Patrick Daly Interlinks Podcast

In this episode of Interlinks, I’m joined by Michael Schank, founder and CEO of Insight Twin and author of Digital Transformation Success, to explore how organisations can turn AI’s capabilities into practical business improvements.

Michael explains how his Process Inventory Framework supports a digital twin of an organisation, connecting its processes, people, systems and performance. The central message: useful AI requires a reliable understanding of how work actually gets done.

We discuss fragmented organisational knowledge, data quality, identifying operational problems, and how businesses can start small and measure results. As Michael puts it: “So it’s all about getting that clarity, ownership, and accountability.”

Human judgement remains essential to checking AI’s recommendations and keeping the digital twin faithful to reality. As I suggest: “That person with the right insight enhanced by the AI, that’s going to be the game changer, I think.”

This is the macro-to-micro perspective in practice: technological advances reaching the front line, changing how decisions are made and operations are executed. We examine where productivity gains are emerging—and the challenges of extending them across entire organisations.

The implications reach beyond individual businesses, creating opportunities and challenges across sectors and helping shape the future of work, competitiveness and entire economies.

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How does innovation in education translate into competitive advantage for a country—and for the businesses operating within it?

In this episode of Interlinks, I’m joined by Michelle Gallagher, who leads business development and industry engagement for Immersive Bioscience and Biotherapeutics—or iBio—at the University of Limerick. A former CEO of Limerick Chamber, Michelle brings a perspective that connects education, industry partnerships and regional economic development.

We explore how iBio is rethinking the education of life sciences professionals through a four-year pathway in which students spend half their time in paid industry residencies. Combining intensive laboratory work with practical experience, the programme aims to develop graduates who understand the science, can apply data and AI critically, and can contribute within highly regulated businesses.

Michelle explains what makes these residencies different from conventional work placements, how companies can become involved, and why trust and continuous feedback between universities and employers are essential. We also discuss Limerick and the wider Midwest’s development as a centre for innovation, advanced manufacturing and international business.

Michelle is also speaking at the Futura Innovation Conference in Limerick, from 19 to 21 October 2026, joining a discussion on “Beyond the Classroom: Taking Immersive Education Across Sectors”.

From the Interlinks macro-to-micro perspective, this conversation connects innovation in education policy with capability on the ground: skilled people, stronger teams and businesses better equipped to develop new products and solve complex problems. For an Irish operation competing with sister sites overseas for its next investment or project, that capability can make a real difference.

It is a practical illustration of how continually renewing Ireland’s talent base helps the country attract investment, support indigenous enterprise and sustain development and growth despite global economic headwinds.

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When almost anyone can publish, broadcast or create with AI, what makes their work worth paying attention to — and worth paying for?

In this episode of Interlinks, I’m joined by Sean Branagan, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Chapter IP and Director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Sean brings together a career in media, technology, marketing, entrepreneurship and education to explore the opportunities and commercial challenges of the creator economy.

In our conversation, we explore:

• Sean’s journey from magazine publishing into technology, business creation and teaching creative entrepreneurship.
• The democratisation of media: what happens when the tools of publishing and production become available to almost everyone.
• Building an audience by understanding what people actually want, including why a podcast’s written summaries can become its most valuable output.
• The difference between attracting attention and earning trust, and why useful, educational storytelling offers particular opportunities for B2B businesses.
• Chapter IP’s ambitions for managing and licensing creative work, giving creators more control over its use, and enabling new ways to share ownership and income.
• Why Sean believes that ‘value flows to scarcity’, and what that means for human judgement, lived experience, original questions and creativity as AI becomes more capable.
• Treating a company’s knowledge as a valuable asset and choosing specific business applications for AI.
• Sean’s forthcoming appearance at Futura, alongside his interests outside work and his reading recommendation.

For me, this conversation brings us back to the macro-to-micro perspective: how developments in technology in the wider world translate into everyday work, decisions and capabilities for individual businesses. The opportunity to publish is one thing; earning trust, protecting the value of your work in a world of AI, and building a sustainable business around it are very different challenges. The new tools do not remove the need for sound judgement.

Sean Branagan will be speaking at the Futura Innovation Conference in Limerick, Ireland, from 19–21 October 2026, including a session with Professor Beth Egan exploring attention, trust and effective communication. Interlinks listeners can save €50 on attendance, paying €349 instead of the usual €399. Click here and use discount code PDALY when booking.

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In this episode of Interlinks, I'm joined by Stephan Reckie, Executive Director of GEN Space, the space entrepreneurship initiative of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, to explore the commercial opportunities emerging in the space economy and what they mean for businesses here on Earth.

