Wellbeing services county of Kainuu
Wellbeing services county of Kainuu took significant steps toward the responsible and impactful use of artificial intelligence with the adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot in spring 2025. This was not just about introducing a new tool, but about transforming the entire organization’s ways of working – carefully, with security as a priority and by involving the staff. The goal was to improve workflow efficiency and productivity while addressing future resource challenges. Sulava was chosen as the partner for the project, thanks to its strong experience working with wellbeing regions, which convinced the client.
At the heart of the AI journey were responsibility, leadership commitment, and a coaching-based training path. The outcome included tangible benefits, new operating models, and the courage to move toward the agent era: the first solutions being an HR contract agent for supervisors and a customer service bot for public websites.
In true Kainuu spirit, the focus has remained on people: prioritizing everyday benefits and low-threshold experiments.
Quick facts
- Guided by the Wellbeing services county of Kainuu’s strategy, the exploration of AI opportunities began with a focus on security and data protection.
- The deployment of M365 Copilot was integrated into the DPIA process (Data Protection Impact Assessment) to ensure compliance with data protection requirements.
- Executive support played a key role in changing work practices and leading the transformation.
- The entire staff’s competence grew significantly thanks to training programs.
- When leveraging AI agents, it is crucial to build an understanding of real processes and needs so that solutions genuinely serve the user.
Image: Wellbeing services county of Kainuu’s image bank
Responsibility and security at the core
Around 4,000 professionals work in Wellbeing services county of Kainuu, ensuring the wellbeing, health, and safety of its residents. The region consists of eight municipalities, and its operating model has always been strongly customer-oriented. The strategy of Wellbeing services county of Kainuu states that Kainuu is a bold innovator in digital services. In line with this vision, the possibilities of AI were explored together, with security and data protection as the starting point.
The AI implementation project began in March 2025. Wellbeing services county of Kainuu had done thorough groundwork in advance, so starting with Sulava’s Copilot Adoption Service was very agile. Sulava’s project plan, goals, and metrics aligned well with Kainuu’s own plans.
In the first phase, a survey was used to identify employees participating in the pilot project, and about 100 Copilot licenses were acquired for the pilot group. The deployment was carried out in a controlled manner under Sulava’s guidance and integrated into the DPIA process (Data Protection Impact Assessment), ensuring that data protection was considered from day one. This created a secure foundation for utilizing Microsoft 365 Copilot and gave staff confidence to try something new.
At the start of the project, the atmosphere was cautiously curious: there was no prior experience with generative AI, but the desire to learn was exceptionally strong. From the beginning, the project was communicated openly to the entire organization so that everyone understood the goals of the change.
“What has surprised me most during this AI journey is how big of a deal this really is. It’s not just about introducing a new tool. It takes a lot of work hours and time to learn completely new ways of working.”
Laura Moilanen, ICT Designer
Training path and learning new skills
Comprehensive and versatile training began as soon as the pilot group received their licenses. The training path progressed step by step: first focusing on the basics, then moving on to more complex topics. In addition, a dedicated coaching program was organized for management.
A dedicated Teams group was created for the pilot group to share training materials and various use case lists, brainstorm different agents together, and provide low-threshold support. In addition to pilot group training, three joint sessions were organized for the entire organization, with recordings available on the intranet.
“The competence of the entire staff has grown tremendously during the project – we have learned together and boldly tried new things”, Laura notes.
Demand for Copilot licenses is now higher than ever as understanding of AI’s potential has grown across the organization.
Management commitment and strategic perspective
Wellbeing services county of Kainuu’s leadership team was actively involved from the start in supporting the change. It was clear to them that implementing Microsoft 365 Copilot was not just an IT project but a significant shift in work practices.
Management coaching focused particularly on the strategic perspective and considered what AI utilization would look like in six months, one year, or three years.
Tangible benefits
One of the biggest benefits has been the growth in competence, as the entire organization has learned new skills and become more confident in using AI in everyday work. In addition, Kainuu has developed its own playbook to guide AI use, which is continuously updated to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology.
ROI calculations helped make the benefits concrete. Even saving just a few minutes per day per user can scale into a significant overall impact.
“When we change the way we work, we can achieve more and generate savings. Wellbeing services counties face a major challenge over the next ten years as a significant portion of employees retire. We must renew our operations and do things differently – this is where AI comes to help.”
Mari Niskanen, CIO
Currently, the most popular use cases are information retrieval, creating meeting notes, generating and improving text, and visualization. New ideas emerge almost daily, and discussions are underway about building various automations, such as ready-made reports that can save tens of minutes per day.
Future outlook on AI agents
Kainuu is now strongly focused on the agent era. Work is underway to build a Power Platform governance model that will create structures for controlled development and secure use of Copilot agents. The governance model will define clear rules for deploying agents and automations, ensuring that solutions remain secure and managed even as usage expands across the organization.
When designing agents, the most important thing is to understand real processes and needs so that solutions genuinely serve the user. This requires close collaboration between IT and various organizational roles during the planning phase.
The first agents are already in progress in Kainuu. An HR contract agent is being developed to support supervisors by quickly answering common HR-related questions. A customer service bot for the website will ease the workload of service advisors. Agents will improve information accessibility and speed up response times to common questions, freeing up more time for customer interactions and complex tasks. Service quality will improve while creating entirely new operating models.
Smooth collaboration with Sulava
Sulava’s versatile project team received praise for its expertise in meeting various needs.
”Collaboration with Sulava has gone according to plan. Our questions have been answered quickly, and support has always been available when needed. The project schedule has been met, and the overall progress has been as expected”, says Laura.
The collaboration has continued beyond the pilot project with the next development steps. The adoption of AI has opened a broader understanding in Kainuu of the full potential within Microsoft 365. Many things are interconnected, and the greatest benefits come from leveraging the entire ecosystem effectively.
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Writer: Suvi Mäkelä
Published in November 2025