Sofigate Summit 2026
Sessions
Decisions | Experiences
Panel: The Future of Work in the Age of AI
Leading voices from business, economics, corporate governance and the next generation explore how AI is reshaping work, careers and the future workforce. The discussion looks beyond technology to examine the impact of AI on skills, leadership, productivity, competitiveness and society.
Why it matters: Gain fresh perspectives on one of the biggest transformations facing every organisation – and explore how AI is reshaping leadership, workforce strategy, competitiveness and the future of society.
More about the speakers and organisations:
Nina Nissilä, Deputy Director General, Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland
Nina Nissilä is the Deputy Director General at Kela – The Social Insurance Institution of Finland, where she is responsible for IT, security and shared services.
She has 25 years of experience in digitalisation and transformation and holds board and advisory board roles in several companies operating globally.
Previously, Nina established a digital team for the Finnish Government and held business leadership roles at CGI and Tieto. She was named CIO and Digital Leader of the Year 2023 by Tivi IT Magazine.
Mikko Mursula, CEO, Ilmarinen
Mikko Mursula has been President and CEO of Ilmarinen since 2025. Earlier Mursula has worked as Ilmarinen’s Chief Investment Officer since 2015 and as Deputy CEO since 2021. Mursula holds a Master’s Degree in Economics.
Earlier in his career, he served as CEO of FIM Group, as Director of Asset Management and Securities Brokerage Business S-Bank, and in various roles within Ilmarinen’s investment department. Mikko Mursula is also member of the board of Urlus Foundation, member of the board of directors and deputy chair of Kojamo Plc and member of the board of Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation.
More about Ilmarinen:
Ilmarinen is a mutual pension insurance company. Our task is to ensure that our customers receive the pension they earned from employment. We promote a better working life and thus help our customers succeed. Ilmarinen is Finland’s largest earnings-related pension insurer for private sector. In total, we are responsible for the pension cover of more than 1,1 million people. To cover the pension liabilities Ilmarinen has investment assets of over EUR 60 billion. We invest pension assets in a profitable, secure and responsible manner, to secure pensions also to the future generations.
Tuuli Koivu, Chief Economist, Nordea
Tuuli Koivu is Nordea’s Chief Economist and closely follows developments in the global economy, monetary policy and economic growth. She is particularly responsible for analysing the euro area economy and the European Central Bank’s monetary policy.
Koivu holds a PhD in Economics and has extensive experience at the Bank of Finland and the European Central Bank. Throughout her career, she has researched both advanced and emerging economies, with a particular focus on China, and has also studied the impact of banking regulation on the real economy.
Hanna Sievinen, Board Professional
Hanna Sievinen, PhD in Economics and Business Administration, has worked in a variety of leadership positions in corporate strategy, M&A, sales, and marketing, working across Finland, Germany, and India. Up until 2014 she worked at Nokia and before that she has gathered experience from, for example investment banking.
For the past 10 years Sievinen has served on the boards of various publicly listed companies, family-owned businesses, and state-owned companies. She is also a member of the Board of Directors at Sofigate.
Vera Väänänen, Junior Advisor, Sofigate
Vera Väänänen works on Sofigate’s go-to-market strategy in Central Europe.
She joined Sofigate through a social innovation project developing agentic AI solutions for youth employment. Väänänen holds a master’s degree in design management from Aalto University, and her background combines ecosystem development, startup accelerators and international experience spanning Tokyo, Berlin and Australia. Bringing together human-centred design and commercial strategy, Väänänen offers a next-generation perspective on the future of work: how AI is reshaping access to opportunity, and how organisations can translate that change into competitiveness.









Signals | Decisions | Actions
Panel: Delivering Enterprise AI Impact at Scale
Leading Global Business Services executives explore how the role of GBS is changing as AI reshapes the economics of work, productivity and enterprise services.
The discussion looks beyond technology to the choices leaders face around operating models, productivity, workflows and the future of work, and what it takes to turn the promise of AI into measurable business impact.
Why it matters: The next evolution of GBS is not simply about automating more work. Discover how AI and digital workers are reshaping where productivity comes from, how work is organised, and the role GBS can play in enabling a more intelligent and scalable enterprise.
More about the speakers and organisations:
Antti Valtokari, VP, Wärtsilä GBS and Operating Model, Wärtsilä
Antti Valtokari leads Wärtsilä Global Business Service, bringing an operating model transformation perspective to how global services, processes, data and technology come together. His focus is on turning GBS into an integral part of how a global enterprise operates and transforms.
