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Time of India
30-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
This GCC is reshaping HR globally with agentic AI
UKG is hardly a household name outside the world of HR technology , yet the Massachusetts-headquartered firm has quietly grown into one of the world's largest privately held software companies, valued at $22 billion. Its cloud platforms handle everything from time-keeping and shift scheduling to payroll, talent management and employee sentiment analysis for more than 80,000 organisations – a customer list that stretches from corner shops to the biggest global conglomerates. In effect, UKG sits in the plumbing of global employment, processing what chief product officer Suresh Vittal calls 'the economic engine of work': last year alone its systems logged 12 billion clock-ins, shepherded 117 million job applications, and helped companies hire three million people. Much of that machinery is being built – and increasingly conceived – in India. The company's global capability centre (GCC) began in Noida in 2007 with a brief to extend its workforce-management tools . Eighteen years on, it employs more than 3,000 people across Noida, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and a brand-new hub in Pune. 'India is effectively a mini UKG,' says Vittal. 'We cannot replicate the innovation advantage we get here anywhere else.' That advantage is growing as UKG pushes deeper into agentic AI – software agents that can reason over vast specialist datasets and act autonomously while keeping a human in the loop. Payroll, one of the most labyrinthine back-office chores, is a case in point. 'You have to juggle local tax codes, compliance updates, garnishments, benefits and company policies for every employee before a pay-cheque can be issued,' Vittal explains. UKG's India teams have written a flock of agents – continuous-compliance, tax-filing and scheduling among them – that scan new regulations, generate individualised pay estimates and surface discrepancies for an administrator's review. Tasks that once swallowed teams of people armed with spreadsheets are now pushed through in minutes. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Kate Middleton Dared To Wear This Outfit And It Took Prince William's Breath Away Crowdy Fan Undo The agents come with a ₹confidence score' so managers can see precisely how sure the model is and inspect the rationale in plain English before acting on it. 'Responsible AI is non-negotiable,' says group vice-president and India country manager Nitin Chandel. 'We're making frontline workers more effective, not redundant – freeing them from repetitive low-value chores so they can focus on higher-order work.' UKG's data advantage is formidable. Its Great Place to Work surveys capture the mood of 20 million employees globally each year. That depth lets engineers in India train narrowly tailored language and decision models rather than rely on generic public ones. At the heart of the stack sits People Fabric, a harmonised schema that pulls payroll, attendance, benefits, and expense data from the disparate ledgers of any enterprise into a single source of truth. Data pipelines feed this information to AI models, and a technique called retrieval-augmented generation tops up the models with the latest relevant facts just before they respond. UKG runs regular ₹agent-thons' open to all engineers; the most recent attracted the largest cohort from India, producing prototypes that are already finding their way into product roadmaps. Chandel himself leads global human capital management (HCM) engineering from Noida, one of several India-based executives who own worldwide charters. 'India is not following; it is leading,' he says. The expansion into Pune underlines that ambition. Opened last month, the facility will specialise in AI and big-data work and is expected to absorb a large share of the new hires UKG plans to make in India. Early-career recruitment is a priority: this year the firm has taken on 400 graduates from the IITs, NITs and top business schools, pairing them with seasoned mentors to accelerate what Vittal calls 'the innovation curve'. The move also positions UKG for the next frontier: letting its agents negotiate with those of other enterprise platforms. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nearly half of Gen Z employees say their bosses don't appreciate AI's advantages
