Understanding The Empathic Building: A Q&A With Tomi Teikko, Founder Of Teito

Teito is a Nordic software and services company that was nominated as a Global 100 Tech Leader by Thomson Reuters in 2018.

Teito’s Empathic Building is a digital service designed to help improve employee wellbeing by using data to solve end-user problems.

Empathic Building collects feedback relating to end-users’ feelings, location, flow and preferences.

Teito – meaning “knowledge” in Finnish – is a leading Nordic software and services company that harnesses the power of data to help their customers succeed. In 2018, Tieto was nominated as a Global 100 Tech Leader by Thomson Reuters in recognition of its commitment to innovation, performance and social responsibility.

We first met the company’s Founder, Tomi Teikko, when he hosted the Technology & Trends Conference 2019 in the Design Centre, London. During the introduction he spoke about his work on the Teito Empathic Building, a digital service designed to improve employee welling by solving end-user problems. 

We got in touch with Teikko to find out how this technology is revolutionising the way we interact with workspace. 

Allwork.Space: Hi Tomi! First off, what is the Teito Empathic Building?

Tomi Teikko: Empathic Building is a building user interface. It unites data from several silos and makes normally invisible data visible to create the best possible end-user experience. Empathic Building also measures end-user experience in real-time by collecting data from humans. In other words, it uses the human as an IoT sensor.

Allwork.Space What kind of data does it collect – can you give us a couple of examples?

Empathic Building collects feedback relating to feelings, location, flow and preferences. This data is shared via a world-class visualisation engine that works on all sizes of screen (from mobile to huge touch screens). Data is also shared via a fast API to enable smart building solutions with partner solutions.

Allwork.Space: I understand that the Empathic Building was originally called Intelligent Building.  Why did you change its name?

Our branding change was made to create a clear difference between smart/intelligent competitors who tend to solve building problems alone (use cases), not “human” ones. We also want to see future applications (AIs) to be empathic – which is claimed to be one of the biggest challenges for computers. 

We love to solve problems that others think are impossible. That’s the way to create something unique.

Allwork.Space: What are some of the Empathic Building’s key features and benefits?

Empathic Building for offices helps you, the end user, to make real-time data decisions around where to perform your next activity in a work environment. When all the data about people and space is available and visible, you can save 10-20% of time each day for more important tasks – or just relaxing. This creates a great employee experience.

Allwork.Space: Can it impact wellness and productivity>? If so, are these measured?

Yes. Empathic Building has an inbuilt measurement tool called “End-user Experience Index” that measures end-user happiness in real time.

Allwork.Space: What inspired you to start your business – a simple gap in the market, or something else?

I was working with IoT use cases with our customers and noticed that we often discussed the end user experience but real applications providing it were missing from the market.

Allwork.Space: Is it possible to protect the privacy of individuals who don’t want to share their data?

Of course. Sharing is not mandatory.

Allwork.Space: Tell us a bit more about your role as a keynote speaker. 

As I mentioned before, I love enormous challenges. As a keynote speaker, my mission is to challenge people to do the same. Right now my favorite topic is Human as an IoT Sensor. During this keynote, I give practical examples of how to collect and use real time data from end users to build modern human-centric digital consumer services. 

Using real-time data to solve end-user use cases are still rare or non-existent. I want to speed up that change. End users are still doing lots of admin work that could be outsourced to applications.

AllWork.Space: Have any flexible operators embraced the Teito Empathic Building?

Yes, we have a few coworking space operators as customers. 

Allwork.Space: You claim that #nothingwasbetterbefore – what do you mean by this?

We, as humans, tend to have a mindset that things were better before and this slows down new developments. My simple mission is to change that mindset to a more future-ready one and speed up the development of significant innovations that can, for example, stop global warming.