This month’s newsletter brings together two storylines that don’t seem connected at first. The first is that six of the world’s largest HCM vendors have launched agent platforms in production within a single month. Workday, SAP, ServiceNow, Oracle, Salesforce and Cornerstone - all with AI agents that actually perform HR tasks. The second is that a Nordic survey from Hailey HR shows that only 28 percent of HR functions have the job role and level structure required to use them.
The column explores what happens when the agent explosion meets the data shortage, and why we can’t afford to wait until the autumn.
Also: three reports together showing that nearly half of the workforce use personal AI tools at work, outside company governance. A KPMG study where 1 120 executives measure their own organisations’ ability to lead change, and a GoTo survey showing that AI saves 2.3 hours per day while quality control takes 2.6. Plus acquisition news from Verdane and Learnster and agent launches from several Nordic players.
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In April I wrote that the AI question has shifted. From “should we start?” to “how do we build an organisation that can benefit from the technology?”. May has given us a first answer - at least from the global vendors.
In four weeks, six of the largest HCM vendors have gone from demos and press releases to finished products in production.
The platforms are in place. The agents are in place. The MCP protocol that ties them together exists. Johannes Sundlo has written this month’s best Nordic explainer on why HR needs to understand how MCP works: https://www.fullstackhr.io/p/connectors-and-mcp-explained-for
Hailey HR published a survey of more than 260 Nordic HR professionals. Only 28 percent have a comprehensive and up-to-date job role and level structure in their organisation.
That structure is a prerequisite for two things: objective job evaluation under the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which the European Commission confirmed this month will be implemented as planned, and agentic AI. Cornerstone’s “People Graph” and Workday’s equivalents rely on the HR system knowing which roles exist and what they are expected to do. Without that data, an agent cannot suggest salary bands or assess internal mobility in any useful way.
72 percent of Nordic HR functions therefore lack the foundation. It is the same invisible wall I wrote about in March - the one that prevents organisations from moving from operational to data-mature levels.
The European Commission also published the long-awaited draft guidelines for high-risk AI under the EU AI Act. They confirm that AI for recruitment, ranking and performance management is high-risk, while administrative support such as scheduling falls into lower-risk categories. The compliance deadline for standalone high-risk systems has been pushed to December 2027 - but the Pay Transparency Directive has not been postponed. That deadline still applies in June 2026.
GoTo and Workplace Intelligence presented data that deserves more attention than it gets. AI tools save employees on average 2.3 hours per day. The same employees spend 2.6 hours each day reviewing and correcting AI output that doesn’t meet standards. Net productivity is currently negative.
Researchers call it productivity wash - an illusion of efficiency where time merely shifts from execution to review. The question of who owns AI training and governance lands clearly in HR’s lap. That’s exactly where the Nordic model can be a strength. We have the trust capital and the tradition of participation needed to upskill broadly and quickly. But then we have to start calling it what it is. Not a training initiative, but a transformation of how work is performed and assessed.
KPMG released a global study of 1 120 executives measuring organisational proactivity - that is, how well a company can detect trends, prepare and lead change rather than getting stuck in acute problems. The average proactivity score is 12.5 out of 100. Proactive organisations show 4.4 times higher shareholder returns and three times higher revenue growth compared with reactive ones. The conclusion is uncomfortable but relevant. Most HR functions are stuck in operational firefighting - and these are the very functions now expected to lead one of the decade’s biggest organisational transformations.
The World Economic Forum wrote about the “rise of judgement work”. The ability to make well-grounded decisions in ambiguous situations becomes scarce when AI takes over the predictive. NBER warns in parallel that younger employees risk missing out on learning when entry-level tasks are automated away. Gartner predicts net job growth from 2028 - but stresses that the transition is already under way. 40 percent of organisations have already eliminated roles because of AI.
This is HR’s most underreported strategic question of 2026. How do we redesign career paths when the first steps on the competence ladder disappear?
In April I wrote: “Stop chasing AI tools.”
In May, it’s about something else: data quality and role structure.
The Pay Transparency Directive and agentic AI are built on the same foundation: clear roles, structured data and a shared understanding of work.
A quick reminder: the Sapient Insights HR Systems Survey is one of the most important independent studies in the HR Tech industry and is now running for the 29th year.
Nordic organisations remain underrepresented in the results. If you work with HR systems or HR processes, I hope you’ll consider participating.
💜 Your contribution helps ensure a stronger Nordic voice in the global HR Tech conversation.
➡️ Take the survey here (deadline 24 June)
Are you an HR systems vendor interested in distributing the survey? Feel free to get in touch
Grouped into four areas: Nordic product news, M&A, research and reports, and global product launches.
Teamtailor released a new feature in its AI copilot that lets HR and recruitment teams create custom analytics reports just by writing in plain text. “Show a bar chart of new hires per department this quarter” is enough - the report is generated without manual configuration.
👉 https://www.teamtailor.com/en/productnews/build-custom-reports-using-ai/
The Nordic private equity firm Verdane has raised EUR 635 million for a new fund. Instead of selling on, Verdane chose to retain three of its portfolio companies - among them Norwegian Talentech, a platform for recruitment and talent management used by large Nordic employers. Coller Capital is the main investor in the fund.
👉 https://verdane.com/verdane-closes-635-million-continuation-vehicle/
Swedish LMS vendor Learnster announced the acquisition of Learnify Tools. The deal expands the platform’s capabilities within corporate learning and L&D, and continues the consolidation in the Nordic learning tech segment.
