AI will change Finnish working life significantly in the coming years. It is important to talk about this change from the perspective of people and the organisation, as much of the discussion so far focuses on the opportunities brought by technology rather than on what kind of ability and need organisations have to seize them.
Forecasts vary, but the common message is clear: technology is changing the content of work and the role of people. Estimates of how large a share of current job descriptions AI will significantly change range between approximately 50 and 75 per cent, depending on the time horizon examined1,2. However, this is not just a technological change, but a question of how it is led from the perspective of people, competences, operating models and culture. In order to lead change, one must first understand what it concretely looks like in the organisation: which roles, competences and ways of working change, and how.
In September 2026, we at AIRI Works analysed 1,219 job advertisements at the 89 largest Nordic companies3. AI-related requirements appeared in 14 per cent of the advertisements, but in only 5 per cent were they described as concrete competences that can genuinely be assessed or developed. Demand was strongly concentrated in technical roles, while other functions as well as supervisor and management roles received little attention. The results raise an essential question: how far have companies succeeded in turning their AI goals into the competences, roles and leadership capabilities needed to renew work? When this is viewed in relation to the scale of the change, it is clear that the organisation of the future is worth planning carefully: what kind of roles will we have in five years’ time, and what competences will they require.
AI-related competence is too often reduced to technical capabilities. Equally important, however, are competences related to creating value and business change, as well as essential human skills: creativity, empathy, problem-solving ability, capacity for change and the ability to work in multidisciplinary teams. These are precisely the skills that are easily overshadowed in the AI discussion.
In the use of AI, we are moving beyond the phase in which it is seen above all as a means of increasing efficiency: attention is shifting more strongly to its potential to create new kinds of value and deepen customer relationships. However, creating new business and innovations is a good example of tasks that cannot be outsourced to language models: AI speeds up ideation and analyses volumes of data more efficiently. It does not, however, remove the need for human judgement or for identifying bottlenecks related to organisational structures, nor does it decide which weak signals are worth seizing or what is genuinely worth pursuing4.
The discussion about how AI destroys jobs often focuses on specific professions or roles. In reality, job descriptions themselves are changing: part of the work is automated, but new tasks and responsibilities take its place. Not everything needs to be predicted precisely, but a competitive organisation renews work and roles before change forces it to. A responsible employer helps build new competence. What is decisive is not only the ability to adapt to change, but the ability to take its direction into one’s own hands.
Part 2 of the series: Culture automates what technology cannot
Sources
- Emerson, G., Kropp, M., Bedard, J., Krayer, L., Romanov, V., Hsu, M., Sanchez Boedo, L. & Mohnot, D. (2026). AI Will Reshape More Jobs Than It Replaces. Boston Consulting Group, 31.3.2026.
- Durth, S., Goran, J., Krivkovich, A., Schrader, U. & Seiler, C. (2025). Six shifts to build the agentic organization of the future. McKinsey & Company, 27.10.2025.
- AIRI Works (2026). Nordic AI Job Benchmark, September 2026 edition.
- De Freitas, J., Israeli, A., Nave, G., Timoshenko, A. & Toubia, O. (2026). Research: The Innovation Problems AI Can’t Solve. Harvard Business Review, 14.8.2026.
