Who I am
I've seen up close what happens when AI arrives in an organisation. The technology rarely fails. Far more often, it exposes operating models that were built for a world that no longer exists. I help leadership teams and boards rethink how their organisations operate — from the keynote stage and the coaching table.
"Technology doesn't build trust — leadership that meets and hears people does."
Three decades of developing business through technology
I learned one of the most important lessons of my career long before anyone was talking about AI.
I spent years in IT, leading both software development and IT outsourcing services. At one point I ran a competitive tender for my then employer's marketing, and I noticed that every proposal was essentially the same — the same tools, the same promises, the same service.
The only real difference was in how I was met: whether I was listened to, and whether the seller understood what I was actually trying to solve.
Out of that grew a conviction that carries everything I do today. Hardware, software, processes — anyone can copy them. People, no one can. That's why lasting competitive advantage comes from people, and in the age of AI this old truth becomes unforgiving, because AI commoditises technology faster than any shift before it.
I founded Astu Labs to help organisations adopt AI responsibly and purposefully — people first. In my work I see the same thing again and again: AI doesn't fail on the technology, but on whether people learn, and whether they're led in a way that makes them brave enough to learn. That's why I believe the AI shift is, at its core, a leadership shift.
I've always been fascinated by what people can achieve together. I've seen that behind almost every great change lies the same thing: belief and trust in one another. Technology doesn't build trust — trust is built by leadership that meets and hears people.
Experience
I once led a former employer's organisation to become the fifth-best workplace in Finland in its size category. Later I led a Copilot rollout where, in the organisation I led, we reached almost 100% adoption — which is why Microsoft asked me to Keilaniemi to tell other partners how it was done. The most important message surprised many: success didn't come down to the software, but to a new way of working and to company culture. It came down to people.
The roots of that same insight go back further. My MBA studies dealt with the phenomena of decision-making — the biases that behavioural economics has identified in how people make choices, and the choice architecture that can support those choices. That is exactly what change management and AI adoption demand: understanding people, not just technology.
I also sit on the board of IAMCP Finland and am a member of the Finnish Association of Management Consultants (LJK). LJK is the only association for business and management consultants in Finland whose members are demonstrably top experts in growing businesses and creating value.
Why this topic?
AI is talked about either by technologists who don't lead, or by leaders who don't know the technology. I've been both — and it's from that space in between that a view few people see opens up: AI is neither saviour nor threat, but a revealer. It brings to the surface how an organisation really listens, develops and trusts — or fails to listen, develop and trust.
That's why I don't talk about AI as technology. I talk about what it demands of leadership. It's a topic that won't go out of date with the next model release, because competitive advantage doesn't come from a tool. Technology keeps you in the game. People win it.
Astu Labs Oy
Astu Labs Oy began at the moment I mentioned earlier, at Microsoft's partner event in Keilaniemi. When I saw the reception my experience got, I realised how many organisations need support on their own AI journey — not more tools, but help with how people and leadership change alongside the tools. I founded the company in late 2024, and the first client engagement began right away in December.
Astu isn't me. In spring 2025, partners Janne Pihlajamäki and Jouni Manninen came on board, both of whom own a significant share of the company and have been building it with me ever since. What unites us is leadership-team-level experience, and the fact that structured, goal-driven leadership and ISO standards are familiar to all of us — and perhaps not by coincidence, so is endurance: Janne describes himself as a lifestyle athlete and a father, and Jouni is a national-level marathon runner who has worked his way from the Service Desk to the leadership team.
In practice this means I'm often the first door in, but rarely the only person who does the work. The best insight into your situation may come from Janne or Jouni just as easily as from me — and that's exactly the point.
"I'm a runner, a cyclist and an adventurer, but beyond that also a keynote speaker, advisor and executive coach. Founder and CEO of Astu Labs Oy. I help leaders and organisations through the change of the AI era in three ways: as talks that change how people think; as working sessions with leadership teams and boards; and, through Astu Labs, as a long-term partner in change."
Lenni Laukkanen
Mission
I don't do this work for the technology. I do it for people. I believe in a working life where people meet one another, are well, and thrive while doing meaningful work alongside AI. That's what I'm working towards — one talk, one workshop and one essay at a time.
"I want to leave behind a generation of leaders for whom servant leadership is not a technique but a way of being a leader."
Servant leadership turns the old setup on its head. The leader is not the one who is served, but the one who serves: clearing obstacles, truly listening, and developing people so that they can manage even without the leader. It's not a technique you switch on when needed, but a way of thinking, of being and of looking at the organisation — and that is exactly why it holds up on the hard days too.
I believe in it because the capacity for change has become a condition for an organisation's survival — and you can't command the capacity for change into being. It grows from people who are heard, who are trusted, and who dare to learn. From people who dare to challenge themselves and their own thinking. People like that are not led by giving orders. They are led by serving.
Personal
I run, I cycle, and I like to head where the route isn't marked out in advance. For me, endurance sport isn't a break from work but the same continuum in another form: no one becomes a runner on a single run, and no organisation changes with a single workshop. What's decisive is that you head out also when it's raining and the calendar is serving up excuses to do something else. I'm not a natural mover; I'm a former couch potato with decades of experience. Exercise came into my life in mature adulthood, and through it I learned to tolerate discomfort, learned new things about myself, and had experiences of pushing past my own limits. Because of that change, training metaphors slip into my talks too — at times they seem to say more about leadership than many a strategy slide.