Introduction
Tampere University, the University of Oulu, leading construction and building technology companies, and AI specialists joined forces — creating one of Finland’s largest data economy pilot projects.
The construction industry is one of Finland’s largest employers, but its level of digitalisation has lagged behind other sectors. The problem is tangible: design documents still get pushed around as PDFs, information is not transferred electronically from designer to contractor, and unstandardized data and gaps in its flow cause delays and cost overruns on project after project.
The AI Champion project was created to address this challenge. Business Finland awarded the project Co-Innovation funding, bringing the total budget to €20 million. Tampere University coordinates the project with a research contribution of approximately €5 million, with the University of Oulu as a key research partner. The founding companies include key players throught the construction value chain including Fira, Granlund, and Koja. The wider project partner network includes ETS Nord, Kiilto, GF BFS, QMG, LVI-info, STK, and Airlyse, and AI experts from the AI ecosystem supporting the development of agentic solutions.
The technological development goals are ambitious: to develop a broad portfolio of AI agents that improve automation and information flow from design to construction in building services supply chains. These agents are designed to work with real construction and building services data, expose where information flows break down, and support the standardisation and enrichment needed for scalable automation.
Preparations of the project took circa 20 months, building the consortium, connecting ecosystem partners and crafting extensive research and development plans. Business Tampere and the Tampere AI ecosystem have been a supporter of the project and connected it to become one of the national pilot projects in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s Data Economy Growth Programme. AI Champion is one of the most progressive data economy pilot projects initiated, and a strong example of what research and industry can achieve by building together.
“AI Champion is not about building isolated AI demos. The core of the project is to develop AI agents that can operate in real construction workflows, from design and procurement to construction and maintenance. At the same time, these agents make visible what kind of standardised and linked data the industry needs for automation to scale.”
Osku Torro (PhD), Tampere University