Stephan traces his journey from electrical engineering and international technology sales through operations in China, angel investing and work on the commercial potential of the International Space Station. He explains why he sees space as a location for business, and how GEN Space connects founders, investors, universities and other participants through advice, introductions and collaboration.

We discuss Earth observation and satellite data services, opportunities in microgravity manufacturing and pharmaceutical research, and the practical challenge of moving equipment and materials into space and bringing valuable products back. We also explore customer discovery, public-private partnerships and the role established logistics providers could play as these supply chains develop. Along the way, Stephan shares his enthusiasm for boating, languages, travel and reading.

From my macro-to-micro perspective, the technological developments making space operations more viable will increasingly translate into new products, applications and ways of working on Earth. They will create business opportunities across sectors, including for full-service logistics operators that build partnerships with the specialists developing space transport, manufacturing and return capabilities.

Stephan will be speaking at the Futura Innovation Conference in Limerick, Ireland, from 19 to 21 October 2026. The event brings together business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and researchers across sectors. In our conversation, he previews discussions on AI and space, investment and financing, and becoming a space entrepreneur.

Interlinks listeners can save €50 on the €399 ticket price and book for €349 by entering PDALY, in capitals, on the booking page.

Book Futura with discount code PDALY

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In this episode of Interlinks, I’m joined by Bohdan Ovcharenko, COO and co-founder of Robomate, a Kyiv-based company helping businesses improve and automate processes using robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence and process redesign.

We discuss how automation is evolving beyond traditional RPA, why businesses need to fix and standardise processes before automating them, and where AI can improve productivity, scalability and competitiveness. Bohdan also shares practical examples from finance, SAP, CRM and internal knowledge management.

From my macro-to-micro perspective, we explore how wider forces such as AI, competitive pressure and productivity challenges translate into everyday operational decisions inside businesses.

We also talk about the reality of building a technology company in Kyiv during the war in Ukraine — including planning under uncertainty, travel restrictions, access to talent and the resilience required to keep serving international customers.

If you want to understand where AI and automation are delivering real business value today — and what resilience looks like when strategy has to contend with extreme uncertainty — this is a conversation well worth listening to.

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In this episode of Interlinks, I speak with Chris Valentine, founder and CEO of Adeo InterActive in Austin, Texas, about the changing business of events and the inaugural Futura Innovation Conference, taking place in Limerick from 19–21 October 2026.

Drawing on around 30 years of producing events, Chris explains how Adeo brings entrepreneurs, investors, businesses and policymakers together to create commercial opportunities. We discuss his career, his Irish connections and his interest in helping cities beyond the usual major centres gain international attention.

At the heart of our conversation is how COVID changed the reasons people attend events. The pandemic renewed our appreciation of face-to-face contact while making us more selective about leaving home, travelling and taking time away from work. Good speakers and useful content remain essential, but attendees increasingly expect a broader range of interests, unexpected encounters and distinctive experiences, including culture and entertainment. Those individual decisions are collectively reshaping the events business: a global shock working through personal priorities to change an entire sector.

Chris outlines how Futura responds to these expectations through seven interconnected tracks and a programme spread across Limerick city centre. With around 200 speakers and 100 sessions planned, the event aims to connect people across sectors including logistics, life sciences, sustainability and creative industries. We also explore AI’s role in events and the future of work, and the value of maintaining international business connections amid geopolitical uncertainty.

Interlinks listeners can book for €349 plus VAT instead of the usual €399 plus VAT, saving €50. Enter the discount code PDALY on the Futura booking page to avail of this special offer.

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In this episode of Interlinks, I welcome back Fred Laluyaux, co-founder and CEO of Aera Technology, for his third appearance on the programme. Aera helps businesses improve and automate the thousands of decisions made every day across supply chain, procurement, finance and other operations, combining artificial intelligence with human expertise and oversight.

We explore why decision intelligence is reaching an inflection point, as companies move from experimentation and individual applications towards deployment across their organisations. Fred explains the shift from supplying people with better data to enabling systems to recommend, execute and learn from decisions, guided by people and business policies.

Our conversation covers capturing the knowledge held in employees’ heads, building an organisational memory of decisions and their outcomes, and connecting activities across departmental boundaries. We discuss practical applications in inventory management, forecasting, procurement, pricing and waste reduction, alongside the implications for leadership, organisational structures and the technology businesses use. We also examine trust, data quality, changing skills, the emerging role of the “decision architect”, and Fred’s perspective on AI’s impact on jobs and the future of work.

