Introduction
Since its inception, Tampere University’s GPT-Lab has grown in two years into one of the most significant research groups in AI in software engineering in the Nordic countries, and its work is directly visible in companies’ everyday operations.
In May 2023, Professor Pekka Abrahamsson founded a new research group at Tampere University with a clear mission: to understand and shape how AI will change software development in the years ahead. Today, GPT-Lab is
home to an international team of 50+ researchers based in Pori, Tampere,
and Seinäjoki, with partners extending from Sweden and Norway to Brazil
and Tanzania. Prof. Abrahamsson was named AI Researcher of the Year 2025 by AI Finland and Software Engineering Professor of the Year 2026,
recognising both the immediate impact and the longer trajectory of the
group’s work.
A central research direction at GPT-Lab is AI Native Software
Engineering (ANSE), an effort to rethink how software is designed,
built, and maintained when AI is treated as a first-class element of the
development process rather than a tool bolted onto existing practices.
GPT-Lab collaborates closely with companies and stakeholders in the
Tampere AI ecosystem, with research carried out inside real business
environments rather than alongside them. A key innovation is the ‘adopt
a researcher’ model: a company embeds a GPT-Lab researcher into one of
its own teams for an extended period, where the researcher works on the
company’s actual problems while bringing the latest research findings
into daily use. The arrangement compresses the path from academic
insight to applied benefit, and the model has since been adopted by
other AI ecosystems across Finland.
In January 2026, a two-year research collaboration between Etteplan and
GPT-Lab was launched. The collaboration targets the development of
autonomous AI agents and industrial tacit knowledge management, areas
where deep expertise is not yet widely available. It combines the
engineering know-how of Etteplan’s approximately 4,000 specialists with
GPT-Lab’s research capacity. The Tampere AI ecosystem played a
meaningful role in bringing the two organisations together.
GPT-Lab also serves as the technological backbone of the AI Champion
project, developing the 100 AI agents that will address information flow
bottlenecks in the construction industry.
“At GPT-Lab we have been able to test the idea that AI is not studied past companies but together with them. The Tampere AI ecosystem has made this possible, and the consequences are already visible in everyday practice: together we are building things that neither of us would have achieved alone.”
Pekka Abrahamsson, Professor and Founder of GPT-Lab, Tampere University — AI Researcher of the Year 2025
“Business Tampere supports the development of the AI ecosystem with an active and visionary approach. Building partnerships and strengthening ecosystem structures, including collaboration with the academic community, are key parts of Business Tampere’s agenda. Research and development collaboration strengthens the vitality and competitiveness of the entire region. The way of working is straightforward, practical and action-oriented with a strong focus on getting things done. It’s a pleasure to work with you.”
Sanni Pöntinen, Director (Strategy and Management), Doctoral Researcher, GPT-Lab