AI demand and supply in Finland – click here for webinar photo collage, survey results

This is formal thank you to everybody who participated in Intel’s, OP’s, VTT’s and TT’s AI demand survey during Spring of 2020. Included is a commented photo collage from the webinar on June 3rd with selected survey results.

Lead-up

As you may have noticed from Linkedin, Twitter and Finnish ICT media Tivi we ran a survey during the month of May 2020 on demand for AI services and technology. In addition to that, one of the participants, TT's FAIA, carries out independently inventory of AI suppliers in Finland. Hence, we had the unique opportunity to present AI in Finland from both demand and supply perspectives.

All this resulted in what we marketed as a “premium webinar” with Peter Nyman as the host. For people abroad, Peter is news anchor on commercial TV and previously the host in Finnish version of Have I Got News For You. As for guest speakers we had OP as an example what’s current, and CERN’s Openlab as a party to be able to tell us what’s next. 

Actual event

We kicked off with pandemic status update and personal notes how we have coped with the curfew. Just like in Have I Got News For You, we declared two prizes – the most active participant to get Finnish Fazer chocolate and the second most active to have to settle for Intel golf balls. 

Heli Helaakoski from VTT presented the results from the AI demand survey. Note that if you’re a Nordic service provider, do opt for a presentation on the results in detail. Top 5 observations from the survey within the venue were as follows:

• In a binary view, almost 70% of respondents AI is in use in their organizations
• AI in data analytics was the most typical use case, RPA was not seen as an AI use case at all and it wasn’t high up in the use cases preferences either
• AI is mostly expertise around software development and by own personnel (43% of end customers state own personnel mainly responsible of AI)
• Everything around the companies which were named as potential future providers
• Only 24% of the end customers had a written security and ethics rules for AI, which is much less compared to how many are using AI

We noted very few women responding to the survey. Invitees to the venue and networks which we approached in social media whilst marketing the survey did have a higher percentage of women, so that suggested AI in Finland is dominated by men. Heli seconded this observation based on her other professional experiences.

Then it was up to OP’s and Sameli M?enp??’s reflection on their journey to AI. He showed six use cases where OP uses AI. Sameli said user interfaces will become conversational and “alive”, back office to become automated and real-time . But as you can see from his background image, he’s not out of the woods yet ??.

The other side of the coin to demand is supply. Antti “Jogi” Poikola from FAIA presented the latest revision of Finnish AI Landscape, and inventory of AI-specific product companies and enablers. The landscape now has 42 companies, 12 new ones compared to the previous one.

Peter asked from Antti how much people are employed by AI companies in Finland, and if he could estimate how much Finnish companies and public sector procure AI expertise from onboard from global centres. Antti said the companies within the AI Landscape employ around 1000 people and that the use of people from abroad is unclear. He did relay the message Finnish organizations are indeed using local AI providers.

We also had a global viewpoint on AI. Alberto Di Meglio is head of CERN Openlab, CERN’s collaboration with the ICT industry. Alberto explained to us the fundamental need for new technology such as AI. Even after discovery of the Higgs Boson, the Standard Model explains only 5% of universe. Hopefully the algorithmic use of AI helps solve that puzzle.

Peter then asked Alberto which are the important adjacencies, or neighbouring technologies of AI. Alberto said that his organisation is looking into special accelerators for AI workloads as well as neuromorphic computing with Intel, and of course quantum computing. Alberto also mentioned an interesting approach in that AI could be used to research into intelligence as such, we don’t yet fully understand how brain works, or what intelligence really is.

Then we started the panel discussion, all seven of us plus around 90 remote attendees. Sitting right to Peter is Kristian Luoma, head of OP Lab. The promise for most active participant was choice of Fazer chocolate or Intel golf balls as the consolation prize. We started with what was asked previously by audience in chat – how should you start your AI journey.

I presented visually the brochure of our steampunk themed AI Foundation strategy sprint which we have brewed for the Nordic audiences. 14% of the end customers responded the organization has a formal AI strategy. The conversation ended up in a base paper for consensus might be required, but no ceremonial strategy left to rot on the shelf.

Conversation then ranged from governance to legal topics and the need to slightly limit the hype, false expectations on AI, even when, like Sameli emphasized, AI services are available to almost anybody. Kristian compared AI to web pages adoption, after some time it's like embedded to business.

We got back to how to solve lack of AI expertise. I asked Alberto if CERN as a very attractive workplace gets enough AI experts and he said no. There is a gap between the educational system’s produce and the needs of research and businesses. Alberto joked that when there are AI conferences, participants CERN sends don’t always come back because they are recruited there. Well – do you really have to send people to AI conferences then? ??

Closing words

Nordic xSPs - if you’re interested in the Finnish AI demand survey results, drop me a line for a meeting where we present to you the full results. Also, we are interested in running similar surveys with yourselves in other Nordic countries to support your AI servitization exercises. You could also limit the survey to your own clientele.

For others – warm thanks for everybody involved! And the answer is - when given such choice, Finnish AI professionals will select chocolates over Intel golf balls. Those who were selected as the most active participants will get their fair share of Fazerin Sininen next week. Very good choice - Intel golf balls don’t taste even distantly so good.