The Wellbeing Services County of North Ostrobothnia

Quick facts

• Pohde organized an AI-themed idea competition, which generated a wealth of ideas. Microsoft 365 Copilot was selected as the tool of choice.
• To kick off the pilot project, test users were recruited from every area of the organization. The testing phase was carried out in four stages, with groups of around 100 testers.
• At Pohde, Copilot is expected to deliver a variety of benefits, including improved time management and time savings, enhanced learning, better quality, and reduced workload.
• Pohde employs nearly 18,000 professionals and is responsible for the well-being, health, and safety of the entire Northern Ostrobothnia region.

The Wellbeing Services County of North Ostrobothnia (Pohde) is one of the largest wellbeing services counties in Finland, with approximately 416,000 residents. Pohde employs nearly 18,000 professionals and is responsible for the well-being, health, and safety of the entire Northern Ostrobothnia region. The geographically extensive area includes 30 municipalities and a variety of terrains, from densely populated areas to wilderness.

The AI excitement in the social and health sector was also evident at Pohde, and the wellbeing services county decided to test its benefits.

“The AI trend and hype have been very strong, and there were many promises for the social and health sector as well. We wanted to test if the promises were valid,” commens Mikko Sortti, Pohde’s ICT Manager. “We had heard many good experiences from others and couldn’t miss out.”

In the spring of 2024, Pohde organized an AI-related idea competition, which generated many ideas. Microsoft 365 Copilot was chosen as the tool because the organization is already a Microsoft user. Due to strong synergy benefits, there were no other options.

“We asked our employees how they could use AI in their work. Five clear themes emerged from this,” says Tenho Moilanen, Pohde’s service manager and AI advocate.

Through the idea competition, we identified clear customer needs, and since Microsoft 365 Copilot met these well, we started testing. We quickly noticed that AI generally helps produce higher-quality outputs, making things easier for people at different levels in their work.

Snowball Effect from the Pilot Project

Collaboration with Sulava began in the fall of 2024 by setting up a schedule and content framework. Test users were recruited from all areas of the organization at the start of the pilot project. The idea was to start with a small group and expand the number of users as the project progressed. There were many economic and qualitative reasons for the phased approach. The phasing was seen as such a good model that it continued into the spring, even though the project phase was supposed to end by the end of the year.

“We recruited people from all over the organization. There were both administrative people and clinical professionals,” Moilanen describes. “There was no shortage of enthusiasm, and we never lacked participants. We created a good snowball effect, and as the first ones got excited, the feeling quickly spread elsewhere, even though this pilot was not specifically marketed or sold within the organization”.

The testing phase was carried out in four stages, with groups of about 100 testers. The feedback from enthusiastic testers in the surveys was very encouraging.

As we received good user experiences from the first waves, things improved all the time. The intake of the fourth wave went very well, as we had learned so much from the previous ones. This was also reflected in the pilot feedback, as we were able to meet the enthusiastic expectations better than at the beginning. We were also able to honestly tell about the benefits and challenges of Copilot and thus manage expectations.

Moilanen continues

The technical requirements for using Microsoft 365 Copilot were quite straightforward.

“We had to make some technical adjustments to the systems. Most of it was related to defining the distribution channels for Office products, which were modified somewhat,” Sortti explains. “We also had to ensure that the software and workstations were at a level where Copilot can be used”.

AI as a Sparring Partner

In Pohde’s organization, Microsoft 365 Copilot is used for various purposes. Transcribing meetings is clearly one of the most popular uses, but Copilot also helps for example with information retrieval, creating meeting notes, and overcoming the blank page syndrome.

“For example, if I arrive late to a meeting, Copilot quickly summarizes what has been discussed earlier, and I can catch up quickly. Automating notes also saves a lot of time,” Sortti says. “I use Copilot as an information retrieval assistant. It finds things in my files very quickly. For me, it’s also a sparring partner from whom I can always ask even the most impossible questions.”

