# Ilkka Särkiö

Principal AI Transformation Consultant

**What my title doesn’t say about my work**

In practice, I think and work a lot like a product manager, with transformation as the overarching product I deliver together with my colleagues and clients.

**In reality, "Think beyond AI" means…**

It means not getting stuck in models, methods, tools or practices. Any successful transformation relies on clear focus and alignment on what is the value we create, for whom and why.

**What kind of problems are you particularly good at solving?**

Besides working on the big picture and high-level strategies, I don’t hesitate diving into the nitty gritty. Frameworks, templates and approaches only work if they are applied situationally and taking the nuances of each situation into account. That is where I thrive.

**What sets you apart from other AI consultants?**

While my background is technical — mathematics, machine learning, systems analysis — I’ve actually spent the majority of my career working with business: as a consultant, as a SaaS founder, as a product manager with business responsibility. I look at things first through a business lens before thinking about technology or solutions.

**An experience from my career that shook my thinking**

It’s a triple shake. In January, I was amazed by the leaps AI-assisted software development took and developed internal tooling for project management even though I am not a software engineer, and it worked. A few weeks later I understood my approach with strict rules and checks was outdated and that Claude is the new “Excel” of the working life and ditched all the past work of AI-coded tooling. Finally, I understood that we may not even need or want to use a rigid ERP-style system as the foundation, and that solution is in fully AI-native, “company brain” thinking not founded on a stack of functional 3rd party SaaS tools.

**Services:** AI Strategy, AI & Data powered solutions, Interim C-level Services

Email: ilkka.sarkio@renessai.com · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilkkasarkio

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