Helsinki Pathfinder is a search engine powered by artificial intelligence that will guide you to the services selected from those available via Helsinki's growth platforms and networks. The search engine uses AI to analyse and provide useful suggestions based on the user's needs.
People in Helsinki embark on the path to entrepreneurship and growth from a range of different starting points.
“It is great to see that our city has a strong and diverse network of operators. However, at the same time, the people starting their journey as entrepreneurs have varying needs for services, so there is no one service path that would suit them all and the entrepreneurs often have to look for the most suitable services by themselves. This is the challenge we have set out to solve together with Metropolia University of Applied Sciences,” says Jussi Laine, Business Helsinki's Senior Advisor responsible for network cooperation in the Campus Incubators Programme.
In addition to entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs, teachers at all levels of education can use Helsinki Pathfinder to teach the fundamentals of entrepreneurship or any other related skills. Adopting an entrepreneurial mindset can benefit anyone throughout their career. The threshold to test the potential of your business idea is lower when information about the attending services and opportunities is freely available.
Innovative use of artificial intelligence
Helsinki Pathfinder aims to bring the benefits of artificial intelligence to the City’s services in a whole new way.
“The project has allowed us to turn a new page in the use of AI to support the City’s services. We haven’t come across a similar public sector initiative, so we are now truly on the verge of something new and interesting,” Laine continues.
Helsinki Pathfinder is constantly being developed with new functionalities. Another aim is to further increase the number of services available through the search engine.
“One major benefit of the tool for its users is the accuracy and reliability of the results provided by the search engine. All of the nearly three hundred websites included in Helsinki Pathfinder have been curated by experts from Business Helsinki and Metropolia's Turbiini business incubator, who are also responsible for maintaining Helsinki Pathfinder,” Laine says.
Developing the operating environment in collaboration with local universities
Business Helsinki offers advice to new entrepreneurs, as well as a wide range of support for starting and developing a business.
Universities play a key role in the development of innovation and entrepreneurship in Helsinki. Cooperation between the City and higher education institutions has, for example, enabled the Campus Incubators Programme and other incubator activities, including those focusing on health and educational technologies.
“Within the student and researcher community, it is possible to reach and inspire aspiring entrepreneurs, as well as support the launch and growth of business operations through targeted services. Cooperation with universities creates new opportunities for us to develop our operating environment, and at times even allows us to create something completely unique together, as proven by the Helsinki Pathfinder experiment created in cooperation with Metropolia University of Applied Sciences,” says Business Helsinki’s Business Environment Director Heidi Humala.
“The cooperation between Metropolia and Business Helsinki has gone seamlessly, and Helsinki Pathfinder is a great example of successful cooperation between the two parties,” adds Antti Laurikainen, RDI Manager at Metropolia.
