In this episode, I spoke with Nina Nissilä, who serves as Director, and 2nd Deputy Director General at Kela, which is Finland’s Social Insurance Institution. Kela is undergoing a 7-year long journey to modernize its IT systems for Finnish citizens benefits processing and Nina is its strategic leader. We talk about where AI makes sense and where just rule-based automation suffices to bring efficiency and speed. Finland is EU’s most digitally-savvy nation which makes this episode particularly worth listening to. Hear more about smart, efficient, safe, digital- and AI-assisted services for 5.5 million residents served by the Public sector institution of Finland. Take a listen and enjoy!
Chapters
(00:00) — Introduction to Nina Nissilä and Kela
(02:37) — Nina’s career path and leadership background
(08:28) — The EEPOS transformation program - Finland’s largest IT modernization efforts
(15:00) — Change management at scale for 8000 people
(17:26) — AI at Kela: early experiments, to real use cases
(26:44) — Public trust, data, and responsible AI
(30:11) — AI roadmap for 2035
(33:35) — EU AI policy and Finland’s position
(37:04) — Technology and AI adoption in Public vs private sector
(42:42)— Leadership, recognition, and the road ahead
(52:02) — Nina’s recommendations for leading AI transformations
(55:16) — Behind the curtains: AI’s take on the episode