AI’s Big Leap in HR: From Benefits to Workflows

Welcome Back, Future of Work By HR Stacks!

We cut through the noise to bring you the most important updates in HR Tech, AI, and the changing world of work. From new AI colleagues clocking in to shifts in workforce strategy, here’s what you need to know this week.

If you haven’t yet, subscribe to the weekly HR Stacks newsletter and keep us in your primary inbox.

In Today’s Edition:

• Survey Reveals: 90% of Leaders Confident in Its Use

• Paylocity: Turns Questions Into Instant HR Action

• Critical Thinking: The Skill AI Can Never Replace

• The Human Edge: Why HR Skills Are Still Vital in the AI Era

• DianaHR: Raises $3.7M Seed to Revolutionize HR

• Transforming HR: Skill Matching Automation That Ensures Transparency

Paylocity’s New AI Assistant: HR Answers at Your Fingertips

Paylocity’s next-generation AI Assistant converts natural-language questions into direct actions inside its ONE platform, so employees get live PTO balances, managers see open headcount, and approvers retrieve location-specific expense limits with a single prompt and a link to act.

Every response is tied back to official records, policies, or data sources to ensure accuracy and appropriate access; the assistant handled more than 1.2 million queries last year, and AI usage has more than doubled year-over-year.

By removing menu navigation and turning answers into workflows, Paylocity aims to cut repetitive HR tasks, speed decisions, and free teams to focus on strategy rather than admin.

Key Takeaways:

• Instant Action: Ask a question and get an answer plus a one-click path to perform the task.

• Source-linked Trust: Every reply references official data or policy so users can verify accuracy.

• Proven Adoption: >1.2M queries served; AI feature usage doubling YoY.

• Real Use Cases: PTO checks, headcount views, and expense approvals are native and contextual.

More on: Paylocity

Transcarent Survey: HR Leaders Prioritize AI for Health and Benefits

A recent survey by Transcarent, conducted in partnership with SurveyMonkey, indicates that artificial intelligence (AI) has become a strategic imperative for human resources (HR) leaders.

The study, titled "AI That Delivers: HR Leaders on Health, Trust, and Better Benefits," surveyed 1,340 HR and benefits decision-makers at large, self-funded U.S. employers.

Key findings include:

• High Familiarity and Positive Outlook: 98% of HR leaders are familiar with AI, and over 90% have a positive outlook on its use.

• Widespread Adoption: 77% of users are currently utilizing productivity tools like ChatGPT.

• Top Barriers: 57% report limited internal expertise, 60% worry about data privacy and security, and 40% cite budget/resource constraints.

Despite these challenges, more than 46% of organizations using AI in benefits administration report significant improvements, including increased wellness engagement and reduced employee absenteeism.

The report outlines strategies to help HR leaders harness AI effectively in health, wellness, and benefits, emphasizing the importance of responsible AI experiences.

Transcarent's WayFinding solution, a HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST-certified platform, is designed to alleviate administrative burdens and ease compliance challenges, helping HR leaders prioritize partners who invest in robust privacy controls, bias prevention, and security to garner trust among users.

This survey underscores the growing role of AI in HR, highlighting both the potential benefits and the challenges that organizations face in its implementation.

More On: Business Wire

1. Building a Culture of Critical Thinking in the AI Era.

The article argues that while AI tools accelerate productivity and generate drafts or insights, they cannot replace human judgment, especially in HR. Critical thinking is essential because many employees use AI outputs without verification, leading to ethical, accuracy, and cultural risks. Read More

What for HR Leaders: HR leaders must foster a culture of “human-in-the-loop,” train staff in AI evaluation, and emphasize accountability.

2. Leading AI Responsibly: How HR Can Set the Standard.

AI is transforming traditional HR tasks, but human skills like empathy, cultural sensitivity, ethics, conflict resolution, and strategic thinking remain critical. HR professionals should guide responsible AI use, audit biases, preserve values, and shift from administrative tasks to shaping culture, talent, and strategy. Read More

What for HR Leaders: Prioritize deep human-centered skills, adopt ethical AI governance, and focus influence on strategic planning, workforce development, and culture.

3. DianaHR: Automating SMB HR Tasks via AI and a $3.7M Boost.

DianaHR is an AI-powered HR-as-a-Service platform for SMBs, combining automated back-office and payroll tasks with human specialists. It integrates with tools like ADP, Gusto, and Rippling. The service cuts routine HR overhead by ~60%, has NPS above 90%, and zero churn so far. Read More

What for HR Leaders: HR leaders gain efficiency and cost savings: automate low-value tasks, maintain human judgment where needed, while freeing up team bandwidth. Ideal for scaling without ballooning headcount or replacing existing HR systems.

4. msg & Amazon Bedrock: Redefining Skill Matching With 95% Accuracy.

Msg’s integration of Amazon Bedrock into its msg.ProfileMap automatically harmonises HR data across resumes, job descriptions, and skill inventories using LLMs like Claude and Llama. It achieves about 95% accuracy in skill matching and cuts manual processing time by roughly 70%, while embedding privacy and bias guardrails under GDPR. Read More

What for HR Leaders: Provides HR leaders fast, reliable skill matching, streamlined workflows, and increased transparency, freeing teams from tedious manual data work..

2025 Gig Economy & Freelance Work Statistics (Global Report): More at HR Stacks