We Research: Foresight, the use of AI and working together to support business growth
The business world and its structures are changing rapidly. Forward-looking, proactive renewal and diversification of business operations are important assets for profitable operations and growth. In the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) JTF project "Platform for growth – towards new directions and innovations", funded by the Satakuntaliitto, Prizztech Ltd, Keksintösäätiö and Satakunta University of Applied Sciences are working together to support business growth in the region. The Growth Platform -project disseminates foresight information to entrepreneurs in the region, for example through foresight workshops and the production of foresight material. The activities will take into account the specific characteristics and needs of the region, without forgetting national and international opportunities for growth.

Business growth and innovation will be supported by providing foresight, taking into account responsible and sustainable business practices. Events and foresight workshops for growth-oriented entrepreneurs and businesses will be organised. These events and workshops will provide up-to-date information and knowledge on how to promote invention and innovation. Business cooperation will pilot new models and approaches for business-university RDI activities. The focus is on supporting the growth of Satakunta companies in various ways. The workshops will teach and learn how to use AI, for example, to find information on issues related to their own businesses. Topics have included anticipating the industry and the business environment, the circular economy and marketing. The workshops have taught topics such as product supply chain traceability, how to find competitors and how to improve marketing through the use of the web.
The activities have provided participants with information about the opportunities for business cooperation with the university and concrete cooperation has already taken place. Examples include the use of video tools for international marketing and machine learning in the quality monitoring process. The cooperation helped an IT services company to produce international marketing material in different languages. As AI has become more advanced and widespread, many new tools have come onto the market to produce video material in different languages. There are several tools on the market that are also free to try out. However, the free versions are not practically suitable for video production, as their use is very limited. Different options were presented to the company, taking into account their needs and usability. The AI avatar could be made to speak in the desired language (120 language options) by entering text in the desired language. The tool was very easy to use and did not require in-depth technological knowledge or experience in video production.
To improve quality control, the company wanted to test the suitability of open-source machine vision software and AI tools for the development of cost-effective identification and inspection applications. The experiments used traditional machine vision tools from the OpenCV library, as well as AI-based machine vision tools from the YOLO library. The machine vision and artificial intelligence tools were well suited for this purpose and can be used to implement functional solutions in a cost-effective way.
The technological transformation of society brings challenges. At the same time, it creates new opportunities for a wide range of industries, from peat-based companies, logistics, agriculture, the bio- and circular economy, the metal, automation and food industries to tourism, lifestyle and welfare services. These challenges and opportunities will be addressed through a proactive approach to provide tools and skills.
In a nutshell
- Co-operation aims to develop rapid and agile business development in order to remain profitable and competitive and to respond to the changing needs and demands of the business environment and customers.
- Proactive action will reinforce a forward-looking, environmentally aware and innovation-friendly culture, and promote the innovative capacity of enterprises and the emergence of new inventions. The aim is to address the pain points of innovators and businesses producing new innovations and to strengthen their capacity to grow.
- Changes in the business environment affect a wide range of industries. For example, the ecosystem around peat use is affected by the abandonment of peat energy use. A wide range of sectors are affected, from transport and machinery contractors to farmers and heating plants.
- Companies can use AI to help them anticipate the operating environment, for example by looking at how EU directives will affect their industry. The use of AI to sift and summarize already published material will play a major role in helping to structure information.