25/05/2026
AI reshapes Nordic labour markets – but human expertise remains key /
AI omformar de nordiska arbetsmarknaderna – men mänsklig expertis är fortfarande avgörande 💫
The Hanken Insights event on 20 May 2026 invited experts to discuss the current state of the Nordic labour market and how it is shaped and impacted by technological and structural change.
✅ A key takeaway was that human expertise will remain essential, but agility in learning is critical for success in a rapidly changing labour market.
In his speech, Juhana Vartiainen, professor of practice at Hanken, outlined how AI may reshape labour markets and challenge Nordic institutions. Vartiainen described AI as comparable to countries starting to trade with a country specialised in automation. This will in principle lead to increases in both productivity and living standards.
“The firms that will succeed best at this will be the ones that are quite bold in reorganising their activities and ruthlessly streamlining their production processes.”
While Vartiainen’s focus was on the macro level, Sofia Bougt-Hernnäs, assistant professor of economics at Hanken, showed how AI is already reshaping skills and work at the individual level. She noted that automation has led to around 140,000 routine jobs disappearing in Finland between 2000 and 2014. The new thing is that AI breaks the boundaries of what can be automated.
“AI can listen and analyse workers’ behaviour and then statistically model what step should follow to mimic the workers’ behaviour. Anything that workers do become training data that they can work on”.
👉 A panel discussion was held on topics such as how to bridge the experience gap and how to ensure AI literacy in the future:
Lari Hintsanen, CEO of Deloitte Finland
Lotta Vuoristo people officer at RELEX Solutions
Mika Gabrielsson, dean of education at Hanken
PJ McCoy, master’s student at Hanken
💡 This is a summary, read more here: https://www.hanken.fi/en/news/ai-reshapes-nordic-labour-markets-human-expertise-remains-key
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Evenemanget Hanken Insights den 20 maj 2026 samlade experter för att diskutera det aktuella läget på den nordiska arbetsmarknaden och hur den formas och påverkas av teknologiska och strukturella förändringar.
I sin presentation beskrev Juhana Vartiainen, arbetslivsprofessor vid Hanken, hur AI kan omforma arbetsmarknaden och utmana nordiska institutioner. Vartiainen jämför AI med att alla länder börjar idka handel med ett land som är specialiserat på automatisering. I början leder det till ökad produktivitet och högre levnadsstandard.
Medan Vartiainens fokus låg på makronivå, visade Sofia Bougt-Hernnäs, biträdande professor i nationalekonomi vid Hanken, hur AI redan omformar kompetenser och arbete på individnivå.
💡 Det här är en sammanfattning, läs mer här: https://www.hanken.fi/sv/news/ai-omformar-de-nordiska-arbetsmarknaderna-men-mansklig-expertis-ar-fortfarande-avgorande