Tap into the world-leading artificial intelligence ecosystem

Helsinki is the artificial intelligence powerhouse showing the way in human-centric and ethical AI.

Why look at AI offering in Helsinki?

Investors:

High-quality startup deal flow
Global expansion of portfolio companies

Corporations:

Best possible R&D partners and ecosystems
University & research center collaboration
Product development opportunities
Unique piloting platforms
Funding

High-growth startups:

Right kind of talent
Pilot customers
Product development opportunities
Global expansion
Funding

Finland offers world-class capabilities in human-centric and ethical AI:

Top-level education and research
Open data
Skilled talent pool
Tech-savvy society
Dynamic AI startups
Real-world applications of AI by companies
National AI program

All of these together create an exceptionally vibrant and attractive innovation environment to develop new solutions for the global market leveraging the AI expertise from Finland. Helsinki has what it takes to meet your needs in the AI space – and we’re here to help you find what you are looking for!

Within artificial intelligence, we’re especially focused on

Ethical AI
Augmented AI
Data efficiency

Speech recognition
Facial recognition
Computer vision

“Helsinki area is strong in basic and applied research, not to mention the commercialization of industrial-scale AI in enterprise companies. Helsinki is particularly well geared towards building ethical and human-centric AI products and solutions to improve productivity.”

– Tero Ojanperä, Chairman and Co-Founder, Silo AI

Finland is a superpower in leveraging the possibilities provided by artificial intelligence

Finland’s high level of education and decades of research in machine learning and signal processing have formed a solid basis for the Finnish AI know-how and development.

Finland initiated a national AI strategy among the first countries in the world.
Finland created an action plan to boost education and research in the field of AI.
We are actively exploring how AI can create new economic growth and thereby promote wellbeing.
Finland has accelerated AI development and utilization by
- providing access to more efficient and inexpensive computing capacity
- increasing growth of the volume of data available to artificial intelligence
- emphasizing the development of algorithms.

Finland is a powerhouse for machine learning and computer vision:

Finland has a long tradition of research in this field.
Strong capabilities to apply the latest machine learning solutions and algorithms to products and services, as well as combine them with other technologies.
Machine learning has for example been combined with software robotics and hyperspectral imaging.
The industry uses computer vision solutions widely, and several technology companies are applying AI to their computer vision and video- or image-related products.

In addition, the national AI Business program aims to make Finland the best place to research and develop artificial intelligence and platform economy. Since 2017, over 300 AI companies have received about EUR 200 million in additional funding in total.

“Helsinki’s strength in AI is fundamental research and innovations. Great ideas, talent pool and technology come from Finland. Sufficient open data is a key enabler for AI, and Helsinki and Finland offer open data and environment to promote innovation. Finland’s national level AI center (FCAI) sets it apart.”

– Mikko Terho, Vice President of Technology Planning and Site Manager Finland R&D, Huawei

“Finland has a rich history in computer science and AI. The backpropagation algorithm was first published by a University of Helsinki student Seppo Linnainmaa in 1970, and Finland is also the home country of Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux. Finland was among the first countries to launch a national AI program and it offers excellent higher education and research opportunities. The Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI), an academy of Finland flagship program, brings together world-class researchers across a range of disciplines to tackle real-world problems. NVIDIA accelerates research, education and adoption of artificial intelligence in Finland via NVIDIA AI Technology Center (NVAITC), a joint research center between FCAI, NVIDIA, and the Finnish IT Centre for Science CSC. The NVIDIA office in Helsinki consists of accelerated-computing experts, including a world-leading research team in generative image modelling.”

– Dr. Niki Loppi, AI & HPC Solutions Architect at NVAITC, NVIDIA

Human-centric and ethical AI business opportunities in Helsinki

We serve several industries with our AI expertise

Read more about some of the industries that our AI expertise serves:

Healthcare

Helsinki is the Northern European hub for life science and health tech innovations, business development and collaboration.

Smart energy

Tomorrow’s energy solutions are created in Helsinki with expertise in next generation smart grids, 5G test networks, IoT and AI.

Smart mobility

The creation of new smart mobility solutions has been made easy in Helsinki and artificial intelligence plays a key role here.

Circular economy

Find circular economy business opportunities in Helsinki and lead the way towards solving global sustainability challenges.

Smart maritime

Helsinki region combines the volumes, know-how and resources to succeed in the global smart maritime market.

Smart city

Helsinki is one of the most functional cities in the world and outsmarts other cities with its thorough approach to ecosystem development.

A free online course “Elements of AI” has already trained more than 2% of the entire Finnish population on the basics of artificial intelligence. It is now followed by “Ethics of AI” course, also available for everyone.

Benefits of working with our ecosystem

Finland has always been a pioneer in new technologies. The Finns form a tech-savvy society that is not afraid of new technologies and innovations. We have a culture of trying out new technologies in the early phase and learn from experimentation. Our industry has a way of working together and learning together as an ecosystem. We have an exceptionally strong innovation ecosystem in AI.

Faster time to market

We have the leading European R&D infrastructure which you can utilize to speed up your AI R&D and to support commercialization. When you want to ensure good product-market fit, Finnish companies are early adopters of new technology and can serve as valuable pilot customers and testbeds for new AI solutions.

Complete ICT value chain

We have a complete value chain for AI from R&D to software development, algorithms, hardware design and manufacturing, testing, procurement, and commercialization. In addition, the Finnish CSC offers free supercomputing capacity for research organizations.

Open data for AI

In Finland, the availability of data and its quality are excellent. Finland provides access to data for AI research and development, e.g., biobanks, open data, SITRA IHAN etc. We have a strong and active data sharing culture also in the early adopter B2B industries, e.g. DIMECC One Sea.