More about Wärtsilä:
Wärtsilä is a global leader in innovative technologies and lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets. With approximately 18,000 employees operating in nearly 80 countries, the company is driving the transition towards a more sustainable future.
Jaana Nauska, Head of Global Business Services, SSAB
Jaana Nauska leads Global Business Services at SSAB, bringing hands-on experience from building and transforming business services in a complex global industrial environment. Her perspective grounds the discussion in what large-scale GBS transformation requires in practice.
More about SSAB:
SSAB is a global steel company and a leading producer of high-strength steels, employing approximately 14,000 people and operating in more than 50 countries. The company is leading one of the world’s most ambitious industrial transformations towards fossil-free steel production.
Jan Nikus, Vice President KONE Business Services, KONE
For more than 15 years, Jan Nikus has led the transformation and operations of global business services organisations across the manufacturing, pharmaceutical and technology industries. Originally from Finland, Jan holds an Executive MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in the US and a Diplom-Kaufmann degree from the University of Cologne, Germany.
Jan currently leads Global Business Services at KONE, a global leader in People Flow and a company listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. KONE Business Services is moving at full speed towards becoming a transformation engine and productivity powerhouse for KONE.
More about KONE:
KONE is one of the world’s leading elevator and escalator companies, operating in more than 70 countries with approximately 60,000 employees. The company is recognised for creating smarter, more sustainable buildings and urban environments through continuous innovation.
Sanna Suomela, VP, Sofigate, panel moderator
Sanna Suomela works with companies to turn transformation and technology into stronger competitiveness and new engines for growth. Her perspective combines business leadership with over 20 years in consulting and large-scale transformations, shaped by working across markets and with a broad international partner ecosystem.
At Sofigate, she focuses on how AI and technology are reshaping business capabilities and operating models, and how companies can turn that change into measurable business value and sustainable growth.







Experiences | Signals | Actions
Panel: Doing More with Less – How Municipalities Are Scaling AI Together
Nine municipalities are joining forces to build AI-enabled services for both citizens and employees. Rather than developing solutions independently, they are creating a shared AI ecosystem that accelerates innovation, reduces costs and enables municipalities to scale AI together.
Why it matters: Discover how collaboration, shared platforms and AI can help organisations achieve more with limited resources and turn ambitious AI plans into practical, scalable solutions.
More about the speakers and organisations:
Mika Pasanen, Mayor, Municipality of Konnevesi
Mika Pasanen has served as Mayor of the Municipality of Konnevesi for more than five years, leading the municipality’s strategic direction, operational development and financial management. With a background spanning public-sector leadership, digitalisation and business technology, he is particularly interested in how technology can support smarter public services and stronger communities.
Before joining Konnevesi, he worked with the Finnish Police, where his responsibilities included major IT development programmes, enterprise architecture and critical infrastructure. Today, he is focused on how a small municipality can use collaboration, digitalisation and new ways of working to create better services with limited resources.
More about Konnevesi:
The Municipality of Konnevesi is a Finnish municipality known for its willingness to pioneer new ways of delivering public services through collaboration and digital innovation.
Touko Aalto, Mayor, Municipality of Toivakka
Touko Aalto is the Mayor of the Municipality of Toivakka and he brings extensive experience from municipal and national decision-making. Before taking up his current role, he served as a Member of the Finnish Parliament and has held several leadership positions in Finnish politics and public affairs.
His background gives him a broad perspective on public-sector renewal, economic policy and the realities facing municipalities of different sizes. In Toivakka, he is now helping turn that perspective into practice as the municipality explores new ways to collaborate, use AI and develop public services with limited resources.
More about Toivakka:
The Municipality of Toivakka is actively developing modern public services through digitalisation and cross-municipality collaboration, demonstrating how smaller municipalities can drive innovation together.
Jonna Heliskoski, Programme Director, Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund
Jonna Heliskoski is the Programme Director of Sitra’s Public Sector Productivity programme, which aims to make Finland a global frontrunner in public-sector productivity and the use of technology by 2030. Her work focuses on ensuring that investments in public-sector renewal and collaboration across different sectors translate into measurable, tangible benefits.
With extensive experience in leading change and redesigning operating models, Jonna specialises in data, AI and public-sector productivity. She is driven by the potential of public-sector renewal and by finding new, ambitious solutions to some of society’s most difficult challenges.
