OpenSky 聯合創辦人談 Managed AI Framework：不獲信任或使用的工具無法帶來成果

Michael Cronin. Image: OpenSky

OpenSky co-founder and managing director Michael Cronin discusses the company’s Managed AI Framework and why he’s optimistic about Irish deep tech.

Last month, the International AI Summit took place in Dublin as part of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Among a number of Irish businesses that exhibited at the event was Naas-headquartered data, AI and governance company OpenSky, which unveiled its new Managed AI Framework – a serviced designed to assist public sector organisations with progressing their AI projects “responsibly and reliably”.

“Essentially, it’s a managed service developed for the public sector that takes AI from pilot to live service, at scale,” says OpenSky co-founder and managing director Michael Cronin.

“In our experience, many public bodies have shown through pilots that AI can help them meet growing demand, but few of those pilots make it into live service. The framework is designed to close that gap, providing the security, governance and ongoing management needed to deploy AI responsibly and reliably at scale.

“We design each solution around a measurable service outcome, connect it to the organisation’s existing systems and data, help staff adopt it, and then run it as a managed service.”

‘Oversight is becoming real’

The Managed AI Framework, which was built on Microsoft Foundry, works across four “pillars” – scale, integration, adoption and risk/safety/oversight.

Cronin – who co-founded OpenSky in 2004 with William Flanagan – tells SiliconRepublic.com that governance runs through all four parts of the service model.

“We start with the outcome: the service we want to improve and how we’ll measure it,” he explains. “We connect the solution to the systems and data the organisation already has in place.

“We help staff adopt it, because a tool nobody trusts or uses doesn’t deliver anything.

“We run it as a managed service, monitoring performance, accuracy and cost over time, so the organisation can see what it is getting and what it costs.”

Cronin adds that the service is designed around the “long-established” systems and data used by public sector organisations, as well as the level of accountability particular to the public sector.

“Public bodies carry a different kind of accountability,” he says. “A decision has to be explained and defended, so we design with that in mind. Human accountability stays clear, and performance, accuracy and cost can be reported.”

Adherence to regulations has also been factored into the framework’s design, with built-in compliance for the EU AI Act, GDPR and NIS2.

In Cronin’s eyes, a service such as this is more important than ever for public sector organisations.

“Demand on public services keeps growing, the national Digital and AI Strategy sets ambitious targets, and the AI Office of Ireland has now been established, so oversight is becoming real,” he says. “At the same time, the gap between a successful pilot and a live service is where much of the value is lost.

“Closing it is not simply about adopting new technology. It is about building the right foundations, governance and skills so that AI delivers meaningful outcomes for organisations and their people.”

Irish deep tech

Cronin, a more than 30-year veteran of the tech industry, says that when it comes to Ireland’s deep-tech sector, he’s optimistic.

“Ireland has strong research institutions, good talent and a growing reputation in AI governance, which matters as regulation takes hold,” he explains. “In my experience, the challenge for many SMEs is that they don’t have a dedicated research function to turn research into commercial products and services. We do it and it makes a real difference.”

Cronin tells us that OpenSky’s research function works with partners including Enterprise Ireland, CeADAR, the Alan Turing Institute and the University of Ulster, among others, and has produced “real services”, including an uptake intelligence service supporting cervical cancer elimination across Europe.

“That ability to move from research to something we can deliver for clients is what many SMEs are missing, and it’s where I’d like to see more support for SMEs in Ireland.”

In order for Irish deep-tech companies to grow, Cronin outlines a few “practical” steps that he believes would make a big difference.

For one, simpler IP terms. “Where an SME contributes its people and market knowledge and will scale the product, it should be able to own the IP on simple, pre-agreed terms,” he says.

Cronin also believes SMEs should be able to lead research programmes, “not only co-fund university ones”.

He also emphasises the importance of industrial PhDs, “the route that lets a researcher be employed in the company, so the research happens close to the market”.

Finally, he spotlights something ever-important to companies pioneering the cutting-edge: skills, including new routes into AI operations roles, “such as an apprenticeship in applying AI to how a business runs”.

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