AI Agents Podcast AI's Future Unlocked — Peter Grimvall, Ekona AI CEO | EP116
Jan 13, 2026
In this engaging discussion, Peter Grimvall, the Co-founder and CEO of Ekona AI, shares his journey from AI initiatives at IKEA to leading a company focused on automating complex workflows in regulated industries like pharma and finance. He highlights the importance of AI in streamlining compliance and operational agility. Peter also delves into the evolution of AI models, the significance of multi-agent systems, and the delicate balance between job creation and displacement. With practical insights, he emphasizes how companies can leverage AI for transformational automation.
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How A Tesla Sparked An AI Career
- Peter Grimvall started AI after buying a Tesla and studying at MIT, then launched IKEA's first AI team to predict future sales.
- He used internal deployment at IKEA to both develop models and immediately benefit from them without external stakeholders.
Be AI-First And Ship Fast
- Build AI-first products now because modern tooling lets small teams ship full stacks quickly.
- Leverage domain expertise to design front ends without heavy translation overhead from large engineering teams.
Regulation Shapes AI Product Fit
- Ekona focuses on regulated industries because they require both solutions and rigorous governance.
- They combine traditional ML forecasting with GenAI and agentic workflows for hybrid use cases.