Year in Review 2025
New clients, clearer products, AI everywhere, and a whole lot of personal growth. Here's how our team experienced 2025.
Every year, we ask everyone at Kisko to reflect on the past twelve months at work and beyond. Some wrote paragraphs, some wrote bullet points, and some promised to try next year. Here's what 2025 looked like through the eyes of our team.
Antti Akonniemi
Super interesting year! Mostly because of AI. I’ve not been this excited about technology in a while. Because of AI my productivity is through the roof and I’ve been prototyping different things so much more than before. Also trying to make software development processes for myself that support AI driven development better.
I’ve been lucky to do some AI consulting for our clients which has been nice. Also participated few customer projects which I haven’t done in a while.
Spare time has been spent with my daughter, doing stand-up comedy and building Nauramaan.com (ticket sales platform for stand-up comedy).
I’ve also been building my own version of Iron Man’s Jarvis. Currently no holograms, but I can chat with my notes and journal. Also Jarvis seems to complain each time I add a todo - “You have so much stuff to work on and you just added another one” 😂
Antti Salonen
Project highlight personally this year was Vapaus Bike Finder, which was an intensive sprint where our team achieved a nicely crafted service for all employees using Vapaus bike benefit, as well as high automation of fetching marketplace data for bicycles both in Finland and Sweden. Read more here: https://www.kiskolabs.com/referenssit/vapaus
Internally in the management team we’ve spent 2025 especially improving our own tooling with both our own applications, improving metrics we follow as a team and testing out AI workflows.
At the end of 2025 I also did an extensive clean-up and consolidation of all our used SaaS services, which was a nice konmari -experience after years of accumulating different SaaS products. Having a payment tool like Zevoy, has helped us make sense of our services spending.
We’ve also spent effort and focus to improve and clarify our consulting products for 2026.
Near the end of the year I took the stage at the Professio SME Executive event, which was a nice milestone on my public speaking path. Watch the full talk here.
Ida Mänty
The market seems to be picking up, and we’ve welcomed several interesting new clients, such as Nordec, Finproma, and Edita Prima. I’ve had the chance to work with Vesa on the sales side for all of them. I’m grateful that Kisko gets to support them as a key partner.
Selling custom software comes with its own challenges, since by nature it’s shaped around each client’s needs. In 2025, we’ve focused on turning this work into three clearer “service products”, which we’ll launch to the market in 2026. I’m really looking forward to this, as it’s familiar territory for me given the background in digital product companies.
A big theme for Kisko this year has been data. We’ve been measuring our internal KPIs more systematically and streamlining the way we work in many areas. And it has been lovely. 🫶 We also made a conscious decision, again and again, to keep our operational work in a small, startup-minded team (a total of three people 😁). It’s simply more efficient in many ways.
One of the biggest personal wins at work has been a tendering case together with Qvik, Sade Innovations and Arado. We formed a small-company consortium and were selected for the national IT framework agreement run by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. The 250 million euro arrangement would typically be dominated by much larger players. Our joint bid made it into the top seven suppliers, which was a big win for all of us. The procurement decision has been appealed, and we expect a ruling in spring 2026. Still, being selected at this stage is a good reminder of how far collaboration can take smaller companies.
Also, on a personal level, I read over 50 books, started writing my first novel, and joined Ursa Astronomical Association. Curiosity carried me to Croatia to photograph the Moon and spend time at an observatory. I rode horses, ate and lived healthier, swam, and created my very first organic perfumes.
Eetu Mattila
There have been many interesting client cases this year, new challenges presented requiring new angles of problem solving! Diving into new cases and coming up with new novel solutions in the unexplored territory is always exciting.
I've learned what I enjoy and what motivates me. There's still ways to go to find the focus and the environment , but knowing yourself is the first step.
I've been eating better, I've exercised more and taken care of my health in general better which is a major win 💪 Also this is the year when I tried a bit of Magic the Gathering and got fully sucked in beyond the last point of return.
Teemu Palokangas
This year I had the chance to be part of a new project from scratch for the first time. Version 1 of the entirely new service is up and running on schedule and doing the right things. Looking back, a few key factors enabled a successful launch:
- Have a good plan, but don’t cling to it too tightly. Things get clarified in the process.
- Deliver fast. Get a staging environment up and running ASAP and get feedback on the real thing.
- Ensure to have a proper Product Owner. For the client this was their first software project, but their Product Owner grew into big boots fast, made prioritizations and decisions, and was available for communication. This was crucial.
- Use boring tools. Established software tools enable you to focus on the business problem and make good architectural choices.
- Trust your coworkers and the client. Everyone does their best work when given trust and responsibility.
This year also marked a heavier use of AI tools in my everyday work. In previous years it was mainly about asking questions around problem cases and writing tests. Now I’m trying to delegate all routine work to agentic AI. What I still mostly write by hand is the key business logic. Development work seems to be shifting more toward thinking, reading AI’s proposals, and refining them. Tooling is in constant flux and change is rapid, and everything still needs a human touch, but AI tools are here and they are changing the playfield and professionalism.
Outside of work I increased my gym training from one weekly visit to three, and did some research on proper workouts and nutrition. It’s not exciting, but I’m seeing clear benefits: better posture, fewer aches, and it’s nicer to feel physically tired at bedtime. Being a software consultant is very stationary work, and it needs breaks and balancing activity. This seems to be working nicely.
Niko Rasku
The past year has been quite eventful both professionally and privately.
In the OP domain, I’ve taken more charge as a lead developer and participating in technical meetings with different branches of the organisation and documentation. For Metsä we released the changed strong authentication with increased security and adherence to Traficom regulations. In Kortteli we launched the beta version of the lobby screen application for use in OP offices.
For Springvest we have been reworking the customer facing interface to bring a more modern and responsive feel to the investment process. Looking forward to the release in early 2026!
I would say the most enjoyment has come from increasing my competence in cloud, utilising AI to a better degree and integrating it to workflow as well as nice conversations both online and offline with team and clients.
On the personal side I got married and bought a house together with my wife. I also got back into a regular exercise routine and increased my time on the tennis court. I feel like my communication skills have gotten better and I’ve consciously strived for it. I will actively try to increase my time on personal projects in 2026 and further develop my competence.
