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Competitive Advantage Through AI: FAIR Event Brought AI into the Present Day
How can AI provide a genuine competitive advantage? We received an answer to this question at the end of October in the vast Dipoli hall at Aalto University, where members of the FAIR ecosystem gathered together. The group of nearly 200 participants consisted of startups, medium-sized companies, representatives from tech giants, and various AI experts.
The business world is undergoing a transformation as technologies like AI develop at an ever-faster pace. Finland already has top-notch AI expertise and highly effective services that support AI utilization. For this reason, FAIR’s primary goal is to integrate these services into the everyday operations of companies. On October 25th, AI professionals and companies interested in AI, as well as experts, gathered to seek inspiration for the practical possibilities of AI.
AI is being talked about everywhere, but is it part of the future, or is it already part of the current reality of the business world? This was the question posed to participants by Jussi Rantsi, who is responsible for the FAIR ecosystem. AI has been used for several years in simple services that make everyday life easier, such as map services, search engines, and chatbots. Gradually, its use has become more conscious and widespread, but the full potential of AI in business operations and revenue growth is only just beginning to unfold.
“It is important that the SME representatives in Finland can easily and efficiently access information about the concrete opportunities available. Various inspiring examples, case studies, and visions of the near future help all of us take action and make better decisions,” Rantsi explains.
Startups Showing the Direction of the Future
When considering the next step on the path of digitalization, it is essential to understand what the change really means. The event aimed to give space to those who understand the transformation of the business world best: the companies themselves.
During the event, several startups and service providers gave pitches—three-minute presentations of their services. AI has been harnessed by startups for tasks such as structuring large datasets, creating bots (virtual robots) tailored to customer needs, visualizing logistics and space, as well as developing healthcare services, custom language models, and consulting services.
All the presentations were united by the ease of use of the services and the streamlining of work management. At the end of this article, you will find a list of all the service providers and links to their websites where you can learn more about the AI services presented.
AI as Part of Everyday Routines for Tech Giants
Large technology companies also shared their experiences with AI at the event. Tarja Jernström, head of partner sales collaboration at Microsoft, described how the company has integrated AI into every program and application to streamline work. Jernström also supports Microsoft’s own startup network in her role, as the company believes that the next game-changing innovations in digitalization may well come from Finland.
Google’s customer engineer Sandra Calvo encouraged the audience to be bold and willing to experiment with AI. “Prompting,” or giving directives, means guiding AI through given instructions or data, and it is something everyone should try in their field. Success is not about how well you use AI but rather how willing you are to experiment and challenge the results AI provides toward your own goals.
In addition, Calvo praised the FAIR event for bringing together both large technology companies and emerging innovators: “There are rarely events where large and small companies meet, and organizing such events is not easy. That’s why it is truly wonderful that we can all come together—through startups, we can see what the future looks like”, she added.
AI Frees Time for Creativity
How long would it take to review 20,000 products? Who knows all the law books cover to cover? And who can draw a building with the precision of an architect? What happens when machine learning makes all this possible in just a few seconds? With these questions, entrepreneur, journalist, and Younite-AI founder Henri “Henkka” Hyppönen challenged companies to consider the possibilities created by AI.
When companies have AI to assist with generating ideas, calculations, and even predicting future events using probabilities, a huge amount of time is freed up for business development. However, with this transformation comes a new challenge for companies:
“We must understand that AI should not be used to make old processes and work methods more efficient—along with development, we need to do things in a completely new way, create new processes with which to build this world.”
AI gives us time, but companies themselves must decide how that time is used—what new and innovative things can now be focused on? As an example, Hyppönen reminds us of the second wave of the Industrial Revolution: when steam gave way to electricity, factory productivity did not instantly soar.
How long would it take to review 20,000 products? Who knows all the law books cover to cover? And who can draw a building with the precision of an architect? What happens when machine learning makes all this possible in just a few seconds? With these questions, entrepreneur, journalist, and Younite-AI founder Henri “Henkka” Hyppönen challenged companies to consider the possibilities created by AI.
When companies have AI to assist with generating ideas, calculations, and even predicting future events using probabilities, a huge amount of time is freed up for business development. However, with this transformation comes a new challenge for companies:
“We must understand that AI should not be used to make old processes and work methods more efficient—along with development, we need to do things in a completely new way, create new processes with which to build this world.”
AI gives us time, but companies themselves must decide how that time is used—what new and innovative things can now be focused on? As an example, Hyppönen reminds us of the second wave of the Industrial Revolution: when steam gave way to electricity, factory productivity did not instantly soar. The transition required a real understanding, experimentation, and application of the new technology before its true potential could be realized.
The transition required a real understanding, experimentation, and application of the new technology before its true potential could be realized.
AI also enables the processing of vast amounts of data and information, which offers significant advantages to companies, as Hyppönen reminds us: “When the physical becomes digital, the whole world becomes data that can be used to our advantage.”
AI also enables the processing of vast amounts of data and information, which offers significant advantages to companies, as Hyppönen reminds us: “When the physical becomes digital, the whole world becomes data that can be used to our advantage.”
Thank you once again to all
participants and the amazing FAIR team! With FAIR, you become the future!
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Below you will find the
websites of the service providers featured at the event:
