HISTORY of HEADAI
The company was founded in 2015, but the Headai history has roots in technical solutions that were developed at the beginning of the millennium.
2005 (–2015)
Development started under
academic research title
Harri Ketamo started to develop commercial neurocomputing solutions based on natural language processing. They solved practical problems of e.g. publishers, and research institutes. The IPR was not sold
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2009
Cooperation with the libraries starts
Several projects had been done with the local libraries even before Headai officially started. Harri Ketamo and Antti Koivisto paved the way, and Eero Hammais joined the later projects. In Luvia library, intelligent bookshelves were introduced to gather additional online information about books simply by placing them on the shelves that used NFC to read the QR codes. Another example was the Literature race, gamifying the library exprience for children.
2006
Technology first time in
 commercial use
Otava Learning starts using AI made by Harri Ketamo to introduce adaptive learning to its materials. This algorithm is one of the key elements to form the basis of Headai tech nine years later. It guides the learner to the optimal learning path.
2015
Headai was founded
Extensive research work in cognitive sciences and AI combined with executive-level business intelligence establishes the cornerstone of Headai business. Headai Ltd is founded by Harri Ketamo, Marko Laiho, and Antti Koivisto, in Pori, Finland, 2015.
2016
AI-based personalized training through chatbots
In Headai history, 2016 is the year of bots and conversational AI. The focus is on combining automatized content management and adaptive learning with conversational AI. Headai office is located in Bepop, Pori. Eero Hammais joins the team in February.
Team Expands
Headai team expands with Jari Savinainen, Simo Santavirta, and in the end of the year, Anu Passi-Rauste. Anu operates the US side from a side office in Arlington.
The first chatbot
SoccerAI brings individual coaches for every young player on the planet to guide their backyard training. Read the Yle article (in Finnish) about SoccerAI. Many other bots are made for customers during the same ye
Headai onboarding chatbot
Headai automatizes its onboarding process with an own chatbot.
Next generation of library AI
A natural place to use AI with NLP (Natural Language Processing) is, of course, in the libraries. Headai's BookAI app is taken into use in western Finland's libraries.
The year of awards
2017 brings other awards: Alibaba European Cloud Contest, TOP10 cloud AI in production. Victory in the Future of Nordic Manufacturing Challenge by Danish Ministry of Industry. In TOP3 in the global Future of Work conference by the Eisenhower Fellowships. Anu and Harri (in the picture) had both been selected as Eisenhower Fellows (2014 & 2017).
2017
Shaking hands with the President of FInland
The year 2017 brings a great leap forward. Headai takes the victory in Sitra R100 competition, the biggest innovation challenge in Finland ever held. The Price is awarded by the president of Finland in November. The nomination is widely reported across the media and is a remarkable achievement in Headai history. Nesta writes about Headai in Digial Frontrunners.
The company focus shifts more and more on the labor mismatch domain: AI-enabled insight into the skills supply and demand, predictive interventions at scale.
Microcompetencies – a freemium UI service
Launch of Microcompetencies, a first freemium AI service in headai history, enabled building and comparing skills maps of areas, companies, and individuals. The user can e.g. match his/her CV to open jobs. The legendary text_to_skills call is introduced among many others.
Matchmaking in Slush Shanghai 2017
Headai algorithms link together the attendees based on their textual descriptions. By the time, Harri Ketamo and Peter Vesterbacka, the founder of Slush, had already discussed the idea of ​​creating an AI matchmaking tool for investors and companies. This would culminate later into Business Finland's cooperation with the Dealflow AI components.
2018
Metropolitan Universities of Applied Sciences (3AMK) becomes one of Headai's key partners
Together with Headai, Metropolitan Universities of Applied Sciences wants to optimize the future supply of education to match working life needs. 181 study modules, 10749 courses optimized.
Recognized Finnish AI company
A lot of media attention in 2017. Harri Ketamo interviewed by the MTV3 channel during Slush in Helsinki.
2018
Headai awarded with Reputation Deed of Pori
Even though Headai is already noticed globally and nationally, it's important not to forget the local operations. Eero Hammais and Marko Laiho picks up the heaviest (in weight) award ever given to Headai.
UNESCO cooperation – Responsible AI
Harri Ketamo is asked to share his view on AI and the change of education. Read the article that is published during the cooperation.
2019
Big deals are a big deal
One of the major customers of Headai in 2019 is Business Finland who wants to add an AI-based scoring to the Dealflow portal for helping to connect investors even more precisely with potential target companies. A part of the project team in the picture, from left: Harri Ketamo, Marko Laiho, Teppo Hjelt & Jari Savinainen.
Labor market analysis in Kenia sith the World Bank
The World Bank together with Headai conducts a labor market analysis & curriculum gap assessment in Kenya. Kenyan universities reveal 5 key action points for developing their curriculums towards higher working life relevancy. Read more at World Bank blog article.
Headai joins MyData Accelerator for Work & Skills
Work is being done around the themes of employment and lifelong learning in a mission to fast-track the development of MyData based services. MyData Accelerator for Work & Skills is coordinated by The Finnish State Development Company Vake in collaboration with the Technology Industries of Finland and Sitra. In the accelerator, Headai worked with e.g. Swedish Jobtech and Tampere University.
Finnish Defence Forces partners with Headai
The aim is to recognize skills learned during the military service and interpret them into civilian language for further use in work and education.
2020
Finland's best e-learning solution uses Headai's AI
Economic information office Economy and Youth TAT utilizes Headai’s AI components in its mobile application that motivates the youth to recognize their strengths. In the app, the AI-powered Robokoutsi bot feeds the user tasks and challenges in the order that best increases motivation. Being the enabler behind the number one Finnish e-learning solution is a great moment in Headai history.
2021
Technology Industry Skills Forecasts based on AI-mined public data
Headai offered a solution for Technology Industries of Finland’s to offer the member companies AI-analyzed information on skills demand and trends.
2020
Introducing Digital Self in the MyData and skills ecosystem
The European Strategy for Data (2020) calls for a common EU skills data space. Headai puts a lot of effort into MyData operations and acts as an enabler company in the skills data ecosystem. Skillsdata whitepaper is published by MyData Global including a considerable amount of input from Headai team: Anu Passi-Rauste, Harri Ketamo & Eero Hammais.
Estonian labor market dynamics analysis with open data
Headai establishes cooperation with Estonian Qualifications Authority to study the Estonian labor markets' skills supply and demand through a predictive AI analysis of open data.
AI-driven digital skills profile for conscripts of Pori Brigade of The Finnish Defence Forces
The aim is to identify the skills from the leadership courses and turn them into civilian language. These are saved to a digital skills profile, which the constricts can download as part of their service certification. The skills from the military service are recognized extensively and in detail and exported in interoperable formats (like JSON, xAPI). The purpose is to give insights for educational institutions to assess better how to give credit for military service.
Haaga-Helia's crystal ball, powered by Headai, is revealing future careers at Dubai 2020 World Expo.
The Crystal Ball was made by Haaga-Helia Unversity of Applied Sciences, enabled by Headai and Stereoscape. The idea behind it is, that Haaga-Helia wants to catch and engage millions of people at the Dubai World Expo’s Finland Pavilion for 30 seconds and show how it can open doors for future careers. Take a virtual tour at Finland Pavilion
Headai-powered Skills Pulse rewarded as the foresight solution 2022
Skills Pulse, made by Technology Industries of Finland, was rewarded at the Seminar of Finnish regional foresight in Kajaani’s Kouta Hall. Headai’s AI was used in Skills Pulse to mine and connect big open datasets to build signals of the future skill needs.
Read more in Headai's news article.
