Witted launched a new business
I made a morning coffee video on this topic: https://youtu.be/COY1QoS9Ngg?si=UietwzOSrvGhqUGt
Reflections on the AI/Data theme over coffee. Since half the crowd seems to hate videos, here’s a bot-friendly version for you.
What was done?
- A new subsidiary was established.
- Frans Mikael spotted this already in November when a lead was being sought.
- Now the lead has been chosen, and Mikko Kontsas is steering this business.
- It is part of Witted Finland’s business operations.
Why a separate company?
Yes, there was a lot of deliberation about whether to just continue with this being part of our core business. We have been doing AI/Data business at Witted for a long time. Many pros and cons in establishing a new company. The pros won now, because this way we get enough attention within our own organization and momentum for our work. Additionally, I believe there will be a big competition for experts in this sector – and we want to win it.
How will business be done with this?
Four areas, all with great potential:
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General-purpose artificial intelligence (case: CompanyName AI)
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Accelerating digital development with artificial intelligence
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Process and task-specific AI solutions
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Data management to enable this
General-purpose artificial intelligence (case: CompanyName AI)
If you break those down a bit, CompanyAI (FirmaAI) projects come up weekly. They have a lot of potential and have also been done. The idea is simple: take the company’s context – for example, all documentation for a device or service – and make it easily available to employees, such as installers or customer service (..or the customer or a customer bot).
That customer service example is juicy: it has been widely discussed. Sometimes people get annoyed when they have to deal with bots – and that amuses me. In customer service, bots can genuinely serve customers, eliminating many unnecessary ‘doctor’s visits’. But perhaps an even more interesting aspect is the use case where a customer service representative has their own AI (OmaAI), with all the company’s documentation available. Still, a human-to-human interface is maintained. The customer service representative solves problems faster, but the customer feels they are receiving good service when served by a human. If a task that previously took four minutes is solved in one – a big leap in productivity occurs.
There was a discussion on this theme in February, but people often confuse Company AI (YritysAI) and process automation.
Accelerating digital development with artificial intelligence
Thomas asked in November if I was concerned that overcapacity would emerge in the IT services sector as productivity significantly increases (2x). I don’t remember what I answered, but probably the same way I think now: I don’t believe that will happen. It’s a fantastic thing that productivity grows and development accelerates – and that whets the appetite. In the future, there will be more digital services than today, and we will be increasingly dependent on technology and its experts.
Our industry has had overcapacity for two years, but that’s not due to AI. The overcapacity is because the market has been stuck for three years. Turbulence and uncertainty have led companies not to dare or want to invest – they are playing it safe. The AI & Data sector is an exception here – there is a desire to invest in it, and it is seen as generating a lot of value.
Companies have been building software for 30–40 years to run their businesses, and now all of these will sooner or later become old. They were built on the wrong paradigm – the assumption that users are humans. They were not built on the assumption that the user is an agent. These need to be either replaced or updated. A huge amount of work will be generated.
Societal perspective
Consider the productivity angle from a societal perspective. Finland has been criticized – and we ourselves too – as a failure in productivity development. Since 2008, we have stagnated. At the EU level, growth during that period has been 5%. Now there is concern that productivity is growing enormously in one sector – but that’s great news! It’s not limited to the IT services sector but spreads to all industries. The IT sector implements technology first but shares lessons and solutions with its customers. If Finland could raise productivity from level 1.0 to 1.5, many societal problems would disappear. Is it possible? Yes – and probable.
Exception: education sector
While all companies and even the public sector want to increase productivity with technology, the education sector thinks differently. The topic evokes a lot of emotions. My older daughter is in 2nd grade in Laru, and there’s a lot of discussion in connection with the school. There’s a desire to restrict the use of devices – some even suggest returning purely to a pen-and-paper model. That’s absurd. I’d like to tell the parents: you’re crazy, and you don’t really have the means to limit device usage. Our parents didn’t succeed in that in their time, and we have even fewer opportunities. Instead, we should leverage technology and teach children how to use it wisely.
3. Process and task-specific AI solutions
This is a big business. Every company has a multitude of workflows and tasks where a bot or agent is better than a human. For example, predictive maintenance – you have a physical device, such as a car or a work machine. Data is continuously collected from the device, and efforts are made to identify signs of failure. When a problem is anticipated in time, a service visit is offered. This is more of the machine learning world, and we are already further along. Many of these are being done, and you can build your own business from them.
Because these processes are company- and task-specific, there are many needs. This is close to customized software development, as services are often bespoke. Current clients of IT companies are in a situation where the lifecycle of existing services must be considered in a new usage paradigm. Where is human contact needed, and what is its role? Where is it not needed at all?
4. Data management to enable this
This is the area that is almost always messed up. The business itself isn’t new, but the problem is that companies cannot build intelligent agents if the data is not in order. A chatbot answering FAQ-style questions is Stone Age. Users immediately realize if the service doesn’t genuinely understand the situation. The expectation is that when I interact with a company or public entity, it knows who I am, what we have done, and what I need now.
Many current online services are disconnected – no connection to enterprise resource planning (ERP) or other data. They don’t recognize that the same person has been a customer before.
Examples:
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A TV channel advertises that you can continue watching on any device from where you left off – in 2025. C’mon.
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Helsingin Sanomat (Helsinki Times) is advertised to me online – even though I’ve been a subscriber for 20 years. I understand why this happens, but it’s still a waste of money. It’s assumed that online communication is for the masses. It’s not – it’s for each individual. Mass media no longer exists.
Let’s follow AIcorp’s journey from now on! Comments and questions are more than welcome.
Clear and measurable
Emphasis risk – could lead to excessive focus on growth at the expense of margin – or vice versa
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