If you’re interested in innovation, be sure to follow the careers of these eight inspiring women.
For the month of February, SiliconRepublic.com is paying special attention to the topics of AI, robotics and automation. As part of that coverage we’ve curated a list of some of the most influential, ambitious and creative women in these fields, so you know who to follow as you navigate your career.
Clionadh Martin
Clionadh Martin is established Coalescent Mobile Roboticsa high-tech platform designed to address challenges in the retail industry. She is currently the head of robotics Template Systems, a robotics go-to-market strategy consultant for Clio Consulting and volunteers at High5Girls, where she hosts workshops for young girls between the ages of 13 and 16. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors from The Entreprene Awards at her industry’s Entrepres Nordic Women in Tech event.
Enrika Moore
Founder and chief operating officer of Cork-based machine vision and robotics company Viska Systems and winner of Network Ireland’s STEM Professional of the Year Award, Enrika Moore is quickly making a name for himself in the robotics and AI space. His organization uses innovations in ML, AI, deep learning and robotics, developing products to address the complex challenges they may present across a range of industries. For example in medical devices, automotive manufacturing, semiconductors and food and beverage spaces.
India and Portia Healy O’Connor
Sister India and Portia Healy O’Connor recently announced that their health tech startup has raised €2.6m in pre-seed funding to grow an AI platform for dental practice agents. The sisters founded a business, Linda AI to tackle the problems of lost bookings and wasted capacity.
Having previously worked for the investment bank Goldman Sachs, this is the third startup developed by Healy O’Connors. Xelda, their first venture, started as a cashless payment platform and now operates as a developer of automated accounting payments and is backed by Sequoia Capital and the founders of Irish unicorn Flipdish. Curie, their second project, is an AI scripting program aimed at the medical field.
Kateryna Portman
Senior product manager at Zurich robotics manufacturer Anybotics, Kateryna Portman leads the development of advanced robotics solutions. She has served as the leader of the Swiss Chapter for Women in Robotics, teaches robotics and physical AI for The Fast Future Executive, and at the HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich. In 2025 she was honored by the International Federation of Robotics, as one of the 10 women who are shaping the future of this field.
Rebecca Keenan
Expleo’s Rebecca Keenan he is the global head of intelligent automation for this organization. His work includes leading initiatives for digital transformation, especially in the areas of AI, automation and data innovation and he was instrumental in launching Expleo’s Global AI Center of Excellence.
She has been recognized for her contribution to the technology industry, winning numerous awards such as AI Leader of the Year at the Business Post’s Leadership Excellence Awards, Technology Leader Award at the Diversity in Tech Awards and The Fidelity WMB Woman in Technology Award. Before he turned 30 he appeared on the Business Post’s 30 under 30: The Ones to Watch in Irish Tech list three times. She founded the Women in Technology (WIT) Employee Resource Group at Expleo and through this group she aims to empower women in this field.
Sabine Hauert
An associate professor of insect engineering at the University of Bristol in the UK, Sabine Hauert’s research is focused on crowdsourcing, from nanorobots used in cancer treatment, to larger robots for monitoring the environment, or equipment. Swarm engineering is when multiple robots work together as a cohesive unit to accomplish tasks that would be difficult or inefficient for a single robotic device to achieve. Before joining the university, Hauert developed nanoparticles for cancer treatment at MIT.
He is the president and founder of Robohub.org, and the executive trustee of AIhub.org, a non-profit organization that aims to connect robotics and AI communities to society. A well-known expert in his field is often invited to discuss topics such as the future of robots and AI, for example at the European Parliament and the Royal Society.
Sarah Hooker
Sara Hooker, founder of the AI platform Adaptation was previously listed on the Times Most Influential People in AI, sits on Kaggle’s ML Research Advisory Board and the World Economic Forum’s council on the future of Artificial Intelligence and Data Frontiers. An advocate for AI democracy, he previously led Cohere Labs, a research lab seeking to solve machine learning problems and was a research scientist at Google Brain, now called Deepmind. Adaptation Labs recently secured $50m in funding.
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