Written by: Jonas Weckström, Veen & Co.

In recent months, bold claims have been circulating on LinkedIn stating that “HR will die by 2030” or that “50–60% of HR tasks will disappear within two years.” In Finland, we don't have very many mega-corporations; instead, we have a vast number of companies with just 1–3 HR professionals. That's why these claims sound so dramatic to someone like me from Sipoo.

When you look at the data, the picture changes. And when you look at it from the perspective of a Finnish SME, the picture changes even more.

Here is my honest opinion on what the HR transformation really means for companies employing 50–300 people—precisely the ones that form the core of Finland's business landscape.

HR is not dying.

When large corporations like IBM automate massive amounts of HR routines (IBM’s AskHR automates 94% of routine tasks), it’s easy to feel like HR is disappearing entirely.

At the same time, these large global enterprises employ thousands of HR staff in total—which is as many people as a large Finnish company employs overall...

EY’s CHRO2030 analysis, where 85% of leaders view strategic HR as a critical success factor over the next five years, tells the exact opposite story: the importance of HR is growing, not shrinking.

HR is not dying; it is evolving. The direction is toward a more strategic and human-centric approach, not a more administrative or smaller one.

What about SMEs and HR?

In Finland, HR usually only enters the picture "for real" once staff headcount exceeds 50. In SMEs, the HR team typically consists of 1 to 3 people.

So, are these big corporate examples useful for us smaller players?

The advantage of an SME is agility: as routines become automated, a single HR professional can accomplish what previously required a team of 2 to 4 people. This also means that in a small organization, we can leap up the levels of the HR maturity curve much faster. (HR maturity is in my top 3 favorite topics, but more on that in another blog post.)

When large companies automate payroll administration, vacation requests, documentation, and onboarding, these exact same solutions quickly trickle down to the SME sector as SaaS services.

And this is where something important happens: For the first time, an SME gets enterprise-grade HR capabilities without the enterprise price tag!

What does this mean for leaders in SMEs?

• 1) Administrative HR work vanishes, but the need for HR does not: Routines shift to AI—this is great news for SMEs. Less manual labor $\rightarrow$ more time for what actually matters.
• 2) HR becomes a strategic partner for growth and culture: When HR doesn't have to spend time "putting out administrative fires," it finally has time for things it previously couldn't prioritize: developing leadership, building culture, supporting management in organizational design, and conducting actual people analytics (not just reporting).
• 3) The SME HR role becomes "multidisciplinary" (without growing in headcount): Large enterprises are creating specialized roles such as People Analytics Engineer, Organizational Network Analyst, and AI Workforce Integration Specialist. In SMEs, these won't become separate hires; they will merge into the existing HR role.
  • AI handles the analytics; HR provides the interpretation.
  • AI identifies the networks; HR understands the people.
  • AI produces the signals; HR creates the actions, and so on...

Why is this shift such a huge opportunity for SMEs?

Because SMEs are rarely "overstaffed" in HR. Most don't have a data analyst, an organizational developer, a learning and culture specialist, or an in-house HR tech expert.

However, between 2026 and 2030, SMEs will gain these capabilities through AI without needing to hire for those individual roles. This makes SMEs relative winners in the HR technology disruption.

How do we free HR for the tasks where humans excel?

• Building culture.
• Developing leadership and supervisory work.
• Managing people.
• Enabling growth.

AI takes away HR's routines. But people are what make HR strategic.

In between lies all the space where SMEs will win over the next decade.

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