The Human Side of AI – Reflections From My First Month as CEO
It’s been a month since I stepped into the role of CEO. I’ve spent most of it listening to colleagues, clients, and partners. What I’ve heard fills me with pride and with excitement for what we can become together — winning together — as a unified team.
When I started, I knew I wanted to begin where it truly matters: with our people, our customers, and the solutions we build together. These three pillars guide everything we do at Evitec. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share my thoughts on each one. Today, I want to start with our most important asset – our people – because without engaged, motivated teams, no vision can come to life.
After 30+ years in this industry, one lesson has stayed with me: success only happens when everyone understands the vision and sees how strategy comes alive in our daily work. Let’s begin.
Our vision: To be an AI-Driven Trusted Partner setting the Nordic standard for the financial industry
We already have the “trusted partner” part deeply rooted in who we are.
Our clients rely on us because we deliver consistently, responsibly, and with integrity – as we have done for over 30 years.
Now it’s time to add the next layer: to become truly AI-driven. Not just using AI as a tool, but letting it empower our people, strengthen our solutions, and create new value for our clients. What does this mean in practice for our people?
AI is changing the way we work and with that, our business models
The question isn’t if we use AI, but how we make it our competitive edge. How do we use it to make our jobs more meaningful and our results even stronger?
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been utilized by our data consultants for several years. The time has now come to expand deployment across all functions and roles. While our early adopters are integrating these tools rapidly, some remain cautious and may perceive AI as a potential threat. It is wise to be aware and assess, even better to adapt and adopt. Our Ethical AI Guidelines ensure human oversight and that information security is not compromised. My responsibility is to foster an environment in which AI is viewed as a tool for empowerment rather than replacement.
I also need to ensure employees understand what AI can realistically do — and what it can’t. Without basic literacy, teams struggle to imagine use cases. Upskilling and hands-on experimentation are essential to build confidence.
We’ve experimented with various AI tools in the early adopters’ group during the year. Volunteers tested multiple tools with real use cases, shared experiences, and trained others. Our security team validated each tool against our security policies. Based on this work, we decided to continue investments for wider audience.
Redefining our Roles
If AI takes over repetitive or analytical tasks, employees may wonder: What’s my role now?
When people feel their contribution is less visible or valuable, motivation can drop even if efficiency rises. It’s vital to redefine our roles from repetitive tasks to value creation, or from specialists who know the facts, to specialists who know how to ask relevant questions. My job is to make AI adoption feel like an upgrade to our employees’ work, not a threat to their identity.
We’ve started discussions on role descriptions and how we need to update them. We’re defining development paths and setting AI skills as requirements when recruiting new employees.
Motivation matters
Even if we succeed in addressing challenges like understanding AI and developing new roles, motivation remains crucial for driving change. I can’t simply tell people to be motivated; instead, I need to recognize that individuals are unique and inspired by different factors. I believe when people feel supported and trusted and have psychological safety to test and experiment with AI, we will turn challenges into opportunities. We may also need to accept that not everyone will get onboard.
As a leader I encourage people to test and try, experiment and not to be afraid of failure. It is always a learning experience.
We love our legacy too — as we should!
Still, the world is not only about AI (yet).
Our history of trust and reliability is a real strength. Let’s honor that legacy and build on it with courage and innovation — and think how AI can support us here as well. Success requires understanding both traditional and modern approaches. Even with AI generated code, experienced professionals are needed to ensure quality and their expertise enables on-going learning and development.
I value, respect and note all the great existing competences that we have and will need to have regardless of AI when serving our clients.
The Identity Shift
From an employee’s perspective, being ”AI-Driven” isn’t just a technology shift — it’s an identity shift. For this vision to work, people need to feel safe and motivated:
- “My job still matters.”
- ”I can have an impact on how I use AI.”
- ”I will be supported to learn.”
- ”I can trust how AI is used here.”
And I need to ensure we build trust, invest in skills, connect AI to real business goals – while keeping human values at the centre.
What Next?
We are adopting AI in stages, enabling our teams to learn through hands-on experience and peer collaboration. I believe AI will create new opportunities for learning and innovation, which we will apply to enhance our products and services.
This is just the beginning of our journey toward becoming an AI-driven trusted partner. I’ve focused here on our people because they’re the foundation of everything else.
In my next blog, I’ll explore what this vision means from our clients’ perspective – how do we create value for them while staying true to the trust they’ve placed in us for over 30 years?