Reduced fear of AI

Finland has reduced fear in AI through AI literacy across citizens and employees which speeds up AI deployment in business and in society. We also focus on using AI for ethical and human purposes to augment human performance.

Technically skilled workforce

We can provide highly talented English-speaking workforce with remarkable technical skills in especially optics, machine learning, graphics, coding, mobile technologies and UX design.

Cost effective resources

Finland has the second largest number of AI experts per capita in Europe, and here you can hire top talent in AI R&D at globally competitively price and a fraction of the cost of the Silicon Valley.

Stable society

The Finnish society works, and we have a very reliable business environment here. We are also the happiest country in the world: a safe and nice place to live with clean nature and air. Helsinki is one of the smartest cities in the world.

Less risks

Your IPR is globally secure here. We are the least corrupt country in the world, and we have exceptionally strong cyber security capabilities. The Finnish society has also effectively dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.

EU data compliance

Finland has the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance and CE certification for “made in EU” AI solutions that can be sold to the EU trade zone customer base.

Helsinki has the most globally connected local ecosystem.

Helsinki is famous for bringing together the whole ecosystem in the AI development projects: private and public sector, academia, applied R&D organisations, and citizens. It’s a great place to pilot and test new AI innovations that lead to globally scalable business solutions.

Helsinki is supercharged with AI startups and a vital R&D ecosystem

Startups have a major role in the Finnish AI landscape. There are over 400 AI startups in Finland and the top 30 companies ranked by the Finland’s Artificial Intelligence Accelerator (FAIA) are doubling their growth each year.

The number of people working at AI startups in Finland increases by approximately 33% each year. Startup Genome has identified the Helsinki area as one of the most significant AI ecosystems in Europe, along with London and Berlin.

In Helsinki, AI startups are able to quickly test new technology in real-world environments – with strong support from the public sector and society in general.

Silo AI
Silo AI is the largest private AI lab in the Nordics that helps companies to bring AI into their product development. It’s developing a new platform aimed to make AI competence available to every company. The company offers scalable solutions that leverage machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing.

“Our team has doubled its size during the past year, resulting in 150+ AI experts working together with our clients all over Europe. The fast adoption of AI by enterprise companies as well as advanced B2B data sharing has become characteristic of Finland’s AI ecosystem. In addition, First AI Accelerator (FAIA, formerly Finland’s AI Accelerator) has successfully helped numerous companies to kick-off their journey in AI.”

– Tero Ojanperä, Chairman and Co-Founder, Silo AI
Awake.AI
Awake.AI is a collaborative and open data platform company that facilitates ecosystem creation for smart ports and evolving autonomous shipping. The underlying objective of the Awake.AI platform is to increase the operational efficiencies and create new digital services for all actors in the port ecosystem. Actors range from port service providers to infrastructure utilization to shipping customers and cargo owners.

Awake.AI is developing predictive analytics and models for key processes in harbor operations. To facilitate the involvement of new digital service providers for smart ports, the Awake.AI platform is a multi-sided network for many participants to develop smart port cargo flows and a future marketplace for buying and selling smart port- and ship-related services.

“Helsinki has the AI talent pool and R&D infrastructure for product development to commercialize AI-powered solutions to address challenges in the global smart maritime industry.”

– Karno Tenovuo, CEO and Co-Founder, Awake.AI
DAIN Studios
DAIN Studios is a data and AI consultancy based in Helsinki, Berlin and Munich. DAIN Studios specializes in data, analytics and AI, and have a full portfolio of data and analytics offerings – from business strategy to data science and analytics implementation.

“As a Finnish-German data and AI consultancy, we appreciate the advanced level of digitalization and the vibrant data & AI ecosystem in Helsinki. We have brought our clients from the DACH region to meet with their colleagues in the respective Finnish companies for sharing insights and experiences. With its skilled data-science workforce and open-minded people, Helsinki serves as a good test bed for developing scalable AI solutions.”

– Ulla Kruhse-Lehtonen, CEO & Co-Founder, DAIN Studios Finland
FAIA
Finland’s Artificial Intelligence Accelerator FAIA helps established organisations deploy artificial intelligence. It pools together organisations, startups, service providers and academia to jointly work on real life use cases.

The accelerator is initiated as a joint venture by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Technology Industries of Finland and Silo AI.

“Finland’s Artificial Intelligence Accelerator (FAIA) helps established organizations deploy artificial intelligence (AI). The accelerator is initiated as a joint venture by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Technology Industries of Finland and Silo.AI. We have located FAIA in Helsinki due to the talent pool and ecosystem in AI in the area.”

– Alexander Törnroth, Lead, Finland’s Artificial Intelligence Accelerator (FAIA)
FCAI
Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI is a community of experts in artificial intelligence in Finland, initiated by Aalto University, University of Helsinki, and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. FCAI is one of the six Academy of Finland Finnish flagships.

Their mission is to bring real AI for real people in the real world. The goal in FCAI is to create a new type of AI, which is able to operate with humans in the complex world, and to renew the Finnish industry with that new AI. To create real AI, they have setup three grand scientific objectives: data efficiency, trust & ethics, and understandability.

Research carried out at FCAI is focused on
- Agile probabilistic AI
- Simulator-based inference
- Next-generation data-efficient deep learning
- Privacy-preserving and secure AI
- Interactive AI
- Autonomous AI
- AI in society
“Finland has 60 years of history in AI, and FCAI is a flagship in this long tradition of research. In our core areas, our research has recently been ranked in top 20 globally and top 3 in Europe. We focus particularly on machine learning and AI that is ethical and works well with people. We aim at new methods for AI-assisted decision-making, design and modeling, combining for instance human-computer interaction expertise with AI.”

– Samuel Kaski, Director of FCAI, Fundamental AI research, Academy professor, Aalto University