Niilo Säämänen on Building Wolt Grade Technology at Scale: Leveraging Configurability, Logistics Tech, and Generative AI for Rapid Expansion

In this episode, we sit down with Niilo Säämänen, CTO at Wolt.com, and Kirsi Louhelainen from AWS to discuss how Wolt has scaled from a mobile innovation idea to a global delivery giant operating in 31 countries. Niilo shares how Wolt’s focus on building "Wolt grade" products drives their success, emphasizing technical excellence, customer obsession, and engineering craftsmanship. The conversation covers the importance of configurability to support rapid expansion, the challenges of rebuilding their logistics stack, and balancing global standardization with local adaptation. They also explore how Wolt leverages AWS technology, including Kubernetes and Bedrock, to support innovation and scalability. Niilo shares leadership insights, such as fostering high ownership teams, learning from failures, and balancing quantitative data with team feedback. Looking ahead, they discuss the impact of Generative AI on logistics and customer interaction, highlighting Wolt's experimental approach to integrating new technologies.