What’s the problem?
AI is dominating headlines, yet in B2B SaaS most companies are still only talking about it. A few demos, maybe an integration to ChatGPT, but little real product innovation. For scale-ups, the risk is clear: if competitors claim the AI narrative and back it with customer adoption, your relevance slips fast.
Why it matters now
With investors watching closely, customers demanding efficiency, and competitors jostling for attention, speed matters. But so does trust. AI in HR tech, in particular, raises tough questions around bias, compliance, and employee privacy. Companies that wait for the perfect AI hire or overly polished product risk losing the chance to claim leadership in their category.
Meet the speaker
Malin Gustafsson, newly appointed CPO at Talentech, didn’t come to AI from the typical background. She’s a lawyer who spent ten years practicing business law before leading innovation and eventually product. At SaaSiest 2025, she shared the story of how her team built and launched Talentech’s AI-powered Recruitment Co-Pilot in just six months — growing to 250 paying customers within the first year.
The framework: Three pillars of AI co-building
When Talentech’s leadership first discussed “doing something with AI,” the easy option would have been to hunt for an external AI superstar and spin up a long, expensive development cycle. Instead, Malin applied what she jokingly calls her “square-minded legal ways” and set a framework around three pillars:
- Keep it simple
- Prioritize use cases that are easy to explain to customers, simple to adopt, and commercially viable.
- Focus on “low-hanging fruit” to build momentum, instead of chasing moonshots.
- Build secure and compliant by design
- From GDPR to neutrality safeguards, legal rigor became a differentiator.
- Positioning an AI product as “trustworthy” made enterprise and public sector customers more willing to engage.
- Claim the AI throne
- Visibility mattered as much as product. Talentech held webinars, engaged customers in forums, and encouraged employees (even the CEO) to talk publicly about their AI journey — long before they had a product to show.
Start with what you have
Instead of chasing unicorn hires, she looked internally. Hidden across the organization were underutilized capabilities:
- A team member with a master’s degree in machine learning.
- A data engineer who had already built a data lake from millions of applications.
- A product manager experimenting with AI on the side.
By assembling this “hidden AI team,” Talentech launched its project with five internal people in a “sweaty room in Oslo.”
Co-building with customers
The real unlock came from involving customers early:
- Idea sourcing: Talentech asked both employees and customers: “We’re doing something with AI. Do you have any ideas?” Responses flooded in, leading to a Trello board of possibilities.
- Filtering: The internal team scored ideas against the three pillars.
- Customer validation: Shortlisted ideas were tested with customers — would they use it? What risks and benefits did they see?
- Continuous involvement: Instead of the traditional “discover–build–pilot” sequence, Talentech merged phases. Customers saw Figma sketches, early prototypes, and ongoing updates.
This meant that when the Recruitment Co-Pilot launched in June 2024, the product already had:
- Committed, paying pilot customers.
- A pipeline of interested prospects.
- A market narrative positioning Talentech as the Nordic leader in AI-HR tech.
Dealing with skepticism
Enterprise clients in particular asked the tough questions: Can we switch it off? How do you manage bias? What about GDPR?
Malin’s legal background gave her an edge. She personally engaged with CISOs, legal teams, and compliance officers, not with vague reassurances but with documentation, forums, and transparency. The message was clear: “This is a co-build situation. We don’t claim to know all the answers, but we’re working with you to get them right.”
Managing internal expectations
Asking employees for ideas raised another challenge: disappointment if their ideas weren’t prioritized. The solution? Relentless communication. Talentech made sure contributors knew their ideas were heard, explained why certain directions were prioritized, and showed a roadmap of what might come next.
The results
- 250 paying customers within six months of launch.
- A recognized position as the AI-forward player in Nordic HR tech.
- An energized workforce, with employees turned into advocates.
What happens if you do this right
- You cut time-to-market dramatically by merging discovery and build.
- You win customer trust by designing compliance and transparency from the start.
- You claim the category narrative before competitors even launch.
Final takeaway
For SaaS scale-ups, Malin’s message is simple:
“If I can do it, the square-minded lawyer, then you can too.”
Don’t wait for the perfect AI hire. Don’t over-engineer the strategy. Start with what you have — your people, your data, your customers. Involve them from day one, and communicate your journey loudly.
Or as she put it: “You gotta name it to claim it. If you want that AI throne, go and take it.”
🎥 Listen to her full session at SaaSiest 2025 here
