Headai
Headai is a Finnish cognitive AI company that provides a Decision Intelligence platform for governments, educational institutions, enterprises, and employment services, using proprietary Self-Organizing Maps and knowledge graph technology to extract skills, workforce, and competitive insights from unstructured text data.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2004
- HeadquartersPori, Finland
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Headai does
Headai is a Finnish deep tech company headquartered in Pori with a Helsinki office, founded in 2015 on more than two decades of underlying cognitive science research. The company builds a proprietary cognitive AI platform for Decision Intelligence, combining Self-Organizing Maps (SOM), natural language processing, knowledge graphs, and reinforcement learning to convert fragmented, unstructured text data - such as job advertisements, research publications, reports, and policy documents - into interoperable Digital Self profiles and traceable insights. Core products include Headai Graphmind (the cognitive engine), Headai Space with Vibe Analytics (a chat-first decision intelligence workspace launched in May 2026), Visualizer dashboards, ready-made AI agents, and applications such as CareerBot (student guidance), Futureproof (individual skills matching), SDG Scorecard (UN goals alignment), and Skills Pulse (industry skills mapping). All technology is positioned as 100% in-house IP and language-independent.
Headai primarily serves four customer segments: governments and policymakers (including Business Finland, the World Bank, Sitra, Tampere City, and the Finnish Food Authority) for skills demand forecasting and policy design; educational institutions (3AMK, Novida, and the National Board of Education of Finland) for curriculum alignment and student guidance; enterprise organizations (ABB Oy, Technology Industries of Finland) for workforce foresight and company digital twins; and employment services (YTK, Finland's largest unemployment fund) for AI-powered job matching. The company also serves individual professionals through the Futureproof mobile app. Its go-to-market is sales-led with a 'Book a Demo' motion, supplemented by a self-service Graphmind trial, API access for developers, and reseller channels defined in its EULA. Revenue streams include full commercial software licenses, non-commercial licenses for educational and research institutions, a freemium/trial tier, and API-based custom solutions, alongside EU project consortium funding (DS4Skills, Prometheus-X, LEADSx2030). Pricing is not publicly disclosed and contracts are typically multi-year.
Strategically, Headai is positioning itself as core infrastructure for the emerging European Data Space for Skills. It is a founding partner of Prometheus-X (a €20M EU initiative), coordinates the DS4Skills consortium under DIGITALEUROPE, and participates in GAIA-X via the EDGE-skills project. The company holds 100+ customers and partners globally, has offices in Pori and Helsinki, complies with GDPR and stores data in the EU, and is led by Founder and Chairman Harri Ketamo with Chief Business Officer Anu Passi-Rauste and Product Lead Ivana Pesic.
Headai firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Headai
- Legal name
- HEADAI LTD.
- Website
- https://headai.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2004
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Headai is a Finnish cognitive AI company that provides a Decision Intelligence platform for governments, educational institutions, enterprises, and employment services, using proprietary Self-Organizing Maps and knowledge graph technology to extract skills, workforce, and competitive insights from unstructured text data.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Headai industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Decision Intelligence Software
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Information (51)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Enterprise AI Data & Knowledge Platforms (Vector Databases, Knowledge Graphs) (HDAEANAH)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- End-to-End Enterprise AI Platforms (MLOps & Model Lifecycle Management) (HDAEANAA), Conversational AI Platforms (chat/voice bots, orchestration) (HDAAAFAC), Generative AI & LLM Solutions Services (RAG, Agents, Copilots) (BPAEAHAG)
Keywords
Where Headai is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Pori
- HQ country
- Finland
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Headai business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Software Licenses (Full License): Full license grants unlimited installation and use of the software product worldwide. Non-exclusive, non-transferable, sub-licensable to subcontractors. License fees are paid for access to the software.
- Free/Trial License: Free version distributed for evaluation purposes. Unlimited installation allowed. Can be used for commercial activities in express version. Redistributable only in original distribution package form.
- Non-Commercial License: License for non-profit organizations, educational and medical establishments, research institutes, museums, libraries. Cannot be used for commercial purposes.
- API Access / Custom Solutions: Organizations can build custom tools with Headai's APIs or get started with Visualizer and ready-to-use AI agents. Professional services for custom development likely included.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Headai Graphmind Platform - Free Trial |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Full License |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Non-Commercial License |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Headai product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Headai builds a cognitive AI engine (Graphmind) that converts unstructured text data — such as job ads, research, curricula, and corporate documents — into actionable Decision Intelligence via dynamic knowledge graphs and Self-Organizing Maps. It delivers this capability through products including the Headai Space chat-first workspace with Vibe Analytics, ready-to-use AI agents, dashboards, and APIs that enable skills forecasting, workforce planning, and curriculum-to-labor-market alignment for governments, educational institutions, and enterprises.