More about Sitra:
Sitra, The Finnish Innovation Fund, is an independent public foundation established by the Finnish Parliament. Sitra works to anticipate the future and accelerate solutions that improve Finland’s competitiveness and well-being.
Sami von Wehrt, Senior Executive, Sofigate, panel moderator







ACTIONS | EXPERIENCES
Case: Impossible? Possible
Entering working life in the age of AI
What happens to the first steps of a career when AI is changing both jobs and how we apply for them?
For six months, Sofigate’s Impossible? Possible team of young professionals explored the barriers facing their generation, turning their findings into four AI agents designed to support different stages of the job search.
One idea became particularly important: AI is most valuable when it helps young people recognise their strengths, think for themselves and create new opportunities, rather than doing the thinking for them.
Why it matters: As traditional entry-level career paths change, hear directly from the generation experiencing that shift about how AI could empower young people – and what employers need to rethink to ensure the next generation gets its chance to enter and shape working life.
More about the Impossible? Possible initiative:
Impossible? Possible is a six-month Sofigate experiment that gave six young professionals at the beginning of their careers a challenge: explore whether AI could help tackle the barriers young people face when entering working life.
Working with young people, for young people, the team gathered insights from more than 100 students and young people, a 12-member Youth Advisory Board and experts from across business, research and the public sector.
They developed more than 20 AI agent concepts and built four agents designed to help young people recognise and articulate their strengths, tailor their experience to opportunities, prepare for interviews, and even identify and create opportunities beyond advertised jobs.
More about the Impossible? Possible team:





Jawahir Ahmed, Junior Advisor, Sofigate
Jawahir Ahmed works in Sofigate’s Salesforce business, where she is responsible for the Salesforce OSP partnership and works across commercial development, customer accounts and partnerships. She joined Sofigate through the Impossible? Possible initiative, developing AI agents for youth employment and leading AI workshops for young people.
Jawahir studies automation and robotics at Aalto University, and her background spans technology, entrepreneurship, project leadership and community building. Combining technical understanding with commercial and human perspectives, she brings an emerging professional’s view of how AI is reshaping the future of work.
Olivia Krekula, Junior Advisor, Sofigate
Olivia Krekula works with change and project management at Sofigate. Her experience spans project leadership, AI, FMCG, training and facilitation, with a consistent focus on creating clarity and effective ways of working in changing environments.
She holds a master’s degree in people management and organisational development from Aalto University. Combining a human-centred mindset with structured execution and clear communication, Olivia brings a people and performance perspective to the future of work: how organisations can design work, change and culture so that people can thrive while the business performs better.
Samuel Nousiainen, Junior Advisor, Sofigate
Samuel Nousiainen works as a Junior AI Architect at Sofigate, focusing on the development of Sofigate’s AI architecture. His work spans AI agent architectures, technology evaluation, prototyping, and the standards and guardrails that enable AI solutions to be built and scaled across the organisation. He joined Sofigate through the Impossible? Possible initiative, developing agentic AI solutions for youth employment.
Samuel studies machine learning engineering, bringing a technical perspective to how AI is moving from experimentation into everyday business. Working at the intersection of machine learning, AI architecture and practical implementation, he offers a next-generation perspective on the future of work: how organisations can build the technological foundations needed to make AI agents a meaningful part of how people work.
Eemil Saari, Junior Advisor, Sofigate
Eemil Saari works as a Customer Executive in Sofigate’s Salesforce business stream. He joined Sofigate through the Impossible? Possible initiative, working closely with Sofigate’s AI Factory.
Eemil’s background combines studies in business information technology with B2B sales experience serving SME customers in the fintech and telecommunications sectors. Building on this experience, his transition from the youth employment initiative to customer-focused work in the Salesforce business stream was a natural next step. Bringing together commercial insight, technology and a fresh perspective on business transformation, Eemil explores how AI is reshaping the future of work – and how companies can turn that change into meaningful business value.
Vera Väänänen, Junior Advisor, Sofigate
Vera Väänänen works on Sofigate’s go-to-market strategy in Central Europe. She joined Sofigate through a social innovation project developing agentic AI solutions for youth employment.
Vera holds a master’s degree in design management from Aalto University, and her background combines ecosystem development, startup accelerators and international experience spanning Tokyo, Berlin and Australia. Bringing together human-centred design and commercial strategy, Vera offers a next-generation perspective on the future of work: how AI is reshaping access to opportunity, and how organisations can translate that change into competitiveness.
















