The Complete Guide to Using AI as a Customer Service Professional in Finland in 2025

In Finland in 2025, AI matters because it’s the bridge between efficient self‑service and the human conversations that actually build loyalty: Futurelab’s 2025 trends warn that self‑service “has removed the human dimension” and spotlight AI agents and “Asiakastiede” as ways to restore real personalization, while a striking stat notes 43% of people would rather clean a toilet than contact support – so making outreach easy is vital.

Global research shows AI is now mission‑critical for fast, personalized help and that agents urgently need practical training and trustworthy tools (see Zendesk’s AI customer service statistics and Qualtrics’ contact‑center trends).

For Finnish customer service pros, the goal is clear: adopt agentic AI that augments empathy, close training gaps, and protect customer trust – skills taught in hands‑on programs like Nucamp’s AI Essentials for Work to turn AI from hype into dependable day‑to‑day advantage.

AttributeDetails

BootcampAI Essentials for Work
Length15 Weeks
Courses includedAI at Work: Foundations; Writing AI Prompts; Job Based Practical AI Skills
Cost (early bird)$3,582
RegistrationRegister for AI Essentials for Work

“AI, automation, and other emerging technologies are changing marketing as we know it, but tech alone can’t deliver the deep, personalized experiences customers crave,” said Tate Olinghouse, Chief Client Officer at Acxiom.

Finland backs AI with a mix of public funding, national programmes and steady policy work that makes the ecosystem tangible for businesses and customer‑facing teams: the joint Finnish AI Landscape 2025 report maps startups, research and industry use cases, Business Finland continues to underwrite big bets (from targeted grants like a EUR 2.5M boost for an industrial design platform to partnership calls that can award up to EUR 50M for ecosystem projects), and earlier programmes such as the AI Business Program helped scale hundreds of projects with roughly EUR 235M in support.

Finland also couples funding with serious compute and industrial capacity – think the LUMI supercomputer and deeper industry labs that Silo AI and partners are turning into production‑grade services – while regulatory work aligns with the EU AI Act and domestic guidance that emphasizes transparency, human oversight and sandboxes.

For customer service professionals in Finland, that combination means easier access to pilots, shared infrastructure and clearer compliance guardrails when testing generative assistants or knowledge automation in production.

“The speed of artificial intelligence development is staggering. However, in a rapidly changing environment, there are times when it’s important to stop for a moment and reflect on where we are, what is happening around us, and to identify our own strengths and areas where we have the opportunity to succeed and make an impact. The Finnish AI Landscape Report has been conducted precisely for this need.” – Timo Sorsa, Head of Business Finland’s Generative AI campaign

What is Finland’s AI strategy? National priorities and implications for customer service in Finland

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Finland’s AI strategy is a practical, ethically minded roadmap that matters directly to customer service teams: national programmes from the original

Finland’s age of artificial intelligence

through AI 4.0 push open data, pilot sandboxes and AuroraAI‑style public‑private services that make high‑quality government and customer data available for safe automation, while targeted funding (for example the AI Business Programme’s EUR 100 million) and Business Finland initiatives lower the barrier for SME pilots and production use – good news for contact centres experimenting with knowledge automation and agentic assistants.

Policy emphasis on lifelong learning and modular reskilling (about one million Finns estimated to need upskilling) means employers should expect – and plan for – formal training paths and skills vouchers for agents, not just ad‑hoc tool tips.

At the same time Finland is aligning with the EU AI Act and adding national safeguards (drafts such as the Act on the Supervision of Certain AI Systems plus February 2025 guidance on generative AI) that require transparency, human oversight and clear procurement clauses – so customer service workflows must document human handoffs, bias audits and data governance to stay compliant.

For a focused briefing on national priorities see the European Commission’s Finland AI strategy summary and for legal and compliance implications consult Borenius’ 2025 Finland practice guide.

National priorityCustomer service implication

Open data & AuroraAIBetter knowledge automation and personalised life‑event services
Funding & AI Business Programme (EUR 100M)Easier pilots for SMEs and vendor trials
Skills & lifelong learning (modular reskilling)Formal upskilling pathways for agents (~1M needing reskilling)
Regulation & EU AI Act alignmentTransparency, human oversight, procurement safeguards

Why AI in customer service matters in Finland in 2025

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Why AI matters in Finnish customer service in 2025 is simple: it turns brittle self‑service into fast, personalized help that scales without losing the human touch – virtual agents can slash response times dramatically (think Gulf Bank’s move from 58 to 6 minutes) and cut operational costs by up to 60% while boosting CSAT, so contact centres can offer true 24/7 support and smarter handoffs to humans when empathy or nuance is needed.

For Finland that means pilots and sandboxes backed by national programmes can prove real gains quickly: AI improves first response and resolution rates (companies report ~37% faster first responses and 52% faster ticket resolution), automates a large share of routine volume, and surfaces contextual suggestions that help agents onboard faster and resolve complex cases with fewer transfers.

