By Hanna Saari, sales and marketing director.
Is your company playing chess or bingo with AI?
Intelligence is speed and quickness, the ability to join a conversation before it goes cold. And by conversation I mean spoken, written, or illustrated communication. That is presumably why AI is called intelligence in the first place — even though what it actually does is process data faster and faster and apparently reason from all that processing. But the end result looks like intelligence from the outside.
Intelligence is not the same thing as wisdom. A wise person can also be intelligent, but instead of speed they have the patience to stop and observe the whole picture. Wisdom is studying a subject properly, working at it over the long term, and advancing a certain common good with everything you have learned. Intelligence — in this case, the use of AI — is not wisdom in itself, because it too can be used wisely or foolishly.
Let’s look back a few years.
Just under 10 years ago I was there, on the crest of the wave so to speak, offering robotic process automation, “RPA”, as a solution to organisations handling vast amounts of data. This software robot, made of lines of code imitating human activity, handled large volumes of data, moving information from one system to another and looking for particular values — tasks you would generally call mind-numbing for people.
RPA became an enormous hype for a few years. I vividly remember the delighted looks on business specialists’ faces as they watched a demo in which a robot did their work: opening new windows and interfaces, retrieving data, and filling in tables. In much the same way, in 2025 professionals across every field are competing to marvel at generative AI demos — especially on social platforms like LinkedIn.
Although the “RPA hype” has since subsided, those years taught a few critical lessons that I think many would do well to recognise today. Especially now, when everyone around us is racing after AI.
So ask yourself the following questions:
It all starts with goals — why are we automating in the first place? What if simplifying the process would be enough?
Adopting a new technology requires people to adapt. How do we communicate openly with employees, involve them, and build trust?
AI is developing all the time, as robotics was some years ago. There is no perfect, all-encompassing solution. You can start experimenting lightly now, or wait to see what the next new technology is — which will you choose?
Automation and technology are meant to smooth out everyday work and reduce manual effort. What is all that freed-up time meant to be used for?
The organisations that adopted RPA wisely involved people from different levels and departments of the company. They also communicated openly and realistically about what they were aiming for with automation. Most important of all, in my view, was careful groundwork in walking through processes and identifying where automation was actually needed.
At the same time, and almost as a by-product, these companies reshaped their organisations to be more receptive to new technologies in future. The organisations that adopted RPA wisely created entirely new roles to support the use of intelligent automation and technology — which is now, in the age of AI, an enormous advantage.
The change leaders who do the groundwork best, and who work at it over the long term, will do best.
About the writer
Hanna Saari (LinkedIn) is CSO and partner at NorthCode and an advocate for wise technology. She is an experienced professional in both technology and finance, specialising in process development and the use of new technologies — intelligent automation in particular — with results in demanding roles as CEO, adviser, and board member.
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