UKG & ServiceNow to integrate AI for seamless HR & payroll

UKG has announced a partnership with ServiceNow to integrate their respective AI technologies in a move intended to streamline HR, payroll, and workforce management processes across multiple industries.

The collaboration involves bringing together UKG's AI, powered by its People Fabric, with ServiceNow's AI Agent Fabric. According to the companies, this combination will enable both common and complex workforce tasks—such as payroll queries, scheduling, and onboarding—to be executed more seamlessly, automating workflow and reducing administrative burdens for employees.

The two companies believe that by deploying agentic AI, they can improve not only operational efficiency but also the overall employee experience. According to the Josh Bersin Company, preliminary indications suggest that AI focused on enhancing current jobs can provide between 15% to 50% increases in productivity. Their research further indicates that utilising AI agents for both common and complex job functions may result in productivity improvements exceeding 300%.

ServiceNow and UKG aim to help employees shift their attention towards higher-value tasks, reducing the time spent on repetitive administrative work. This approach is intended to benefit industries such as retail, healthcare, and manufacturing, where the collaboration aims to optimise tasks like scheduling, time management, and procurement forecasting by leveraging data-driven insights.

Bill McDermott, Chairman and CEO of ServiceNow, commented: "ServiceNow and UKG put people at the heart of every innovation, to create breakthrough experiences in a new era of human-AI collaboration. AI is transforming how businesses operate, adapt faster to change, and deliver value. Together, we're making sure that every employee, every customer, every company can put AI to work for people."

Jennifer Morgan, CEO at UKG, added: "By integrating UKG and ServiceNow's AI agents into a single, seamless platform, we're making it possible for our customers to focus on what matters most - purpose, progress, and impact. When we make work more productive and more efficient for all employees, we help unlock their full potential so that businesses can thrive, from the front office to the frontline."

The companies highlight the role of this integration in delivering improvements throughout the full lifespan of an employee's interaction with workplace systems. Key employee moments—including onboarding, job changes, leave of absence, and time-off requests—can now be managed through a single experience powered by interconnected AI agents. The intention is to automate and complete complex, multi-system workflows for staff, thereby reducing friction and delays.

Modernising payroll is another key focus of the partnership. Both companies acknowledge the difficulties faced by payroll teams working with manual methods, disconnected systems, and navigating frequent updates to tax laws and wage mandates in different jurisdictions. The AI-driven solutions are designed to supply employees with real-time responses to their payroll inquiries and allow payroll professionals to prioritise strategic projects over day-to-day troubleshooting.

The collaboration further aims to address industry-specific needs, with the potential to enhance operations for frontline workers. Through AI-powered scheduling, absence and time management, and forecasting tools, companies in sectors such as retail and manufacturing could receive recommendations based on historical patterns and possible future scenarios. For example, predictive tools may help manage sourcing and procurement, considering disruptions like manufacturing slowdowns or supply chain interruptions.

Josh Bersin, Founder and CEO at the Josh Bersin Company, said: "ServiceNow and UKG each have deep experience building transformative solutions that drive employee outcomes. This level of strategic partnership, developing agent-to-agent orchestration, gives organisations of all sizes a seamless and integrated way to deploy and leverage AI for scale, employee productivity, and growth."

UKG and ServiceNow emphasise their focus on putting people at the centre of the workplace technology experience and their intention to help organisations across all sectors improve employee engagement, efficiency, and productivity with new AI-first capabilities.