To get February underway, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates have come together to reinforce their strategic partnership. The formalised deal between Enterprise Ireland and Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park looks to create bigger and better opportunities for businesses in both countries as well as foster and accelerate innovation.
Irish businesses certainly aren’t devoid of innovative approaches – particularly when it comes to tech. Still, the UAE seeks to continue to enhance its status as one of the business and tech hubs of the world. As a result, a strategic partnership like this will certainly open up more streamlined opportunities for Irish businesses that continue to innovate.
Merging Products and Advancing with AI
Irish businesses have consistently found ways to innovate products as and when new technologies emerge. You can look back to the rise of online casinos in the 00s as an example, and how Irish companies innovated to bring brand new creations to the fore. This is most evident with slingo games online. These amalgamations of online bingo and online slots are entirely a product of digital gaming.
Slingo games have long been a favourite of Irish company Flutter Entertainment, which owns Paddy Power and a whole host of other major sites. As slingo has been promoted so emphatically by the Irish platform, it’s been able to evolve further. Now, there’s Bingoton Slingo, Slingo Press Your Luck, and Slingo Shark Week to develop the formula into an increasingly diverse and creative digital product.
This passage was a showcase of jumping on the rising tech of the internet and developing a brand-new product as a result. Now, we’re looking at Irish companies pushing the boundaries of space tech and artificial intelligence. You’ve got Lios, Skytek, and Ubotica are all building into the world of space tech. Ubotica, in particular, is developing an artificial intelligence tool that aims to make satellites more efficient.
Deal with the UAE Could Potentially Increase the Access to AI
Among the reasons presented for the agreement between Sharjah and Enterprise Ireland by the Irish body was that it will benefit technology-driven industries in Ireland. Further, high-value opportunities in industrial collaboration and research and development will bolster innovation. A technology that’s increasingly becoming a hot topic for innovation, research, and development across a whole host of industries is AI.
As shown with Ubotica, AI is already being developed and deployed from Irish firms. According to a survey of innovation and research businesses across Ireland, the majority of them have either adopted or seek to integrate artificial intelligence strategies in 2025. However, of the businesses surveyed, nearly two-thirds see high costs or a lack of budget as being the main inhibiter to innovating, such as by integrating AI strategies.
Through agreements and strategic arrangements such as that between Enterprise Ireland and Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park, Irish businesses should be able to find innovative approaches more accessible. The innovation-first culture embraced by SRTI Park is certainly an envious arena to gain access to. In fact, the park’s mission statement puts “harnessing the power of AI” second only to being at the forefront of digitisation.
Going forward, we can only expect further innovative leaps to be made by Irish businesses, with many of those leaps likely being helped by this deal with Sharjah.
