In the rush to integrate AI, many SaaS companies are simply bolting on features, leading to clunky user experiences and technical debt. A truly durable advantage comes from rebuilding your product around AI as the core operating system. Our recent "AI for SaaS" workshop, led by Anand Arivukkarasu, provided a hands-on playbook for this transformation.

The feedback was clear: a structured, practical approach is what product leaders need to move from ambition to a shipped, scalable product. This method is excellent because it cuts through the noise, providing what one participant called "only the relevant elements and backbone to initiate product creation," giving founders and product leaders the conviction and clarity to build what’s next.

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“The best AI workshop we’ve ever attended.” 

Clear frameworks, real product acceleration, and immediate roadmap.

 — Svetlana, AI Founder, Helsinki

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“We left with validated concepts, experiments, and clarity on execution.”

 Worth 6 months of internal work.

 — Nora Haatainen, CTO, Tampere SaaS Startup

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The process is designed to be systematic and repeatable. It begins by reframing the entire problem space using the NMB (Needs, Market, Business) framework to ensure you’re solving a real, high-value problem. From there, the focus shifts to identifying where AI can create a 10x advantage, whether in user experience, data insights, or automation.

With a clear opportunity defined, the workshop guides participants through designing conversational and visual interfaces that replace traditional screens with intelligent, agent-driven interactions. Finally, it provides a model for architecting the AI layers—from signal to intelligence to learning—ensuring the solution is not just a feature, but a compounding asset that gets smarter over time.

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The results speak for themselves. The workshop wasn't just theoretical; it was a hands-on session where founders applied these frameworks to their own products and left with tangible outcomes. As one founder, Tero Lahtinen, put it, "Hands-on, I really did learn something and am actually now very convinced that the features we are planning are worth it."

Another, Pekka Lavila, highlighted the repeatability of the process: "Systematic exercise to make clear the unfair advantage and MVP of my product (what I can repeat with my team later)." The sentiment was echoed by many, including Veera Ekberg, who noted she "Learned more than in school over a month!" This is the kind of validation that turns an idea into a fundable, shippable product.

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The workshop was led by Anand Arivukkarasu, a seasoned product and growth leader whose experience is a perfect match for this challenge. Having driven product strategy at Facebook and Instagram and served as an advisor or investor in over 20 startups, Anand brings a rare blend of strategic vision and hands-on, product-building expertise. As the Chief Product Officer at Athyna and a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management, his approach is rooted in structured discovery and creating frameworks that transform ambitious ideas into products that scale, making him an invaluable guide for any SaaS leader navigating the shift to an AI-native world.

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