Is AI the cause of unemployment or the solution?
Five unemployed young adults use AI to tackle employment barriers
In a pilot launched by Sofigate, the company explores whether AI can help young people find employment. Five young adults will define for themselves which job-seeking challenges are best addressed with AI. The aim is to test whether AI agents could change how people look for work. The six-month pilot begins in February, and the first AI agents are planned to be made available to jobseekers in spring 2026.
Business technology company Sofigate is hiring five unemployed young adults for a new AI pilot that supports young people in finding employment and examines how AI can help with the transition into working life.
Youth employment is more challenging than it has been in years. According to Statistics Finland, around 30,000 young adults have never entered the labour market. For many, the start of a career is fragmented, while AI is often seen as a threat to entry-level jobs in particular.
“In this situation, we want to test whether AI could be part of the solution to youth unemployment, rather than part of the problem. In practice, we are exploring whether AI agents can support job seeking and whether, when used responsibly, AI could open new pathways into working life and help clarify career choices,” says Lassi Kurkijärvi, Chief Technology Officer at Sofigate and lead of the pilot.
Is AI depriving young people of jobs?
The young adults selected for the pilot will design and build AI agents with support from a mentoring team of early-career professionals at Sofigate. Recruitment is currently under way among unemployed jobseekers in collaboration with educational institutions and employment services.
Over the course of six months, the participants will define the key pain points in job seeking and the transition into working life, identifying the situations where support is most needed. Their task is to build a library of AI agents tailored to these needs. The library will evolve throughout the pilot based on the participants’ experiences and insights.
“In our vision, the core of the agent library consists of employment coaches, AI agents that support young people in different life situations. They can help with preparing for job searches and finding direction, as well as supporting everyday structure and routines when personal circumstances require clarity. Depending on individual needs, support can range from developing a CV to exploring entrepreneurship,” Kurkijärvi explains.
The agent library is one concrete example of the possible outcomes of the pilot, but the overall result may also take other forms, Kurkijärvi emphasises.
“We believe that, in the long term, AI could help thousands of young people find their first job or build their own career path. AI is not a threat to jobs, but a tool that can open entirely new opportunities, also for those who have not found their place through traditional routes. We want to give young people the opportunity to challenge existing job-seeking models and try out how AI can support their individual needs, not just in drafting job applications.”
Employment agents available for anyone to use in spring 2026
The first employment agents developed during the pilot are planned to be released in an open agent library as early as spring 2026. All agents will be gathered in one place and made available for anyone to use. Over time, the library could expand into a collection of dozens of agents designed for different job-seeking and everyday situations.
This initiative is aimed particularly at those looking for their first job or struggling with uncertainty in the job market.
“Too many young people are left alone in their search for work. AI can offer a helping hand when human support is not available. When designed responsibly, it can enable young people to find meaningful employment while also teaching them how AI agents operate,” Kurkijärvi says.
“As employers, we have a responsibility to create pathways for young people to succeed. Finland needs the courage to use AI in ways that deliver real value. This is a concrete action through which we want to help make Finland a leading country in the use of AI.”
The progress of the pilot can be followed and the AI agents tested in person at Sofigate’s showroom in Ruoholahti, Helsinki, which will open in the spring. The initiative will run until summer 2026.
“We plan to share openly both the successes and the failures,” Kurkijärvi concludes.
Click here to read more about the pilot.
Media contacts:
Anna de Torres, Chief Marketing Officer, Sofigate
anna.de.torres@sofigate.com
Tel. +358 50 576 6015
Sofigate is the leading business technology company in the Nordics. We are pioneers in enterprise-level AI services, combining our unique expertise in business transformation, AI agents and leading technology platforms such as ServiceNow and Salesforce. We are the founder of the Business Technology Forum and the developer of the globally used Business Technology Standard, BTS. Our team of over 800 experienced professionals supports customers across six countries and nine offices in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Hungary and Poland.
Sofigate’s net sales amount to EUR 150 million, and the company is primarily owned by its management and employees. More information: sofigate.com
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