Product overview
Headai is a deep tech company offering Decision Intelligence through a platform-plus-modules architecture. The core offerings include Headai Space (chat-first workspace for decision intelligence), Vibe Analytics (conversational AI analytics replacing dashboards), and Headai Graphmind (cognitive AI engine built on Self-Organizing Maps and NLP). These are complemented by Headai Visualizer (dashboard exploration), AI Agents (recommendations and scenario planning), and Digital Self/Digital Twin technology (interoperable skills profiles for predictive analytics). Specialized applications include CareerBot (student career guidance), Futureproof (individual skills matching mobile app), and SDG Scorecard (UN goals alignment analysis). The platform processes unstructured text data through knowledge graphs, enabling organizations to extract actionable insights from fragmented information sources.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Headai Space: Early access chat-first workspace for decision intelligence. Ask questions and get signals, comparisons, and forecasts with traceable results.
- Futureproof
- CareerBot
- Graphmind
- Vibe Analytics
Products and services
- Headai Graphmind Cognitive AI engine powering the Headai platform. Built on Self-Organizing Maps and unsupervised learning, it creates interoperable machine-learning data models representing skill assets, forecasts, professional profiles, educational curricula, and SDGs. Sold to organizations that want to run their own cognitive AI workloads.
- Headai Space Chat-first workspace for decision intelligence combining Headai's Knowledge Graph semantic layer with a generative-AI natural-language interface. Users ask questions and receive signals, comparisons, and forecasts with every line traceable back to source data. Aimed at decision-makers in enterprises, governments, and educational institutions.
- Futureproof Mobile application that helps individual users visualize their current skill sets and match them to dream job requirements, recommending skills to update and relevant training courses. Built in cooperation with Technology Industries of Finland.
- CareerBot AI-powered platform that helps higher-education students verbalize their skills, discover skills gaps, identify dream jobs, and explore thesis trends. Built with 3AMK (Haaga-Helia, Laurea, Metropolia) and used by their students for career and study-path guidance.
- ADS Demand Dashboard Dashboard providing policymakers, educational providers, and industry with detailed data on Europe's digital skills landscape, analyzing millions of job ads, research publications, and investment records to identify and forecast skills demand.
- Skills Pulse Website providing ongoing mapping of skills needs in the Finnish technology industry. Built and operated by Technology Industries of Finland using Headai's Cognitive AI. Recognized as Foresight Solution 2022 in Finland.
Quantifiable outcome
- Analyzed 3 million job ads, 10 million research articles, and 100,000 reports for EU digital skills analysis across 27 countries
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Headai
Customer profileNamed customers11 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Headai technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration5 records
AI capability9 records
Feature7 records
Headai partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- LEADSx2030 InitiativecoreADS Demand Dashboard developed as part of LEADSx2030 initiative. Provides detailed data on Europe's digital skills landscape using millions of job ads, research publications, and investment records.
- YTK (Finland's Largest Unemployment Fund)coreRevolutionizing job searching by eliminating need for hundreds of applications. AI-powered matching ensures job seekers are matched with opportunities aligned with skills and aspirations.
- SitracoreTrusted Ecosystem for Skills Foresight pilot project. Combines licensed data to create future scenarios. Focuses on data space application building with consent principles and Data Connector technology. Sitra's Better Services Through Data program spawned TIPU family empowerment project.
- LightcastcoreAmerican company participating in Trusted Ecosystem for Skills Foresight pilot. Provides complementary labor market data to Headai's AI analysis capabilities.
- ABB OycoreClient in Trusted Ecosystem pilot. Using data space application to predict future company skills needs for 1, 3, or 5 years ahead. Enables human capital and resource planning based on AI-driven foresight.
- VisionsminorFrench company participating in Trusted Ecosystem for Skills Foresight pilot alongside Headai, Lightcast, and ABB Oy.
- National Board of Education of FinlandcoreCollaboration on mapping technical secondary education curricula against labor market needs. Resulted in action plan for curricula development to better fit industry needs.
- Prometheus-Xcore20M investment for creating European Data Space for Skills. EDGE-skills project building Skills Data Space within GAIA-X framework. Founding partner of this initiative shaping EU-level data interoperability.
- Paula Bello ConsultingminorCollaborated with Headai on TIPU project - family empowerment through data initiative following Sitra Lab 6's Better Services Through Data program.
- LinkedInminorJoint webinar on 'How to Use Organisational Skills Inventories and AI to Boost Your Talent Development Strategy'. Co-marketing to shared audience of talent developers and HR professionals.
- LightcastminorJoint webinar with LinkedIn on AI in talent development. Collaboration on showcasing how skills data and AI can boost organizational development strategies.
- DIGITALEUROPEcoreCoordinating DS4Skills consortium - EU-funded project under Digital Europe Programme preparing groundwork for European Data Space for Skills. 10 full partners and 4 associated partners working on blueprint for skills data space.
