Episode 157 · 2022-10-20 · 32:07 · Original in Finnish
Drones and AI-Assisted Selling | Tuomas Rasila and Ilmari Piela | Negotiator 157
Originally published as “Droneja AI-työnhakua | Tuomas Rasila Ilmari Piela | Neuvottelija 157”
Tuomas Rasila of Zefram had just come back from Ukraine, where drones brought down from the sky are taken apart underground; the rest of the time he builds AI that opens sales conversations. Ilmari Piela of Duunitori explains how Finland's largest recruitment portal uses Zefram to identify the likeliest buyers and to write each of them a case-specific argument out of its own data. The conversation circles what separates mass personalisation from a real argument, and why generic cold outreach amounts to strip-mining the prospect base in a country this small. It also covers a sales calendar that fills itself, the CV-free application method Dialogi, and a company name borrowed from Star Trek.
Core theses
- The line between mass personalisation and a real argument is whether the message uses data the recipient recognises as being about them specifically.
- In a market the size of Finland, generic cold outreach burns the prospect base faster than it can regenerate — the constraint is exhaustion, not response rate.
- Duunitori's own data is what makes the generated argument credible; the model supplies the writing, not the case.
- Dialogi removes the CV from the application, which tests whether the document was ever the informative part.
Watch and listen
Key moments
- 00:00 — A Helsingin Sanomat Visio piece on Sensofusion, the Duunitori–Zefram collaboration, and the challenge of rationalising M&A work with AI
- 00:33 — Introducing Ilmari Piela and Tuomas Rasila, including unpublished footage of a Russian drone
- 03:21 — Duunitori's business model and the Zefram collaboration
- 11:15 — Using AI in the recruitment market, in investment banking and in difficult applications
- 31:41 — A duel between a Ukrainian and a Russian drone
Summary
Tuomas Rasila of Zefram had just come back from Ukraine, where drones brought down from the sky are taken apart underground; the rest of the time he builds AI that opens sales conversations. Ilmari Piela of Duunitori explains how Finland’s largest recruitment portal uses Zefram to identify the likeliest buyers and to write each of them a case-specific argument out of its own data. The conversation circles what separates mass personalisation from a real argument, and why generic cold outreach amounts to strip-mining the prospect base in a country this small. It also covers a sales calendar that fills itself, the CV-free application method Dialogi, and a company name borrowed from Star Trek.
Personalisation that says something
The distinction the episode keeps returning to is simple to state and hard to implement: a personalised message that merely inserts a name is still generic, while one built from data the recipient recognises as specifically theirs is an argument. The model does the writing either way — what changes is what it is given to write from.
Why a small market punishes spraying
Rasila’s commercial case rests on scarcity. Finland has a finite number of plausible buyers for most B2B products, and untargeted outreach spends them permanently. That framing turns targeting from an efficiency question into a conservation one.
Removing the CV
Duunitori’s Dialogi drops the curriculum vitae from the application. Whatever one thinks of the replacement, the experiment answers a question worth asking — how much of the hiring signal was ever in the document.
Watch
The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: Droneja AI-työnhakua | Tuomas Rasila Ilmari Piela | Neuvottelija 157. A Finnish edition of this episode is published at www.neuvottelija.fi.
In depth
The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode: English · suomeksi.
Go deeper
Explore the ideas in depth
Guides connected to this conversation, with frameworks and further reading.
Enterprise AI Agents: Economics, Governance and the Shift From Tools to Workers
A guide to enterprise AI agents — the real cost model behind agent work, why owning your own stack is becoming a strategic question, a working governance framework with approval gates and audit trails, the agent risk matrix, the EU AI Act timeline as it stands, and who captures the productivity gains. Grounded in a real multi-agent lab, two 2026 keynotes, and Neuvottelija conversations.
Nordic SaaS Valuation & M&A: How AI Reprices Software Companies
How software companies in the Nordics are valued and sold as AI moves inference into the cost of goods sold — where multiples stand in mid-2026, the metrics that get repriced, why vertical SaaS defends its premium, AI due diligence, and the shift from seats to outcomes. Grounded in Translink's SaaS valuation work and Neuvottelija conversations.
People and topics
Guests: Tuomas Rasila, Ilmari Piela
Topics: AI & Enterprise Tech SaaS & Software