Vend appoints Fredrika Ling and Niklas Derouche to lead independent AI innovation unit

The unit will operate independently of existing product roadmaps to allow for faster, more radical innovation. The goal is to develop entirely new AI-native solutions and user journeys. ‘

“Radical innovation is often hindered by legacy systems and existing roadmaps. We want to move beyond incremental improvements and completely rethink how people interact with marketplaces. To do that, we need a small, highly agile setup that measures success strictly by user adoption and user satisfaction,” says Christian Printzell Halvorsen, CEO at Vend.

Fredrika Ling, previously Principal Designer at Vend, brings over 20 years of experience building software focused on human-centric design. Niklas Derouche, a fellow senior technology leader at Vend, combines technical expertise with an impressive track record from his background as a serial entrepreneur.

"We are building a small, highly agile team to build entirely new AI-native experiences, in our journey towards making smart choices easier across our marketplaces. Fredrika and Niklas represent the perfect balance of entrepreneurial experience and technical execution. I am certain that their combined unique expertise and skill sets will enable Vend to innovate at the frontier of our industry," Printzell Halvorssen comments. 

"To me, it is never about applying technology for its own sake, but about creating tools that make sense in everyday life," says Fredrika Ling, "The new AI unit gives us the mandate to completely rethink how people interact with marketplaces, and how we can instill further use and impact into that interaction."

The AI unit will measure its success strictly by user adoption and user satisfaction, with the ambition of eventually integrating successful concepts back into Vend's core platform and marketplaces across the Nordics.

"Ideas are everywhere, but execution is everything. We are here to build, test, and figure out what actually works for our users in real environments,” adds Niklas Derouche.