Abstract
This paper presents a project (work in progress) where entrepreneurship and higher education in AI (from Master level to postdoc level) are integrated in order to produce a dual effect; helping SMEs to gain insight in how AI can aid in the corporate environment and to expose AI researchers to the real-life situations in the company world. If successful, the companies are made ready for the AI revolution and the researchers more equipped for corporate settings. The project is ongoing, so this paper addresses a work-in-progress project. The paper reflects on the project as well on some aspects that need to be highlighted due to earlier research in the area. There are also some insights from the first case study that was presented in December 2024, with 7 more to come during 2025. Finally, some conclusions are drawn, and some further research directions is pointed out. The project was funded by Liedon Säästöpankki säätiö and the support is gratefully acknowledged.
Recommended Citation
K. M. Björk et al., "SME AI Outreach in Finland—A Case Study," Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol. 1662 LNNS, pp. 167 - 172, Springer Nature, Jan 2026.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07319-8_16
Department(s)
Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
AI education; AI research; Entrepreneurship; SMEs
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
978-303207318-1
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2367-3389; 2367-3370
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2026 Springer Nature, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2026
