This project succeeded in engaging diverse target audience groups and developing meaningful customer relationships with them. It inspired action and produced measurable results. Behind its success was the insights-driven strategy of creating a shared vision – one all stakeholders could believe in – that was also underscored by efforts to play to all course participants’ self-interest.

AI is largely seen as a threat instead of an opportunity. The advancement of AI is believed to decimate jobs and contribute to a dystopian society. Yet the majority of people do not actually know what AI is or how it works; their fear comes from not understanding it.

Our brief was to give anyone, anywhere the tools needed to understand AI. Our objective was to educate on AI as large and diverse a group of people as possible: In less than a year at least 1% of the entire Finnish population. We wanted to make Finland the world's most AI-educated country but also create a global resource that could educate the public anywhere in the world, regardless of background.

Although AI is widely discussed in society, there is a lack of a comprehensible, up-to-date introduction to its study. AI education is reserved for the few.

Free and open to all, the beautifully designed Elements of AI course is therefore an online class like no other: It explains what artificial intelligence is, what it can (and can’t) do, and how it affects our lives – all in easy-to-grasp terms, with no programming or complicated math required. Developed by world-leading professors, the six-week course grants its graduates a university-level diploma, one they can use to improve their professional standing.

The course is online which creates a safe space for beginners of all kinds to learn without judgment or prejudice. Our course cuts through gender, age, race, and socioeconomic lines.

Central to our strategy was the shared vision among all stakeholders of democratizing AI knowledge. The microsite format meant it works for anyone, anywhere –– and scales fast. We made sure that companies could easily educate entire workforces using it, as could governmental bodies looking to quickly disseminate AI knowledge among populations. The course was created in English for it to have the greatest possible global reach. A sharing component was built into it, too, making it a user-driven project: Participants were kept engaged with weekly emails encouraging them to complete the modules and share their progress online. Graduates were also awarded a university-level diploma shareable on social media. The strategy relied on a call-to-action of both self-gain and selflessness: Users proudly shared their progress, boasting about their skills, while also passing on the noble message of free, equal AI education for everyone.

The course was built together with world-leading AI experts, developers, and user designers. Its contents are based on world-class university courses. That gave Elements of AI instant credibility.

The course grew into a phenomenon in only a few months thanks to a shared vision and the enthusiasm of the stakeholders. We focused on major partnerships, challenging high-profile corporations like Nokia and Finnair to the #AIchallenge, where they pledged to educate their workforces with our course.

We invited the Finnish President to speak at our first graduation ceremony. He encouraged everyone to sign up, too.

We positioned accessibility and our greater purpose as the driving messages. Major media, including Wired, MIT Technology Review, and Politico, spoke of our course as an example of a unified nation working towards a shared vision, while business and technology sites like Fast Company and Engadget underlined the course’s accessibility, encouraging all their readers to enroll.

To date, there are over 150,000 signups from over 110 countries.

More than 1% of the Finnish population has signed up for the course.

Our website has been visited 5.6 million times with an average time-on-site of 5.3 minutes.

Around 2,000 new users sign up each week without any paid advertising.

Around 40% of participants are women, more than double the average in computer science courses. Over 25% of students are over the age of 45.

250+ major companies have signed up for the #AIchallenge (#tekoälyhaaste).

Elements is the most sought-after class in the entire 395-year history of its university, and one of the highest-ranked, most prestigious computer science courses in the world.

The Finnish government recently revised its goal for the number of Finns who should learn AI to 1 million, a fifth of the population.

The course launched in Sweden. Many other countries and languages will soon follow.

Finland is trying to modernize its world-leading education system for the 21st century: There are gaps in the teaching of technological skills – which have traditionally been Finland’s competitive advantage – and an increasing need for lifelong learning, as Finland has the fastest-aging population in Europe. There is a gender imbalance in IT education, with women accounting for only 15% of IT courses.

With Elements of AI, we wanted to show that there is nothing particularly remarkable about AI.

Finns are eager to learn and quick to adopt new technologies – Finland tops the charts when it comes to the use of internet and smartphones – so by making the course freely available online we know it would find its audience.

We also drew on the insight that Finns are a proud, unified, forward-thinking nation passionate about making Finland the world’s most AI-educated country.