As experience grows and the tool’s features expand, the use of Copilot becomes even more versatile.

“One of the popular uses of Copilot is solving the blank page syndrome. With Copilot’s help, it’s easy to get started – it can suggest topics and also help refine your outputs,” Moilanen notes.

As our experience increases and new features are added to Copilot, we can also better utilize our own data, for example, in combining information, asking questions to data sources, and so on.

Pohde aims to achieve various benefits with Copilot, including time efficiency and savings, learning, quality improvement, and workload reduction.

In expert work, the benefits of Copilot are very diverse. For example, efficient solution finding, fault localization, and improving work quality are very essential things. Copilot can also be a simple assistant that reduces the workload of employees.

Sortti describes

“We have carried out extensive AI utilization projects in the healthcare sector and we see that it will bring significant cost savings and more time for real work, such as patient encounters. For example, standardizing the guidelines of the newly merged wellbeing services county, faster and more comprehensive utilization of data from customer feedback, and generally broader data utilization are use cases that Pohde’s organization has been interested in trying with Copilot,” says Markus Ikonen, who is responsible for several health industry organization clients at Sulava.

The Wizard Network Analyzes Use Cases and Spreads Knowledge

In Copilot adoption projects, as in many other projects, so-called champions networks are often utilized, and this was also done in Pohde. The first phase testers, who were also the parents of many ideas, formed Pohde’s AI-related wizard network, which reviewed use cases and spread knowledge within the organization.

In a small group of about 10 active users, we meticulously reviewed use cases. In the early stages, we changed the content to a more normal direction when we noticed that many use cases required too much AI expertise and experience. This brought us closer to everyday use cases for the larger mass.

Moilanen explains

In the beginning, the group focused on thinking about the purpose of AI – where it is good and where it is not.

“The wizard group brought the idea that AI is something that needs to be guided. The wizard network was a very important group for us, which also effectively spread knowledge more widely within the organization,” Moilanen continues.

Comprehensive Help from Sulava

According to Sortti and Moilanen, collaboration with Sulava in the project was easy and straightforward, and the overall package was well put together.

The adoption project truly came to us as a service. Our organization is quite thin for such a comprehensive adoption, so we needed the help of an experienced partner. The trainings and materials were very good, and we wouldn’t have been able to measure the benefits so well on our own for example.

Sortti says

Sulava’s Copilot Adoption Service package included various levels of training, case workshops, support clinics, and a wealth of different materials.

“End users have given us in IT feedback that they haven’t had such a comprehensive package available in their careers,” Moilanen says. “We did things in many stages, starting with familiarization. AI differs from previous innovations in that it involves a human-like aspect. You first need to understand how AI can help and then think about how it can be present in your practical everyday life. Sulava’s service has provided excellent support for our Copilot users.”

AI Development Continues

Pohde’s initial experiences with Microsoft 365 Copilot have been so positive that Sortti believes Copilot is here to stay, at least in some form.

When we learn new technology so well, it becomes a natural part of the work experience. Just like traditional workstations and Teams,” Sortti describes. “In the future, as Copilot’s capabilities advance, I believe it will have a place in the wellbeing services countys work routines. The extent of its use will, of course, depend on priorities and economic factors.

Sortti describes

The near-term outlook includes taking care of end users and exploring the possibilities of AI agents in various work roles.

“In the future, we want to take better and better care of our Copilot users,” Moilanen says. “Microsoft itself also has a big role in the future. They need to make a good tool so that people will continue to want to use it. The truth is that if employees want to use AI, they will use it – whether it is provided by the employer or not. Hopefully, we can continue to provide a safe environment for this.”

“AI agents assist and automate tasks and complement what can be done with Copilot. They make it possible to streamline operations, automate processes, and build applications that utilize AI as part of the process. We are now starting to think about use cases for Pohde together,” says Sulava’s expert Silja Penttinen.

Writer: Juhani Lassila
Published June 2025