The purpose of technology is to help people succeed
"Throughout my career, I've been motivated by one question: how can technology genuinely benefit people in everyday life?"
Karoliina Kettukari works as AI Tribe Lead at OP Pohjola, and she is one of the key people behind the Finnish AI transition. Her work is displayed in practice in the daily lives of thousands of experts – it affects how the work progresses, what technology is used, and how people learn new things together.
In 2026, Karoliina made Tivi's top 50 list of women leaders in the technology sector. The recognition reflects her long-term work to promote technology, artificial intelligence, and human-driven change.
A career within IT – prioritising people
Karoliina holds a Master’s degree in Administrative Sciences and has studied management and organisational psychology. Over the years, her competencies have been supplemented with a Specialist Vocational Qualification in service design and a Prosci change management certificate. During her entire career, she has worked with IT matters, but always close to people.
"I don't have a coding background. My strengths are change management, understanding the big picture, and showing direction," Karoliina says.
Before OP Pohjola, Karoliina worked in the energy sector and as a consultant, spending the last few years leading her own business unit. She will soon have worked at OP Pohjola for two years. The evolution of technology has been manifested in a tangible way during her career, from Lync and local files to cloud services, Teams, and now, artificial intelligence.
"The speed of change has been incredible – and it's still accelerating. Only email has remained relatively unchanged," Karoliina says.
AI as a part of everyone's daily work
Karoliina now leads OP Pohjola's AI Tribe, tasked with transforming the AI first strategy into tangible action. The work encompasses the implementation of AI solutions, the development of personnel competencies, and building rules for the safe and responsible use of AI across OP Pohjola. At the same time, close cooperation is ongoing with business functions, communications, competence development, risk management, and other technology teams.
Karoliina describes her work as a combination of several roles. As a people leader, she ensures that the team is doing well and intentionally progresses towards a shared vision. She is also responsible for promoting the AI transformation across OP Pohjola, shaping technology policies, and participating actively in discussions about artificial intelligence.
The role also involves ongoing competence development. Karoliina actively follows developments in the field, engages in discussions with experts, and utilises her extensive networks. In management, people especially learn through experience and reflection – and feedback plays a crucial role.
Meaningfulness is created by people
For Karoliina, the meaningfulness of work is mainly based on people and their successes. Huge changes such as AI often also cause uncertainty and questions about one's own work and future. This is why the most rewarding thing is to see people get excited about new possibilities.
"I feel that my tribe and I have succeeded when people get excited about new technologies, dare to and are able to use them in their work, and improve their own work and processes with them," says Karoliina.
The members of the AI Tribe are a versatile group of experts, from scientists to communications and training specialists. Trust, openness and continuous learning are the foundation of the AI Tribe's work. When different experts find a common direction, they are able to build something new and take the change further together. According to Karoliina, this is what makes OP Pohjola a unique working environment. It fosters the development of solutions for the future with top specialists, seeing their impact in real life.