Artificial Intelligence - Curiosities from Estonia

2019-04-04

Artificial intelligence in Estonia? When I read an article on Wired titled “Can AI Be a Fair Judge in Court? Estonia Thinks So,” I thought “Aha!” Just a few weeks earlier, I had been talking with my law firm’s attorney about building AI tools for the legal industry.

Estonia has long been one of the most digitally advanced countries in Europe. The examples from the Wired article show just how far ahead they are.

An AI judge

This one caught my attention immediately. Estonia’s Ministry of Justice started building an AI system to settle disputes worth up to 7,000 euros. The reason is straightforward: courts can’t keep up with the caseload. Both parties would upload their documents, the system would issue a ruling, and if either side disagreed, they could still appeal to a human judge. Simple, practical, and honestly kind of brilliant.

AI monitoring farmers

Farmers in Estonia get subsidies for hay mowing. And where there are subsidies, there are inspections. But here’s the thing: the inspections aren’t done by humans. A satellite photographs the fields, and an algorithm analyzes the image pixel by pixel to determine whether the mowing actually happened. Humans only step in for borderline cases, like when cattle grazing has muddled part of the image. On top of that, two weeks before the mowing deadline, the system automatically texts or emails farmers with satellite photos of their fields and a reminder. That’s a genuinely smart use of automation.

Recruitment system (ATS)

This third example hits close to home for us, since it’s directly related to what we’re building in the recruitment system (ATS) Element. Estonia built a CV analysis system for people who lost their jobs. It matches individual profiles to specific job offers, which is exactly the process we’re working on in the Element recruitment system.

And the results speak for themselves: 72% of people who found new jobs through the AI system were still employed after 6 months, compared to just 58% for those who went through traditional methods. That’s a significant gap. So is this the future of employment offices? Of HR in general?

I wrote more about this in “On Automation and Dehumanization of Recruitment Processes.” My take: yes, absolutely. I have no doubts about the direction. That said, I don’t think we’ll see fully autonomous recruitment anytime soon. Modern recruitment systems (ATS) are getting more ambitious with AI, but we’re still a long way from algorithms running the whole process on their own. What matters is recognizing where this is headed. Estonia is proof that the shift is already underway.