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our story

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IN A SEARCH OF SUSTAINABLE VALUE OF DATA AND AI

AI and data are dramatically differentiating capabilities for practically all existing and new companies. It has been challenging to bring this potential visible in companies’ top and bottom line.

Our mission is to help companies learn to integrate data and AI in their daily work and make it a key competence that produces sustainable and measurable business value. Based on our experience one of the most effective ways to succeed in this data transformation journey is to make sure that the company has versatile data expertise, skills and resources in place. However, as the need for data experts is growing in many industries, finding, attracting and retaining this talent has become more difficult. We have created a new model and solution for this challenge by bringing together the data entrepreneurs and freelances and our customers. Our customer companies have a single-point of contact to the best data talent in the market and out freelancer network can rely on our ability to find the most suitable projects and customers for them.

From the very start we have also been a part of the Bravedo-community. From the start of 2023, we merged with Finitec, the leading  agency for IT and technology freelancers.

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Two challenges became a win-win

The initial idea for AI Roots was born in 2019 when Teemu had been working on data development projects with many of Finland's largest and coolest companies. He noticed that even though they put in a lot of work in developing their data platforms and algorithm development, it was hard to make true impact with these efforts. The data development efforts were not sufficiently linked with the company strategy and integrated in the day-to-day activities to produce real business value.

At the same time, Teemu saw that many of the skilled data analytics entrepreneurs around him almost never got to participate in the most interesting data development projects and they were lacking a work community around them. Regardless of their strong expertise, it was too difficult for large companies to find and hire single entrepreneurs for their project teams.

An idea started to take form. What about a new concept that would bring together data entrepreneurs and companies in a seamless way? Enable companies to scale their data teams flexibly and offer entrepreneurs more diverse opportunities to attend the customer value creation?

This quickly became the joint mission of our founding team: Helping entrepreneurs and companies to succeed in their independent missions. 

 

new phase of growth with finitec

Now at the beginning of 2023 and after 3 years of growing our operations and freelancer network, it is safe to say that we have developed a unique concept. We have brought entrepreneurs and companies together in the data industry and thus enabled companies' data teams to scale flexibly and with high quality. At the same time, we continue to actively collaborate with our customers to search for roles and projects that match the skills of the entrepreneurs in our network. We offer entrepreneurs the freedom to choose projects and customer relationships that best develop their own expertise. In addition, we offer support to entrepreneurs with a community of other top experts in the data industry. 

"Our goal from the very beginning at AI Roots has been to create a new and scalable solution for solving the growing demand for data expertise. Our operations combine a strong customer and data understanding and a way to solve customer needs with the help of our network of top data experts. The merger with Finitec is a logical step, with which we can now together continue to serve Finnish companies by bringing the entrepreneurial know-how to wider use, while offering our entrepreneurs more interesting project opportunities." rejoices Teemu Birkstedt, who will continue working as the Chairman of the Board at AI Roots.

With the merger with Finitec, the current core team of AI Roots continues their work as before and AI Roots will remain as an independent brand. Markku Seraste will join the team from Finitec to support our growth journey going forward.

CORE TEAM

Iiris Lahti

Founding partner of AI Roots

I am a data enthusiast with background in consulting and data driven transformations, most recently in the media industry. I am specialized in driving the utilization of data, design thinking and lean agile methods in digital product development, sales & marketing.  I have a passion for helping people find their strengths and roles where they can excel and grow.

Ari Rantanen

Founding partner of AI Roots

My passion lies at the cross section of artificial intelligence & data science, data driven process development & deployment, BI and leadership. Based on my experience, a successful data-driven business transformation requires that all these domains are developed in sync. And the successful business transformation is a goal that makes me tick. 

Teemu Birkstedt

Entrepreneur and founding partner of AI Roots

I have extensive experience in transforming companies globally within different industries (media, consumer electronics, retail, telecommunications, energy and banking). I have helped various management teams lead the change towards a data and analytics driven company. I have a broad strategic, technical, architectural and conceptual understanding of data as a core business capability. 

Max Rantakallio

Partner at AI Roots

I started at AI Roots at the beginning of 2022, supporting our growth journey as a Partner. I have a background from data consulting, data engineering and agile development methods. I aim to solve our customers data resourcing challenges effectively and help our team to constantly develop our working practices and methods.

Markku Seraste
I joined AI Roots from the beginning of 2023 from Finitec. I have an extensive background from freelancer networks, project management and technology consulting. I am excited to help AI Roots grow further and scale it's operations in collaboration with Finitec.
Iikka Lindroos
I am proud to be a part of AI Roots story on behalf of Bravedo, a fast growing community of growth companies. AI Roots represents the cutting edge data and AI experitise that complements well the rest of our community. Most often data and AI is not enough to make a big transformation and then we need other experts, such as software engineers, Dev Ops specialists, project managers or other resourcing.
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