What AI Brings to My Everyday Life – and Why Nuuka Is the Most Exciting Place to Be Right Now

Artificial intelligence is generating more discussion in working life than ever before. But what does AI actually bring to everyday work, leadership, and business? Here’s my perspective.

What AI Brings to My Everyday Life – and Why Nuuka Is the Most Exciting Place to Be Right Now

It was 2019, and I was riding my motorcycle from Turku to Vladivostok. Along the way, I kept a blog and journal. This is something I wrote in Kazakhstan:

“What do you do when your motorcycle breaks down in the middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan, your phone has no data, you don’t speak the local language, and you’re alone?
Do you panic? Start shouting? Cry? Curse yourself for coming here?
Do all of the above—or do you simply start taking action?”

The situation was very real. But the question is exactly the same in working life.

You Don’t Lie Down in the Fire

When you’re responsible for getting things done—whether in a company, a team, or a project—you will face situations you simply cannot prepare for.

A funding round collapses. A key deal is lost. A critical person is suddenly unavailable. The list is endless.

At that point, the options are still the same:
do you get stuck, or do you start acting?

I’ve always chosen the latter.

Some of my leadership principles are simple. I come from a generation that can still refer to military officer training without irony. Three things stayed with me:
        1.      Make a decision.
        2.      If it turns out to be wrong, make a new one.
        3.      But never lie down in the fire.

Not Everything Should Be Solved Immediately—Or Loudly

More than 25 years in working life has added one important nuance:
a decision should be made when it’s time to make it—not before.

That’s not hesitation. It’s keeping options open.

Another observation is even simpler: when someone raises their voice and loses their temper, it usually says more about their own situation than anyone else’s performance.

Passion and drive matter. A lot. But uncontrolled reactions rarely lead to better outcomes.

Why Nuuka Feels Different Right Now

I got my first computer in 1982. Just 44 years ago. I was twelve.

Saving self-coded BASIC games onto cassette tapes with a portable recorder felt like the absolute cutting edge of technology.

Since then, I’ve had the chance to be involved in multiple waves of change—often before they became mainstream.

I was part of building Saunalahti during the ISP consolidation before the turn of the millennium. After that came financing and growing dot-com companies in the early 2000s. Then Nokia, where I saw mobile internet become part of everyday life—first in developed markets, then in emerging ones.

Telco cloud solutions were on our table already in 2008. And practical applications of AI—such as energy optimization and CO₂ reduction—were part of my everyday work at Wärtsilä as early as 2017.

There’s a common pattern in all of this:

The most interesting things often look marginal, unrealistic, or insignificant at first—until they become everyday reality.

That’s exactly why Nuuka feels different right now.
And why that same sense of “wow” feels very similar to what it did back in 1982.

The Value of AI Is Measured in Impact, Not Talk

There is a lot of discussion around AI right now—and that’s a good thing. Without discussion, there is no awareness. Without awareness, there is no change.

But it’s important to remember this:

Tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and others can dramatically improve efficiency—but they don’t execute.

They support decisions.
They suggest options.
They accelerate work.

But execution is still human.

Back in Kazakhstan, I probably could have received an excellent AI-generated analysis of what to do.

I’m not convinced any of those suggestions would have included lifting a broken motorcycle onto a truck with a wooden plank in the middle of nowhere—after locating the nearest repair shop 300 kilometers away.

That solution didn’t require more options. It required action.

And before that action came a fair amount of luck: a random stop at a gas station, exchanged phone numbers, towing the bike behind a Lada with a rope, drinks at a Kazakh family celebration—and eventually getting the motorcycle running again ten days later.

Those are the stories that rarely show up in the final result.

The same applies to business.
Without action, there are no results.

Free Time Matters More Than People Think

If I had to name one concrete thing AI has brought into my daily life, it’s not just efficiency—although that is significant.

It’s time. And more specifically, unstructured time.

AI has made it possible to get things done faster while freeing up time for reading, exercise, thinking, recovery—and simply doing nothing.

That’s not trivial. It’s essential.

Better decisions are rarely made when you’re constantly overloaded.

At Some Point, You Need to Act

In the end, it comes back to the same lesson as in Kazakhstan:

At some point, you need to stop analyzing and start acting.
You don’t lie down in the fire.

The world is full of opportunities, and AI will transform entire industries.

But change doesn’t happen by itself.
It happens through action.

And that’s exactly why Nuuka is the most exciting place to be right now:

Because we don’t just talk about change—
we make it happen.