A very human route into artificial intelligence.
How Susanna Jääskeläinen and Emmi Sainio turned an idea about human connection into Persona.
Persona did not begin with AI avatars, a perfectly calculated business model or a plan to enter one of the world's fastest-moving industries. It began with a question: could the messages we want to leave behind continue to reach the people we love after we are gone?
Susanna Jääskeläinen had been developing the idea for around a year. The original concept was called Afterlife, a service that would allow people to prepare personal messages, videos and postcards to be delivered to their loved ones in the future.
Then she met Emmi Sainio.
Susanna and Emmi were working at the same IT company when they met. They immediately hit it off, which is not always what happens when two strong-minded people meet at work. One day, Susanna asked Emmi to lunch. During that lunch, she explained the Afterlife idea and asked: “Would you like to do this with me?” Emmi said yes.
Apparently, some people use lunch breaks to eat. Others accidentally start companies.
There was no lengthy founder-matching process. Susanna had the original idea, Emmi saw its potential, and both recognised that they could build something meaningful together. Susanna became founder and CEO, with Emmi joining as co-founder and taking responsibility for the company's brand, marketing and creative direction as CMO.
Together, they began developing Afterlife around memories, messages and the human need to remain connected
Then someone asked the right question
Persona's next chapter began through a series of coincidences and one conversation that changed the direction of the company. Someone asked Susanna and Emmi whether they had ever considered creating AI avatars.
Initially, the idea fit naturally within Afterlife. Instead of leaving behind only scheduled messages, an avatar could preserve knowledge, stories and elements of a person's character in a form people could interact with.
Then came the bigger realisation: why limit this technology to the afterlife?
AI avatars could allow people to speak with public figures, experts, entertainers and trusted personalities while they were very much alive. Instead of watching another video, scrolling past another post or digging through yet another FAQ page, people could simply ask. That was the moment the idea became larger than its original theme.
In 2025, Afterlife became Persona Entertainment.
The name changed. The technology evolved. The paperwork increased considerably.
AI avatars, without the identity theft
By the time Persona entered the AI avatar market, one thing was already clear: the technology had moved faster than the common sense surrounding it. Faces and voices could be copied without permission. Identities could be turned into content by almost anyone. The general mood seemed to be “build first, ask later”, assuming anyone remembered to ask at all.
Persona decided to do things differently.
Every official Persona avatar is created in cooperation with the person it represents or with the appropriate rights holders. Consent is not a decorative line in the terms and conditions. It is the starting point.
Persona does not create deepfakes or try to convince people that AI-generated content is real. We build clearly identified AI avatars that can interact in real time, remember conversations and communicate in more than 100 languages.
For Susanna and Emmi, what an avatar can do has always mattered more than how convincingly it can imitate someone. The purpose is not to manufacture another piece of passive content. It is to create access, interaction and conversations that were not possible before.
From messages for later to conversations happening now
Today, Persona is no longer primarily a legacy service. The company creates conversational AI avatars for entertainment, learning, expertise, public engagement and business. Some Persona avatars represent people who are no longer with us, but the larger mission is about something broader: helping people and organisations turn knowledge, stories and personality into genuine interaction.
What began as an idea about messages sent into the future has become a platform for conversations happening right now.
Persona began with two people, one lunch and an idea that looked far into the future. Since then, the team has grown, and the story is no longer just about two people. Soon, we'll introduce you to the rest of the people behind Persona.
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