor of AI
Big data and analytics provide the backbone for AI’s transformative capabilities. With the exponential growth of data, organisations recognise the critical role that big data and analytics play in unlocking the full potential of artificial intelligence. Presentations and booth displays showcased the integration of advanced analytics techniques with AI algorithms, enabling businesses to extract valuable insights from vast amounts of data. The focus on big data and analytics emphasied their inseparable connection to AI, highlighting how organisations can use these tools to make data-driven decisions, optimise operations and gain a competitive advantage in the digital era.
Analytics is a core part of RingCentral’s offering, so much so that we have been recognised for offering award winning and industry-leading analytics , designed for both IT professionals and business users. For IT, we provide historical and real-time quality-of-service reporting. This helps them optimise the platform and resolve issues fast.
Overall, Dublin Tech Summit had a great range of engaging speakers and gave tremendous insight into the fastest developing technologies in the world today. I would highly recommend this event for 2024 to anyone interested in future trends in technology.
Originally published Jun 04, 2023, updated Jun 05, 2023
