Protego Launches Company-Wide AI Certification Standard and Governance Framework 

A milestone hackathon marks the start of a practical, governance-first approach to AI at Protego. 

Dublin, Ireland, July 6, 2026 -- Last week marked a major milestone for Protego: our first company-wide AI Hackathon. Nine teams — spanning our in-office and remote workforce — came together to mark the launch of our AI Strategy and AI Certification Standard 

Moving Beyond AI Talk

There's no shortage of organisations talking about AI capability. We wanted to take a more practical step.

Our certification standard is role-based, with tailored pathways for engineers, quality engineers, architects, product owners, scrum masters and engineering managers. It isn't built around online courses or multiple-choice tests. Instead, it's grounded in demonstrating AI capability through real delivery work.

Governance as a First Principle

Alongside the certification, we published our first formal AI governance policies, including an Excessive Agency Policy aligned to OWASP LLM06:2025. For the regulated industries we work in, capability without governance isn't good enough — and this belief shaped everything about how we approached the hackathon itself.

Putting It Into Practice

Teams tackled real engineering challenges using real tools, producing solutions they can genuinely apply in client delivery. The quality of the ideas, the collaboration, and the outcomes exceeded our expectations.

This isn't about adopting AI for its own sake. It's about building an organisation that can combine AI with the quality, rigour and governance our clients expect.

What's Next

Our certification standard and governance framework go live in mid-July. This is just the beginning — and we're excited to see where we take it next.

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About Protego

Protego specializes in providing expertise to technology organizations, working with startups and established businesses, including leading US financial services companies, to build and rapidly grow software development teams in Ireland, supporting the design, build, and delivery of high-volume real-time services and solutions.

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