Jaakko Sävilammi is an Expert Product Owner at OP. He works on AI and envisioning the banking services of the future. Jaakko has had a hand in creating several OP services, such as the AI personal assistant, OP Aina, which was released in the autumn of 2024. His long career in IT includes many unforgettable moments working with pioneering technology.        

As a child, Jaakko wanted to be an astronaut. Excited by the potential of science and technology, he was keen to make new discoveries. As the years went by, his love of technology grew and his cherished hobby became a profession. During the IT boom of the early 2000s, Jaakko gathered experience of ICT sales, project management and online businesses by working in e-commerce. Finding it hard to say no to interesting assignments, this ambitious young man developed in a wide range of IT roles.   

– Early in the millennium, the sector was booming and ambitious young developers would take on more projects than they could handle. 
   
A developer of modern banking services

Jaakko joined OP in 2008. His first projects included developing the op.fi service, to bring banking and insurance services onto a single website. He learned a great deal, being enthralled by the sheer scope of the project. Soon afterwards, he participated in developing the first version of OP-mobile. Jaakko remembers the introduction of digital banking as a transformative era.       

– There was tremendous hype about the mobile internet. It was great to be part of that.    

There have been plenty of innovative projects over the years. A key example was the updating of OP’s online services. This involved creating a modern, multichannel visual identity under an umbrella concept presided over by Jaakko. He feels that his varied IT career has provided him with a broad perspective.      
– Technical expertise was the key issue when I was starting out. Now, I take a broader view: working life is a marathon which includes sprint sections.    

As Jaakko’s leadership skills have developed, the human factor has been foregrounded: things can be done in many ways, depending on the team and the big picture. The consumer and customer perspectives have also become more important.   
   
OP Aina helps customers on the basis of AI   

AI has become a hot topic over coffee and around meeting tables. It is familiar territory for Jaakko, who has been working with AI since 2017. He believes that bigger technological transitions lie ahead.       

– We’ve only scratched the surface in terms of AI’s potential.    

In the last few years, Jaakko has been working on the recently launched OP Aina, a kind of assistant that provides personalised solutions to customers’ problems – at best, in a proactive manner.         

– Aina is based on the work of a wide range of experts, including technical developers and data scientists. Many of them are experts from our tribes – they use practical examples to train AI models and develop dialogue that serves customers.     

Jaakko describes Aina as a fascinating technical whole based on three AI solutions. The biggest step forward was Gen AI: the development of generative AI.    

– AI enables a long-awaited development, a genuine conversational user experience. Particularly valuable is its ability to take account of context, which has been an awkward problem for traditional AI. We can’t use all the latest technology at the customer interface, but we have ways of using it safely ”under the bonnet”. 
    
The agile approach enables seamless interplay

OP’s agile working practices suit Jaakko. Goal achievement and long-term development are front and centre, but interim results are also checked at suitably frequent intervals.     
    
– Autonomous teams brim with energy and vitality. The agile approach fuels the drive characterising our working atmosphere and interaction.  

Jaakko has found that the agile method enables collaboration between roles, so that the Product Owner can focus on leading while a Specialist Supervisor handles motivational dialogue and pay negotiations.         

– In sport, the coach plans tactics, a physio takes care of muscles and a manager handles pay, so that the players can concentrate on the game.     

Jaakko plans to focus harder on coaching-based leadership in the future.        
– I’m still interested in developing and growing; to help my team and individuals grow and succeed. It’s highly rewarding to be able to help people write their own growth stories.     
Jaakko feels that success is a mix of active, target-based monitoring and opportunism.     

– You need plans, but life has a habit of moving on as you’re making them. So you need to live in the moment and reinvent yourself as things change around you.