When AI Research Meets Everyday Software Development at Siili Solutions

What happens when an AI researcher steps out of the university and into a software company’s daily work? In Seinäjoki, this question was explored in practice through a two-week Adopt an AI researcher period at Siili Solutions. This experiment brought postdoctoral researcher and the Vice Head of GPT-Lab Jussi Rasku from Tampere University into the everyday workflows of a modern software company.

From research results to real-world needs

Artificial intelligence is often discussed in abstract, laudatory superlatives, portraying it as a solution that offers relief for everything. In practice, adopting AI requires careful system development and an understanding of existing workflows. During his time at Siili Solution’s Seinäjoki office, Rasku worked closely with company experts to explore where AI could genuinely add value across the software development lifecycle: from planning and design to testing and maintenance.

For Rasku, the role of an AI ambassador offered a rare opportunity to ground academic research in real-world needs.

“As an AI ambassador, you get to the field to identify promising use cases. At the same time, you can share research-based knowledge about AI, its impacts, and the latest breakthroughs,” Rasku explains.

AI as part of everyday development

At Siili Solutions, AI is not seen as a separate experiment or isolated tool. Instead, it is increasingly embedded throughout development work. According to Petri Välimäki, Site Lead at Siili’s Seinäjoki unit, the company’s goal is to act as a partner for its clients throughout their AI transformation journey. While AI is already part of daily work at Siili, its rapid development continues to open new possibilities across all sectors where information processing plays a central role.

Similar to Siili’s case, a hands-on pilot was carried out at Pori Energia last November, demonstrating that the need to ground AI in real operational contexts is shared across very different sectors. The GPT-Lab doctoral researchers Zeeshan Rasheed and Sami Malik located at University Consortium of Pori explored how generative AI and agent-based systems might improve processes and support everyday tasks in the energy sector. Their month-long “adoption” sparked more possibilities than initially expected. Together, the cases from Seinäjoki and Pori emphasize that combining academic research with real business contexts helps move AI from abstract theory to meaningful real-world impact.

Seinäjoki as a growing AI collaboration hub

The Adopt an AI researcher experiment also highlights the regional dimension of AI development: how important local collaboration between business and research is. South Ostrobothnia has the highest number of entrepreneurs per capita (54 per 1,000 inhabitants) and the highest share of industrial establishments (9.3%) in Finland (Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia, 2024).

Seinäjoki, the leading business hub of South Ostrobothnia, offers an entrepreneur-friendly atmosphere, a vibrant education and research network that brings together expertise from multiple fields, and strong traditional industries. Together, these elements create untapped opportunities to automate information processes and workflows through agentic AI. In many ways, Seinäjoki provides a strong foundation for developing an entrepreneurship-driven AI cluster.

Turning AI talk into action

The Adopt an AI researcher period at Siili Solution’s was part of the EU-funded Aiming for Productivity project coordinated by SeAMK, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences. The project aims to move beyond AI hype and support concrete AI adoption in local companies. By embedding researchers directly into local organisations, the model lowers the threshold for experimentation and helps transform abstract AI discussions into actionable development work.

Conclusion

Adopt an AI researcher -program offers a glimpse of what future university–industry collaboration could look like: less distance, more dialogue, and shared responsibility for building an AI-enabled future that actually works.