What a One-Year AI Journey Looks Like

How professional and company AI growth goes hand in hand

Author

Peter Juel Jensen
November 25, 2024

Pioneer AI: Checking the Nordic AI Pulse

Welcome to Pioneer AI’s newsletter, The Nordic AI Pulse.

We are a Nordics-focused AI investment fund.

We track, share, and analyse information and insights on Nordic-related AI news, deals, and trends.

📚 In This Issue:

  1. What a One-Year AI Journey Looks Like

  2. Nordic AI Funding News

  3. Podcast Insights

  4. Upcoming: Nordic AI Events

What a One-Year AI Journey Looks Like

Maria Motzfeldt

Many will recognise the AI journey that Maria Motzfeldt and the Danish pension company Velliv have undertaken in the last year. From knowing relatively little about AI, Maria and Velliv have initiated and deployed a successful AI strategy. We spoke about her – and Velliv's – AI journey and where she sees opportunities for AI startups in highly regulated industries like pension, insurance and finance.  

Pioneer AI: 2024 has seen you and Velliv go on an AI journey that many other companies and professionals might recognise. Could you describe what it has been like?

Maria: My professional background is as an economist in private and public organisations. As a management partner, my core responsibilities at Velliv include supporting directors and working on strategic planning and execution across the company.

In February 2024, we started developing a strategy to implement AI across Velliv. The goal was to make “AI live and thrive” across the business and support our employees and customers.

Pioneer AI: How much did you and the company know about AI at that time?

Maria: My knowledge and understanding of the technology was – as was probably the case for many in similar circumstances across industries – relatively limited. I had tried ChatGPT a couple of times but didn’t have a technical understanding of what a large language model is, how it works, or what it is capable of.

The company's knowledge and understanding of AI were very diverse, depending on the individual.

Pioneer AI: Could you describe the personal and company journey from that starting point?

Maria: The first step was collaborating closely with the person responsible for the technical side of AI on laying the foundations.

Our starting point was interviewing leaders across the company, making sure to include all business units. Our goal was to understand how they saw AI and its potential.

During that time, I also worked on upskilling and educating myself about AI. This involved studying the technical aspects, attending relevant AI conferences, liaising with internal experts, working with the models and testing their abilities as a user myself.

We used the information we gathered to chart where we were and where departments saw strong use cases and opportunities.

This laid the foundation for developing a complete AI strategy.

Pioneer AI: How did you build up enthusiasm within the company, including among those who were more reticent at the outset?  

Maria: Early steps included generating hype around AI and creating a sense of exclusivity.

We appointed 30 office staff and 30 programmers who took part in pilot projects. Office staff used Microsoft co-pilot for Office and GitHub, respectively.

Results started more favourable for the office users than programmers, but since the implementation of Open AI’s GPT 4o as the underlying model for GitHub co-pilot, things have rapidly improved here, too.

Pioneer AI: Where is the company today – and what are some of the plans on the horizon?

Maria: Thanks to the pilot projects, we have generated good traction and success with internal projects and streamlining workflows. We have also launched our own internal GPT called VeLlmaGPT.

The next steps include fully developing and launching customer-facing solutions to improve case management and the customer experience.

Another focus area is expanding our proactive approach to the legal aspects of AI.

As a company with financial and insurance operations, we are in a heavily regulated space. It complicates AI compliance issues for legal departments – not to mention legislators. This is particularly the case in relation to continuously developing legislation regarding AI and data.

Pioneer AI: What have been some of the key personal and organizational learnings that have contributed to your success with AI?

Maria: Personally, my biggest learning has been understanding the importance of knowing the technical background of the models at a high level to use them optimally. This way, I am better equipped to come up with use cases and get better responses from the models.

Organizationally, the biggest learning has been the importance of guiding employees and conducting continuous check-ins to ensure they get the most out of the tools and that their use is not forgotten. Additionally, creating hype around the tools by providing access only to selected employees in a pilot phase has been beneficial. It has provided extra motivation.

Pioneer AI: You are working with an AI startup concerning some of the customer-facing solutions. What are some of the reasons for this? What are some of the opportunities for AI startups in the space?

Maria: We are at the point of AI expansion where the deployment time can be crucial for success, so having a clear, provable business case and solution are central qualities companies in our space will look for. The same applies to understanding what it means to operate in spaces with stringent compliance requirements.

The startup we are working with on a proof-of-concept programme ticks those boxes.

For AI startups looking to collaborate with insurance companies or financial companies, the golden middle path is that solutions should offer close to plug-and-play deployment while also having the stringent data handling and protection setups needed for compliance.

What do you think? Any comments or thoughts? Let us know via email or contact us on the Pioneer AI LinkedIn page here. 

🚀AI Funding News🚀

Select Nordic AI-related deals, investments, acquisitions and insights. 

Congratulations to all of the founders and teams!

