With nearly three decades of coding experience, Tommi Bäckgren has built his career on curiosity and adaptability. Starting out in the mid-90s with animation and early software prototypes for mobile operators, he now spends most of his time working on AI-driven projects.

“I kind of ended up doing projects for AI Roots by accident. In the beginning of 2023, I built a bot for myself to handle tasks related to hiring coders. I have around 12 years of experience with various AI projects and I wanted to see how much of my daily work I can hand over to AI. Suddenly, 90% of my own workload disappeared because the bot did it for me. That left me wondering what to do next – and then one really interesting AI Roots case came along. So I volunteered myself. Since then, I’ve been doing even more AI work, and that’s where my focus is now,” Tommi explains.

Tommi’s journey into entrepreneurship began early.

“My very first job was in 1996 as an animator, making a little game called Uppo-Nallen Runoreissu. From there I picked up coding at work, then did some 3D animation for TV. Around 2001 I decided to become a full-time entrepreneur doing coding and project work, and that’s been my path ever since,” he recalls.

Unlike many who wrestle with the transition from permanent employment to freelancing, Tommi has been self-employed for most of his career: “This is the only way of working I really know. I like long days, I don’t mind stress, and entrepreneurship just fits me.”

Over the years, Tommi has worked on projects across industries – from training software about truck driving to applications about making jackets. For him, the subject itself isn’t the main point:
“I always try to find an angle that makes a project interesting. There’s always something new to learn. Even if the topic isn’t exciting at first glance, I can usually discover something that makes it worth diving into.”

Recently, his projects through AI Roots have mostly been internal business chatbots: “They’re not for consumers, but for companies’ internal use or their business clients. They often include financial data, so the bots can’t just make things up. Unlike consumer bots that can sometimes get away with mistakes, these have to be accurate from the start. That challenge makes them fun; if a bot gives the wrong numbers to for example a CFO and that CFO adds those wrong numbers to some official company document and only notices the errors later, they will probably never use the bot again. They might even want to get rid of the Service the bot is attached to.”

Tommi highlights how smooth the collaboration with AI Roots has been:
“Everything has been extremely easy. The contracts are short and to the point – just a couple of pages with the essentials. That’s great compared to overly long documents. And Roots usually joins the first couple of meetings, then lets me work independently. No one is watching over my shoulder, which would feel strange after all these years. It’s been very painless.”

For those considering the leap into freelancing, Tommi is straightforward:
“Just do it. These days, starting a company is much easier than before. You can even begin as a light entrepreneur. Nowadays, you don’t need big loans or capital to get your business started. If it doesn’t feel right, you can always return to employment.’