- 3AMK (Metropolitan Universities of Applied Sciences)coreOngoing collaboration developing CareerBot - AI-powered platform helping students with skills-driven career guidance. Alliance between Haaga-Helia, Laurea, and Metropolia serving thousands of students.
- World BankcoreInternational project mapping higher education in Philippines against labor market needs. Led to recommendations for curriculum adaptation to local industry requirements.
- Technology Industries of FinlandcoreLong-term partnership since 2019 to map technology industry skills needs. Resulted in SkillsPulse website and Skills Data Playbook. Ongoing collaboration on Futureproof mobile application.
- MyData GlobalminorTIPU project developed following MyData Global principles prioritizing security, transparency, and user agency in personal data management.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Headai competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- C3.ai: C3.ai delivers enterprise AI applications for industries including government and workforce, positioning itself as enterprise decision intelligence; it operates one layer broader than Headai but for many of the same Fortune-level buyers.
- Palantir Technologies: Palantir sells decision-intelligence platforms (Foundry, AIP) to governments and large enterprises for analytics over heterogeneous data — directly overlapping Headai's value proposition but with vastly greater scale and a much broader portfolio of use cases beyond skills.
- DataRobot: DataRobot is an enterprise AI platform offering AutoML, MLOps, and decision intelligence with explainability, spanning the same buyer base and category as Headai but at substantially greater scale and with deeper enterprise tooling.
Direct peers
- Eightfold AI: Eightfold AI operates a talent intelligence platform built on skills ontologies, with predictive matching, gap analysis, and workforce planning capabilities that overlap directly with Headai's Digital Self and Skills Pulse offerings for HR and enterprise buyers.
- Lightcast (formerly Burning Glass + Emsi): Lightcast is the dominant labor-market data and skills-intelligence provider; it is already a Headai partner in the Trusted Ecosystem for Skills Foresight pilot, and both target workforce planning, skills-gap analytics, and labor-demand forecasting for the same enterprise and public-sector buyers.
- Beamery: Beamery delivers AI-driven talent and skills-matching plus workforce planning, sharing the same skills-graph core concept and target buyer (HR and L&D leaders) as Headai's Futureproof, CareerBot, and enterprise skills modules.
- Quid: Quid applies NLP and text/network analytics to surface trends, weak signals, and foresight over unstructured data — a directly comparable use case to Headai's Signal Detection and competitive intelligence features for enterprise and government customers.
- Dataiku: Dataiku is an end-to-end enterprise AI/ML platform with knowledge-graph and analytics capabilities; both vendors compete for enterprise/government data-science budgets and offer AutoML-style platforms with explainable workflows.
Emerging players
- Harver (formerly Pymetrics): Harver offers skills-based matching, assessments, and talent analytics for HR, sharing Headai's emphasis on data-driven career matching and skills-driven recommendations as part of the same emerging workforce-intelligence category.
- Primer: Primer provides enterprise NLP and text-analytics tooling (including command-and-control style multi-document analysis), closely aligned with Headai's graph-based text-analysis core and buyer set (government, defense, intelligence).
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Headai social profiles
Digital presenceHeadai compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Headai financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Headai leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Headai funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors3 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Headai M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Headai
What does Headai do?
Headai builds a cognitive AI engine (Graphmind) that converts unstructured text data — such as job ads, research, curricula, and corporate documents — into actionable Decision Intelligence via dynamic knowledge graphs and Self-Organizing Maps. It delivers this capability through products including the Headai Space chat-first workspace with Vibe Analytics, ready-to-use AI agents, dashboards, and APIs that enable skills forecasting, workforce planning, and curriculum-to-labor-market alignment for governments, educational institutions, and enterprises.
Is Headai a public or private company?
Headai is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Headai founded?
Headai was founded in 2004. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Headai based?
Headai is headquartered in Pori, Finland, in the Europe region.
How does Headai make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Software Licenses (Full License) is the primary driver. The others are free/Trial License, non-Commercial License and API Access / Custom Solutions.
Who are Headai's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are C3.ai, Palantir Technologies and DataRobot. Direct peers are Eightfold AI, Lightcast (formerly Burning Glass + Emsi), Beamery, Quid and Dataiku. Emerging players are Harver (formerly Pymetrics) and Primer.
Does Headai have an API?
Yes. Headai offers APIs that allow developers to build custom tools, agents, or embed insights into workflows. Data imports/exports are made in structured format like JSON or xAPI through APIs. When calling Headai APIs, users should define UTF8 character set. Headai is preparing to launch MCP (Model Context Protocol) support with Headai Space, which will enable AI assistants to connect with Headai's analytical systems through a standard protocol. Developer documentation is at platform.headai.com.
What industry is Headai in?
Headai's product category is Decision Intelligence Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEANAH, Enterprise AI Data & Knowledge Platforms (Vector Databases, Knowledge Graphs), with a secondary code of HDAEANAA, End-to-End Enterprise AI Platforms (MLOps & Model Lifecycle Management). Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7372.