What happens when AI researchers get an entire city as their testing ground? The City of Tampere and Tampere University’s GPT-Lab are launching a three-year partnership to tackle public-sector challenges through AI and research. The collaboration supports Tampere’s ambition to become a European frontrunner in the use of AI.
The City of Tampere and GPT-Lab are strengthening their collaboration through a three-year research partnership that brings AI researchers into the city’s day-to-day operations. The aim is to identify real-world challenges where AI could provide value, develop solutions together with city experts and study their impact in practice.
In concrete terms, three to four GPT-Lab researchers will spend part of each week working on the city’s premises and with its data. The results of the research will be reported publicly.
The partnership builds on Tampere’s long-term work in digitalisation. In recent years, the city has moved from individual projects towards continuous development across different city sectors and in collaboration with businesses and researchers. Existing examples include the personalised Tampere VIP event assistant, the Pulssi application for predicting visitor flows and the use of digital twins in urban planning.
“This partnership brings together two pioneers. Both have a long track record of adopting and exploring new technologies. This collaboration is a natural next step – now we are setting out to build the future together,” says Irene Vekkeli, Director of Economic Development and Innovation at the City of Tampere.
Research supports long-term AI development
The three-year timeframe allows Tampere and GPT-Lab to move beyond individual AI experiments. Researchers can follow the impact of new solutions over time and examine how AI affects services and processes as well as work, leadership and skills.
Sanni Pöntinen, doctoral researcher and member of the GPT-Lab management team, has been involved in developing the partnership. Her research focuses on the impact of AI on work and leadership.
“Our understanding of leadership is built on the assumption that the employee is human. That assumption no longer holds, and we do not yet know what will take its place. Tampere is one of the first public-sector organisations where we can observe this change taking place in a real-world environment rather than in a laboratory. Our role is to support the transition and study what actually follows from it,” Pöntinen says.
The partnership also offers a way to navigate the rapid development of AI while regulation and established practices continue to evolve.
“It is important that we do not become paralysed by regulation and rules. GPT-Lab and Tampere University bring us concrete tools for moving forward. Tampere needs strong partners who can help us navigate towards the forefront of AI development in Europe,” Vekkeli says.
For GPT-Lab, the city provides a real-world research environment where new approaches can be studied independently before wider adoption.
“GPT-Lab is not selling anything – we do research. The strength of research is that it allows us to move forward even in the midst of uncertainty. The aim is to build the change together. That is precisely what makes this partnership unique,” says Pekka Abrahamsson, founder of GPT-Lab and Professor of Software Engineering at Tampere University.
First research case focuses on public procurement
The first research activities are already underway with Kari Paju, Director of Procurement at the City of Tampere. GPT-Lab is studying how AI could streamline Tampere’s procurement processes and support the development of procurement in a high-quality and sustainable way.
Ultimately, the success of the partnership will be measured by what moves from experimentation into the city’s everyday operations. Tampere and GPT-Lab aim to build knowledge and practices that will continue to support the city’s AI development beyond the three-year collaboration.
The partnership is also featured in Talouselämä’s Business NOW supplement in autumn 2026.
Further information:
Professor Pekka Abrahamsson, GPT-Lab, Tampere University
Sanni Pöntinen, GPT-Lab, Tampere University
Photo by Elina Uusitalo, City of Tampere