Pioneer AI’s top Nordic AI funding insights and highlights:

AI and energy go hand in hand
Oslo-based eSmart Systems raised €30 million to advance its AI-powered solutions for inspecting and managing critical energy infrastructure. The investment highlights the growing demand for innovative tools that address the energy challenges of ageing grids, the transition to renewable energy, and the introduction of new energy-hungry units like EVs and heat pumps.

Utility companies can perform inspections and manage assets via eSmart Systems' AI platform, offering data-driven maintenance and virtual inspection capabilities. The new funding will enable the company to scale its operations, particularly in North America, and refine its AI technology for broader applications.

The deal underscores AI’s potential in the energy sector. Scandinavia’s strong focus on renewables and sustainable energy policies presents unique opportunities for AI-driven innovation. This innovation has substantial export potential, as many other regions and countries are on a similar energy course - but often lagging a little behind - to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

Adapting your strategy in real-time
Helsinki-based startup In Parallel raised €2.8 million in seed funding. The company is developing AI-driven solutions to upgrade corporate strategy execution, enabling businesses to test, monitor, and adapt their strategies in real-time. By reducing reliance on traditional consulting services, In Parallel aims to empower organizations to make faster, data-backed decisions.

The seed funding will be put to use in connection with the company’s expansion in the Central European and Nordic markets. Funds will also go tothe continued enhancement of their AI-powered platform.

In Parallel’s approach and solutions reflect a growing trend of leveraging AI to streamline business management, helping companies remain agile in a fast-changing environment. The investment also highlights the potential for Scandinavian startups to lead in AI solutions tailored for strategy and decision-making, a critical need across industries aiming to improve efficiency and outcomes.

🎧Listen To🎧

Nordic AI news and analysis for your ears.

  • EDB 5.0 [DK] - Author and speaker Anders Bæk joins the podcast to discuss AI’s transformative power for individuals and society.

  • Data Management in the Nordics - Victor Undli, a leading Norwegian data scientist, shares insights into how AI has evolved from hype to a vital innovation driver for Norwegian organizations.

  • AI-podden - Christian Guttmann, Executive Director of the Nordic AI Institute, discusses AI as both a philosophical aspiration and a practical tool.

📅Training, Meetups & Conferences📅

Nordic AI events for everyone.

Conferences

2025

  • January 7-9: Northern Lights Deep Learning 2025: Gathers researchers both on a national and international level to exchange ideas, encourage collaborations and present cutting-edge deep learning research. [Tromsø, Norway]

  • February 3-7: AI Week 2025: Massive conference with broad line-up and programme exploring AI’s impact and potential across industries, functions, and society. [Oslo, Norway]

  • February 25: Cybersecurity and AI: Cybersecurity conference focused on the impact of AI on cyber threats and defences. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

  • March 12: AI Marketing Conference: A conference filled with concrete strategies and implementable tips from leading experts in AI-driven marketing. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

  • March 17-20: IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence: Research conference focused on sharing research concepts and results and fostering an environment for future collaborations. [Tromsø, Norway]

  • March 19-20: OffDig 2025: A conference focused on digitisation, including the use of AI, in public organisations. [Aarhus, Denmark]

  • April 3: Applied AI Nordics 2025: Explore real-world case studies, results and learnings from the business implementation of AI across industries. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

  • April 11: Gothenburg AI Alliance Conference: One-day conference exploring various aspects of AI implementation. [Gothenburg, Sweden]

  • May 7-8: Data Innovation Summit: Large conference for exploring ways to accelerate AI-driven transformation throughout companies, industries and public organisations. [Stockholm, Sweden]

  • May 12-14: AI and Machine Learning for Healthcare: Research conference exploring advances in deep learning and neural networks for the development of intelligent healthcare systems. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

  • May 13-15: International Congress on Industrial AI and eMaintenance: Congress focused on industrial artificial intelligence, or IAI. [Luleå, Sweden]

  • May 14-15: Stockholm Tech Show: One of the Nordic region’s largest events and meeting places for professionals involved in new technologies, including AI. [Stockholm, Sweden]

  • May 15: Data Centres Denmark: Industry conference that includes looks at how AI is driving the exponential growth in the data centre industry. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

  • May 15-16: International Conference on AI and Soft Computing: Scientists, researchers, and research scholars come together to exchange and share experiences and research results regarding AI and soft computing. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

  • May 22: AI Compute Summit: Examines the future of AI computing, addressing the challenges of building scalable, sustainable systems. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

  • June 2-3: NORA Annual Conference: An annual event for the Norwegian AI research community where participants can interact and share research, ideas, and new perspectives. [Oslo, Norway]

  • June 11: Scandinavian Creative AI Summit: Newest in an event series designed to showcase how professionals in the creative industries embrace the power of generative AI. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

  • June 12-13: DevSum 2025: One of Sweden’s most prominent tech conferences, including many workshops and speakers focused on AI. [Stockhold, Sweden]

Meetups

Do you know an event, meetup or similar that you think should be on the list? Let us know!

Got an AI story or insight from the Nordics? Share it with us!

Reply to this email or connect on LinkedIn.

Until next time,

Pioneer Venture AI,