👉 https://www.learnster.com/knowledge-bank/learnster-learnify-tools
Hailey HR published a survey of more than 260 Nordic HR professionals’ views on the EU Pay Transparency Directive. It came the same week as the European Commission confirmed that the directive is neither being renegotiated nor postponed. The headline finding: only 28 percent of respondents have a comprehensive and up-to-date role and level structure - the foundation for objective job evaluation under the directive.
👉 https://www.haileyhr.com/sv/event/loneworkshop-28-maj
A global Workday study shows that AI tools effectively reduce stress and burnout among employees. At the same time, human relationships and a sense of belonging at work weaken as more work is delegated to AI.
A global survey from GoTo and Workplace Intelligence shows that AI tools save employees 2.3 hours per day on average. At the same time they spend 2.6 hours daily reviewing and correcting AI output that doesn’t meet standards. Net productivity is negative. Lack of training and poor output quality are cited as the main causes.
👉 https://hrexecutive.com/is-ai-productivity-a-wash-plus-news-from-sap-hibob-and-more/
A global KPMG study of 1 120 executives measures organisational proactivity - how well they detect trends and prepare for change rather than getting stuck in acute problems. The average proactivity score is 12.5 out of 100. Proactive organisations show 4.4 times higher shareholder returns and three times higher revenue growth compared with reactive ones.
👉 https://hrexecutive.com/most-organizations-still-stuck-in-firefighting-mode-kpmg/
Gartner published a report predicting that AI will net create more jobs than it eliminates from 2028 onwards. Researchers emphasise that the transition is already underway - 40 percent of organisations in the study have already eliminated roles directly because of AI, and traditional career paths are breaking down as entry-level tasks are automated away.
Three reports published the same week paint a picture of Shadow AI - employees’ uncontrolled use of AI tools outside company governance. Verizon’s DBIR shows Shadow AI has tripled to 45 percent of the workforce in a year, with 67 percent of use happening via personal accounts. TrustedTech reveals that executive level is the most active user group, at 65 percent. DataGrail notes that 63.6 percent of AI vendors don’t disclose which subcontractors they use.
👉 https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/05/25/trustedtech-workplace-shadow-ai-use-report/
The European Commission published the draft guidelines for high-risk AI under the EU AI Act. Two messages are central for HR. The compliance deadline for standalone high-risk AI systems has been pushed from August 2026 to December 2027. And the Commission has clarified what counts as high-risk within HR: AI systems for recruitment, ranking and performance management are high-risk, while administrative support such as scheduling and document parsing falls into lower-risk categories. Consultation is open until 23 June. The Pay Transparency Directive, however, remains - deadline June 2026.
SAP presented a strategic repositioning under the Autonomous Enterprise brand at its annual Sapphire conference. At its core: a unified SAP Business AI Platform with Joule Studio for building AI agents, and more than 50 domain-specific Joule Assistants for HR, finance and supply chain. SAP also launched a EUR 100 million partner fund and deepened collaborations with Anthropic, Nvidia, Microsoft and Google Cloud.
👉 https://news.sap.com/2026/05/sap-successfactors-innovations-new-era-autonomous-hcm/
Workday reported a Q1 result of USD 2.54 billion with 13.5 percent revenue growth. The company also reported 4 000 customers actively using at least one AI agent - a doubling in a quarter - and that the AI Recruiting Agent processed 14 million recruitment cases. The same month it launched Adaptive Decision Intelligence, a feature that integrates planning, scenario modelling and decision-making in an AI-driven interface. Co-founder Aneel Bhusri has returned as CEO.
ServiceNow presented a suite of autonomous HR functions at its annual Knowledge 2026 conference. At the centre: Otto, an AI agent for employees that handles HR processes without human intervention, plus Action Fabric - a governance layer for all AI agents in the company. Josh Bersin described it as ServiceNow’s most important launch in years.
Salesforce opened registration for a webcast on how the company has used its new Agentforce HR Service internally. The launch makes Salesforce the sixth major HCM player to roll out an agentic AI platform - after Workday, SAP, Oracle, ServiceNow and Microsoft.
👉 https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/agentforce-hr-service-announcement/
Cornerstone OnDemand launched Cornerstone Workforce AI - a new agent-based platform built around a so-called People Graph that aggregates data from multiple HR systems. The tool includes Readiness Agents with personalised development plans and marks a clear shift away from traditional SCORM-based LMS solutions. Josh Bersin describes it as a redefinition of the corporate learning market.
Ryan Breslow, CEO of fintech company Bolt, defended at Fortune’s Workforce Innovation Summit the decision to fully dismantle the company’s HR department in favour of a small “people operations” team. At the same time the company has cut its total workforce by 30 percent and removed benefits such as the four-day week. The decision has sparked an intense debate about HR’s role in fast-growing tech companies.
👉 https://hrexecutive.com/hr-is-the-wrong-energy-bolt-ceo-defends-eliminating-the-entire-department/
The newsletter covers developments in the HR Tech market and explores how digitalisation, AI and innovation are shaping the future of HR and business.
About me, the author
My name is Anna Carlsson and I'm a strategic advisor and HR Tech analyst. I help HR and management make better decisions around HR Tech, AI, and digitalization – through strategies that are clear, sustainable over time, and implementable. My work ranges from one-hour advisory sessions to larger projects, supporting organisations from initial assessment through to implementation and results.
I run HR Digi, which supports HR practitioners and HR Tech companies to navigate, understand, and lead in a digital age. And it's not always a big change that's needed – sometimes it's enough to clarify, prioritize, and communicate strategically to achieve success.
Read more at hrdigi.se or Book a virtual coffee with me.
Also a proud member of the group Top 100 HR Tech Influencers globally 2024 & 2025 🙏
