DDScore CEO Mikko Heilimo Joins Tekoälykästä to Discuss AI and Small Business Work
A practical discussion about how AI is changing entrepreneurship, what small-business owners can use it for today, and why the human role does not disappear as the tools improve.
DDScore Founder and CEO Mikko Heilimo joined Heidi Rissanen on the Tekoälykästä podcast to discuss what the rapid development of artificial intelligence means for small and solo entrepreneurs.
The conversation looks beyond individual AI tools. It asks how work itself is changing, where a small business can benefit, which new capabilities an entrepreneur needs, and where human expertise and interaction still matter.
AI Changes Different Kinds of Work at Different Speeds
The impact is already visible in knowledge work, where AI can assist with writing, searching, organizing information, and other screen-based tasks. The effect is different in physical professions. Changes there depend more heavily on robotics and on systems that can act in the physical world, not only produce or process information.
The episode connects these two developments and considers where people will still be needed as both AI and robotics advance. The question is not simply which jobs disappear. It is how the division of work between people and technology changes.
Small Businesses Face Both Opportunities and Constraints
Heidi and Mikko examine what AI means when a small company competes with larger organizations. The discussion covers both sides of that position: the new possibilities available to a small operator and the weaknesses that can become more visible as larger companies build AI into their processes.
The useful question for an entrepreneur is therefore not whether to adopt AI in the abstract. It is where AI can remove friction from the actual work and where the business still depends on judgment, trust, expertise, and direct human contact.
Start With One Useful Task
Mikko's practical advice is to begin in small steps. An entrepreneur does not need to automate the whole business at once. The first useful application can be a recurring task in email, information search, content production, or customer acquisition.
Starting with one concrete task makes the benefit easier to assess. It also creates space to learn what the tool does well, where it needs supervision, and which parts of the process should remain with the entrepreneur.
The Skills Will Keep Changing
The episode also considers the AI skills entrepreneurs need now and in the future. Using a tool is only one part of that capability. An entrepreneur must still understand the work well enough to define the task, evaluate the output, and decide what happens next.
Looking five to ten years ahead, the tools will become more capable and more deeply embedded in everyday work. The lasting advantage will not come from trying every new feature. It will come from learning where AI improves the business and where human responsibility remains necessary.
Thank you to Heidi Rissanen and Tekoälykästä for inviting Mikko and for making the changing role of AI practical for small-business owners.
The episode is in Finnish. YouTube provides automatically generated Finnish captions and its standard subtitle translation options.