Finland’s everyday reformers are building the public sector of tomorrow

“This is how we’ve always done it” is a phrase we all recognise. It often stems from practices that once arose from real needs and served us well. And it’s not always easy to do things differently from what we’re used to.

But the world and technology are changing rapidly. That’s why more and more people in the public sector are asking: how will we work tomorrow.

And that’s exactly the right question. The technological shift helps free people from routine tasks, streamline services and create more value for individuals, businesses and society.

In our work accelerating the public-sector productivity, we constantly encounter something encouraging: top-level expertise, a strong desire to renew and concrete actions that improve everyday life.

At Sitra, we are currently supporting more than 20 reforms with around 4.3 million euros. Over 80 organisations from across Finland are already involved: municipalities, wellbeing services counties, central government bodies, companies and research and education actors.

These are not isolated experiments but everyday improvements that form the foundation for a productivity leap. Less manual work, better information for decision-making, smoother services, smarter use of resources and solutions that can be scaled elsewhere.

Under Konnevesi municipality’s leadership, eight Finnish municipalities are automating administrative tasks using AI. Traficom is developing an AI-driven customer service solution to reduce the resources required for hundreds of thousands of annual customer contacts. The National Archives has used AI for nearly a decade to make historical information more accessible to everyone.

Wellbeing services counties are also active. In North Ostrobothnia, AI agents are being piloted to handle appointment cancellations and rescheduling. In South Ostrobothnia, Kanta-Häme and Central Finland, nurse shift planning and resource allocation are now guided by data and AI in ways that can be widely adopted. Helsinki University Hospital is developing a system that supports patient-care planning and provides a unified situational picture.

Central government is moving too. The State Treasury is streamlining the handling of statutes by improving their machine readability, the Finnish National Agency for Education is testing AI solutions to streamline the renewal of study degrees, and a joint project by the Finnish Heritage Agency and the Finnish National Gallery is improving access to cultural-heritage data.

Cross-sector collaboration fuels new insights. In a joint programme LINKKI by Aalto University, Lovable and Sitra, students tackle real public-sector challenges using AI tools. AI Finland is building a matchmaking platform that connects Finnish companies’ solutions with public-sector needs.

At its best, a productivity leap in the public sector can both improve services and create new growth opportunities for Finnish companies.

At the same time, one thing has become increasingly clear: public-sector renewal is not just a technology issue. It is above all a leadership issue. It requires the courage to rethink services and processes – and the ability to scale effective solutions more widely.

Behind both the AI hype and the critical debate, a great deal of responsible, forward-looking and everyday-improving development work is already happening.

That is why we aim to support Finland’s everyday reformers in the best possible way. The people and organisations who don’t settle for saying this is how we’ve always done it, but instead ask whether it’s time to do things differently.

The next step is to spread the best solutions across the country – and we invite everyone to join this work.