Fred previews Aera’s upcoming AeraHUB 26, the Decision Intelligence Global Summit, taking place in New York on 27–28 October 2026, with keynote sessions also available online. The event brings together customers, business leaders and industry partners to explore practical experience and developments in decision intelligence. Find out more about AeraHUB 26.

Viewed through the macro-to-micro perspective, this conversation illustrates how advances in AI and automation are now translating into practical capabilities on the front line of business. They are helping companies manage the multitude of operational and commercial decisions that determine what to buy, make, move and sell every day.

The timing matters. As geopolitical tensions and big-power rivalry turn global supply chains upside down, businesses need to respond faster, anticipate problems earlier and adapt with greater confidence. Decision intelligence offers a way to become more responsive, more proactive and more nimble—connecting technological progress at the macro level with better decisions and stronger performance at the micro level.

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In this episode of Interlinks, I speak with Luis Sullivan, Sales Manager for Western Europe at Sereact. Drawing on a career spanning Bastian Solutions, Toyota Automated Logistics and international warehouse-automation markets, Luis explains physical—or embodied—AI: the point at which artificial intelligence moves beyond digital information and begins to perceive, reason and act in the physical world.

We explore how Sereact combines intelligent software with established robotic hardware to deliver turnkey solutions for kitting, pick-and-place and increasingly complex work such as processing product returns. We also examine the business case—scarce labour, demand for near-continuous operation and rising service expectations—alongside the less visible requirements for success: infrastructure, process redesign, new workforce skills, closed-loop control and continuing human oversight.

From a macro-to-micro perspective, this is where several powerful forces meet. Demographic change is tightening labour availability; people increasingly expect work to be more interesting than performing the same repetitive action throughout a shift; and embodied AI is becoming capable, scalable and affordable. Together, these macro trends are beginning to produce practical frontline solutions that could fundamentally reshape how warehouses and distribution centres operate.

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In this episode of Interlinks, I am joined by Dr Matthew Jones, a licensed psychologist, co-founder coach, founder of Cofounder Clarity and author of The Co-Founder Effect. Matt helps startup co-founders communicate more effectively, make better decisions and address the interpersonal dynamics that can derail promising businesses. He is also developing the Institute for Founder Dynamics to advance research and professional practice in this field.

We discuss how disagreements about roles, equity, funding and strategy can mask deeper issues involving trust, power and recognition. Matt introduces the three languages spoken by teams—operational, psychological and archetypal—and explains how bringing unspoken tensions into the open enables practical solutions. We also explore the pressures facing family, bootstrapped and venture-backed businesses; how “hero mode” at the top can discourage ownership elsewhere; and Matt’s perspective on America’s political and economic direction and growing supply-chain uncertainty.

From a macro-to-micro perspective, even the strongest strategy, investment and market opportunity can be undermined by unresolved tensions at the top. Misunderstandings and misdiagnosed problems within the founding or senior leadership team can cascade through the organisation, creating confused priorities, slow decisions, weak accountability and operational chaos. Realising a business’s full potential therefore depends on both sound strategy at the macro level and the trust, clarity and behaviours needed to translate it into coordinated action at the micro level.

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In this solo episode of Interlinks, I explore the difference between resilience and endurance. Businesses and supply chains may continue to perform through disruption, but that does not necessarily mean they are resilient. Endurance is the ability to keep going through a demanding event; resilience is about the condition in which you emerge from it — whether you can recover, adapt and retain the capacity to respond again.

I look at how organisations can maintain performance for long periods by drawing on hidden reserves: management attention, employee goodwill, workarounds, deferred investment and constant firefighting. Over time, this can consume what I describe as the organisation’s resilience margin and create resilience debt in people, processes, assets, decisions and capability. The warning signs often appear at the micro level in burnout, delayed projects, overloaded managers, recurring exceptions and growing dependence on individual effort.

From a Macro-to-Micro Strategy perspective, this distinction matters because strong macro performance can conceal serious strain underneath. The goods may still move, customers may still be served and headline results may still look healthy, while the organisation itself is becoming more brittle. True resilience should show up at the micro level in fewer workarounds, clearer ownership, protected capacity, lower burnout and the ability to face disruption repeatedly without risking service failure, resignation or loss of critical capability. Resilience is not simply crossing the finish line; it is retaining the capacity to run again.

Patrick Daly

★ The Macro-to-Micro Strategist™╽ Turning Global Turbulence into Operational Clarity ╽ Helping Business Leaders Build Resilient, Profitable Supply Chains ╽ Multilingual Trusted Advisor ╽ Call/WhatsApp ☎️ +353868116030 ╽

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