The takeaway for Finnish teams is pragmatic – use proven virtual‑agent patterns (see Crescendo’s guide to virtual agents) and platform features that drive personalized, GDPR‑aware workflows while investing in agent training and knowledge automation to protect trust and capture the strong ROI Zendesk and industry studies report.

“With AI purpose-built for customer service, you can resolve more issues through automation, enhance agent productivity, and provide support with confidence. It all adds up to exceptional service that’s more accurate, personalized, and empathetic for every human that you touch.” – Tom Eggemeier, Zendesk

Core agent skills for 2025: what Finnish customer service pros need

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Finnish customer service agents in 2025 need a practical blend of AI literacy, data fluency and compliance know‑how: understand how agentic assistants and real‑time analytics feed summaries into CRM systems (for example, Aiwo’s work with Lumme Energia shows “every phone call is automatically summarized and added to the customer’s records”), be fluent in GDPR‑safe data handling and bias awareness, and master prompt‑writing and handoff choreography so automation accelerates empathy rather than replaces it.

Employers should expect modular, vocational upskilling – Finland’s national plans and skills‑voucher approach highlight that roughly a million people will need reskilling – so agents must be comfortable running pilots, reading model outputs, documenting human oversight and escalation, and evaluating vendors (including local chatbot and translation providers) against explainability and procurement checks.

These core skills let teams move from reactive ticket clearing to proactive, multilingual service that anticipates needs and preserves trust – exactly the outcome Finland’s strategy and case studies encourage for production‑grade AI in contact centres (see the Finland AI Strategy summary and Aiwo’s Lumme Energia case study).

“Our collaboration with Aiwo further reinforces our already high customer satisfaction. AI enables us to streamline processes, freeing up staff to focus on more demanding customer service tasks. Every phone call is automatically summarized and added to the customer’s records, expediting customer service, enabling clear communication, and supporting satisfaction for both customers and staff,” says Johanna Viskari from Lumme Energia.

AI capabilities transforming CX in Finland: agentic AI, real-time assistance and knowledge automation in Finland

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Agentic AI, real‑time assistance and knowledge automation are reshaping Finnish CX by turning scattered systems and static FAQs into proactive, outcome‑driven workflows: Deloitte‑backed industry analysis shows about 25% of generative‑AI adopters had agentic pilots in early 2025 and forecasts rapid growth of autonomous agents across enterprise functions (2025 Q1 Industry Outlook on agentic AI landscape), while Capgemini’s research makes the case that generative and agentic AI can lift first‑contact resolution, speed up responses and raise agent productivity – if organisations modernise data foundations and operating models (Capgemini report on generative and agentic AI for customer service).

In practice for Finland this looks like agentic systems that stitch CRM, billing and logistics to rebook or fix a service automatically before escalation, AI‑driven knowledge bases that refresh themselves from every interaction, and real‑time assistant layers that surface exact next‑best actions to human agents so empathy and complex judgement stay centre stage (Qualtrics’ use cases).

The net result: fewer routine tickets, faster multilingual handoffs, and room for agents to solve higher‑value issues – provided teams invest in clear governance, transparency and hands‑on training to keep customer trust intact.

“With over half of consumers prepared to leave a brand due to poor customer service, even if their purchase is good, business leaders now recognize that exceptional customer service is no longer a luxury but a strategic imperative.” – Franck Greverie, Capgemini

Which is the best AI chatbot for customer service in 2025 in Finland? Vendor comparison and pricing for Finland teams

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For Finnish teams in 2025 the “best” chatbot is less about brand prestige and more about fit: the market lists 61 local chatbot vendors, from Helsinki’s Kwork/Chatbot Pack and Front AI to GetJenny, Serviceform and Hotelway, giving Finland‑based teams plenty of options for Finnish‑language support and sector customisation (see the full list of 61 chatbot companies in Finland); meanwhile global CX platforms bring proven AI agents, integrations and clear pricing to speed pilots – reviewed in Zendesk’s buyer’s guide to AI chatbots.

Cost‑conscious contact centres often start with Zoho, HubSpot or Meya for low monthly fees, midsize teams evaluate Dixa or Intercom Fin for agent copilot features, and enterprises consider Zendesk or Certainly for advanced automation and QA. Local vendors shine on GDPR workflows, multilingual plumbing (Fluentic) and industry templates – picture a Turku hotel using Hotelway to engage every guest and convert requests into orders without extra night staff – so run short trials, verify CRM integrations and choose a partner that supports pilot‑to‑production governance.

