Mika Mikkola joins Zennius straight from the heart of Zendesk
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Article summary
Mika Mikkola joins Zennius as Lead AI Consultant and partner, coming straight from Zendesk where he spent nearly six years working on AI agents — first at Ultimate and then at Zendesk after the acquisition. The move deepens Zennius's AI expertise and gives customers access to enterprise-grade AI rollout experience across channels and markets.
Mika Mikkola moves from Zendesk to Zennius
Mika Mikkola is joining Zennius as Lead AI Consultant and partner, coming straight from Zendesk where he has spent nearly six years working with AI agents. Mika starts on 1 July 2026.
In this article we look at who Mika is, why he decided to leave a global organisation for a small Nordic partner, and what it means for Zennius's customers.
Who is Mika?
Mika's career with AI agents began at Ultimate in 2020 — a Helsinki-born chatbot company where he worked with enterprise brands such as Finnair, Posti and Zalando.
Zendesk acquired Ultimate in 2024, and the deal brought Mika into Zendesk. Over the past couple of years he has served enterprise customers as a Senior AI Success Specialist — acting as a strategic partner on all things AI — and most recently as a Senior AI Services Consultant, mentoring new hires and handling the most demanding customer cases.
All told, Mika has nearly six years of hands-on experience building and rolling out AI agents.
Before his AI career Mika spent several years in B2B SaaS sales and customer service, so his entire working life has revolved around helping customers succeed.
Why Zennius?
When you've spent nearly six years with AI agents inside one of the world's largest customer service platforms, you might expect the next step to be an even bigger organisation. For Mika it was the opposite.
In a large company there are many internal stakeholders, and your ability to influence the customer relationship end to end is limited. Mika wanted more opportunity — and with it, more responsibility for the customer's full journey with Zendesk.
That was the thought that made the decision easy in the end. Zennius isn't big yet, but it's building something that doesn't exist in the Nordics today: a truly AI-first Zendesk partner. As a co-owner, Mika gets to shape what's built and how, rather than watching from the sidelines.
What does this mean for Zennius's customers?
Mika's arrival means three concrete things:
Deeper Zendesk AI expertise. Mika knows how AI agents, Integration Builder, Copilot and the rest are designed to work — not just from the documentation, but because he has been hands-on deploying them for customers.
Complex multi-channel rollouts. Zennius's customers can now tap into more ambitious AI deployments across every channel. When the need calls for it, Mika can deliver a global rollout spanning multiple countries and brands as part of a single AI implementation.
A strategic partner, not just a technical resource. Mika has served as an advisor to enterprise customers, not only as a hands-on implementer. Customers get a consultant who understands the business context just as well as the technical detail.
Quick-fire questions with Mika
We sat Mika down in front of the camera and asked eight rapid questions. Here are his answers:
Who are you? Mika Mikkola.
Your role at Zennius?
Lead AI Consultant and partner. I'll be right there in the trenches doing AI rollouts together with customers.
Where are you coming from?
Straight from the heart of Zendesk and Ultimate.ai. Zendesk acquired Ultimate a couple of years ago, and practically all of Zendesk's AI agent products have been built on top of it. I've been working on those products for close to six years.
Why Zennius?
An incredibly talented team that's a joy to work with. The Nordics are essentially missing a proper AI-first Zendesk partner, and that's exactly what we're building. And of course, as a co-owner you get to shape your own work and take ownership of the whole picture.
The biggest mistake companies make with AI rollouts?
It's a two-part thing. First is mindset — assuming everything works automatically out of the box. Second is the knowledge base you feed the AI. It needs to be in great shape, and more often than not, it isn't.
What do you bring to Zennius?
Dry humour and seriously good AI agent expertise.
Your signature dish?
Chicken and rice. It's also how I found my wife.
A message for customers?
Summer greetings! Enjoy the sunshine, and drop us a line if AI is on your mind.
Want to discuss Zendesk AI solutions?
If AI in customer service interests you, book a short chat from our calendar or reach out to Mika directly: mika.mikkola@zennius.fi.