VendorFinland presenceStarting price (reported)

ZendeskGlobal (used in Finland)As low as $1 per automated resolution
Intercom FinGlobal / product: Fin$29 per seat/month + $0.99 per resolution
DixaGlobal$39 per agent/month
CertainlyAvailable to European teams€2,000 per month
MeyaAvailable$99 per month
Kwork (Chatbot Pack)HelsinkiContact vendor / varies

“The Zendesk AI agent is perfect for our users [who] need help when our agents are offline… they can get answers right away.” – Trishia Mercado, Photobucket

Implementing AI in Finnish contact centers: checklist, pilots and best practices in Finland

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Turning AI from experiment into steady operation in Finnish contact centres starts with disciplined pilots and clear guardrails: choose a tightly scoped, customer‑facing problem (human‑centred discovery first), run the test with whole teams rather than lone champions, and measure both performance and wellbeing so you capture productivity and agent experience – Teamit’s stepwise design approach is a good blueprint for selecting and sizing the pilot.

Protect data from day one with vendor agreements and exclusion rules (the City of Helsinki’s Copilot pilot excluded sensitive units, disabled Bing, and prohibited reuse of city data for model training), pair technical onboarding with practical training on transparency and human oversight, and log decisions for procurement and compliance so audits and bias checks are traceable.

Start small, iterate on metrics that matter to customers and agents, and scale only after governance, dataflows and legal checks are settled – this mirrors Sitra and national guidance that favour Finnish language models and sandboxed demos for public services.

For a practical legal and governance checklist consult expert guidance on Finland’s regulatory landscape to align pilots with the EU AI Act and domestic obligations.

Checklist itemPractical action

Pilot scopeDefine one customer problem; use design thinking to validate (see Teamit)
Team selectionDeploy to whole teams, avoid sensitive-data units (Helsinki pilot: 1,000 participants)
Data & vendor termsExclude training reuse of customer data; sign data protection agreements
Training & ethicsProvide technical + ethics training; follow transparency and human‑oversight principles
MonitoringTrack usage, wellbeing and outcomes; iterate before scaling
ComplianceDocument governance for audits and procurement; align with EU AI Act guidance (Borenius)

“in Finland we have digitalised (…) services very, very long time ago, many of them have been at least 30 years and they have produced a lot of data. That city, I would say have at least 600 different data systems, apps, and similar.”

Training and upskilling in Finland: Elements of AI, Aalto DAAP and local resources in Finland

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Finland’s upskilling story is practical and accessible: the University of Helsinki’s free Elements of AI program (updated for 2025) is a ready‑made entry point for customer service teams, offering an Introduction and Building AI pathway that’s self‑paced (roughly 30 hours), available in Finnish and many other languages, and even credit‑eligible for students – perfect for agents who need clear, no‑nonsense grounding before trying hands‑on pilots; dozens of local firms have already used these materials and MinnaLearn now packages MinnaLearn Elements of AI for Business and Learning Kit to run team cohorts and practical, role‑based learning, while the public course site itself (Elements of AI course – University of Helsinki official course) connects learners to an active community – so contact‑centre managers can combine a short foundations course with employer‑led microprojects to show AI collaboration in portfolios, earn staff buy‑in, and meet Finland’s national push for broad, vocational reskilling.

“One million course participants is a major milestone in our effort to provide accessible education on AI to everyone. Given the recent surge of new AI applications that are bringing the technology closer to the daily lives of more and more people, understanding AI and its implementation is more crucial than ever before,” says Ville Valtonen, founder and CEO of MinnaLearn.

Conclusion: What is the future of AI in customer service in Finland in 2025 and beyond?

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The future of AI in Finnish customer service looks less like a single big leap and more like steady, governed adoption: Finland’s national approach – aligning with the EU AI Act and moving the draft Act on the Supervision of Certain AI Systems into force on 2 August 2025, with a national sandbox expected by 2 August 2026 – creates legal clarity and safe places to pilot agentic assistants, realtime copilots and knowledge automation while keeping GDPR, liability and transparency at the centre of design (see the Borenius practice guide on Finland’s AI landscape).

Global CX research shows AI is becoming the plumbing of support – Zendesk forecasts AI will touch virtually every customer interaction and highlights gaps in agent readiness (only about 45% of agents report receiving AI training), so winning in Finland will mean pairing tight governance and procurement clauses with practical, role‑based upskilling.

Expect contact centres to prioritise explainability and documented human handoffs, run short sandboxed pilots that prove ROI, and embed AI into agents’ workflows so staff move from ticket clerks to supervisors of AI – a shift that preserves empathy while unlocking scale.

For customer service professionals ready to make that shift, short practical programs that teach prompts, real‑world tooling, and compliance-aware workflows – such as Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp – are a direct route from pilot to production without sacrificing trust or legal safety.

“AI is everywhere. It’s no longer nice to have in CX but mission critical for meeting customer expectations for fast and personalized support.” – Zendesk

Frequently Asked Questions

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