This story was originally published on HR Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily HR Dive newsletter. Nearly half of Generation Z workers surveyed — 49% — say their bosses don't appreciate the benefits of artificial intelligence tools in the workplace, according to a June 24 report from UKG. In addition, 90% of Gen Z employees said AI will save them time at work, and 70% said they've taught themselves most of the AI skills they use at work. 'Gen Z may be on the leading edge of AI adoption in the workplace, but this technology has the power to transform work for every generation,' said Suresh Vittal, chief product officer at UKG. 'From simplifying and automating everyday tasks to increasing productivity to unlocking more time for creativity, innovation and personal connection, AI will reshape the employee experience in the years ahead.' In the survey of more than 1,100 U.S. workers across generations, 84% said they want AI to handle workplace processes for them, and 79% said AI tools could free up time to focus on more important or more rewarding aspects of their job. At the same time, most workers said AI should be viewed as a tool, not a co-worker. They noted that AI could take over tasks that are highly repetitive, data-intensive or time-consuming, as well as responsibilities that require little judgment or nuance or are prone to human error. Since Gen Z workers appear to be leading the way in adoption, employers can tap into their energy to empower other workers to learn the latest tools, UKG said. However, some employees may have reservations. In a report from Kyndryl, nearly half of CEOs said their employees are resistant or even hostile to AI. Employers face three major barriers to AI adoption, including organizational change management, a lack of employee trust and workforce skills gaps, the report found. So far, only 10% of companies qualify as 'future-ready' with their AI capabilities, according to an Adecco Group survey. While most future-ready companies have adopted skills-based workforce planning and invested in training, the majority of unprepared companies said they expect workers to proactively adapt to AI, the survey found. Despite challenges with AI integration, 67% of companies use AI tools for work-related purposes, according to a survey by OwlLabs and Pulse. Knowledge workers said they've used AI for administrative tasks such as calendar management, data analysis and content creation for emails and reports. About a quarter of workers said their employers strongly support using AI and supply tools, training and clear guidelines for workplace use, the survey found. Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Wire
24-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
UKG: Gen Z Employees Embrace AI at Work and Nearly Half Say Their Bosses Don't Get It
LOWELL, Mass. & WESTON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As AI continues to revolutionize the modern workforce, Gen Z is emerging as the generation leading in its adoption, according to research released today by UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions. As AI continues to revolutionize the modern workforce, Gen Z is emerging as the generation leading in its adoption. 70% of Gen Z employees say they've taught themselves most of the AI tools they use at work, and 90% believe it will free up time at work. Share In a new national survey from UKG and conducted by The Harris Poll, the youngest generation in the workforce also stands out as the most eager and proactive in integrating AI into daily work, with 90% believing AI will save them time at work, including more than a quarter (29%) who think AI will save them 60-89 minutes per day. The findings point to a clear opportunity for employers across America: employees want AI to help them work smarter and more efficiently by taking over workplace processes for them (84%), and Gen Z could be the key to accelerating adoption across the organization. By tapping into the ease with which Gen Z tends to embrace new technologies, companies can empower their entire workforce to learn the latest tools, leverage them to support their roles, and free up time for more engaging, strategic work. Gen Z Are More Likely To Embrace AI in the Workplace – But Executives May Be Falling Behind Over the past several years, the way we work has evolved at an unprecedented pace. The rise of AI represents the latest variable shaking up workplaces around the country – and younger employees are helping usher in this shift. According to the data, 70% of Gen Z employees say they've taught themselves most of the AI tools they use at work, compared to 58% of Gen X employees (ages 45-60) and 40% of Boomer employees (ages 61-79). Moreover, more Gen Z employees (90%) believe AI could free up time in their day to enable them to focus on the more important or rewarding aspects of their job than Gen X (73%) and Boomer (59%) employees. Notably, nearly half (49%) of Gen Z employees say their bosses don't understand the benefits of AI. In the 2023 UKG study on AI at work, only 26% of C-suite leaders said Gen Z employees had the best grasp on AI's use in the workplace. The latest survey results suggest the opposite may be true, and highlight a potential disconnect between the junior members adopting the tools and senior leaders setting the strategy. However, the latest UKG research favors Gen Z's assertion. 'Every few decades, breakthrough technology fundamentally changes the way we do everything: from how we live, to the way we work, and beyond,' said Suresh Vittal, chief product officer at UKG. 'How productive would we be without electric power, the assembly line, or mobile phones? Like those innovations, AI is quickly becoming ubiquitous and indispensable to work – and ignoring it now is like choosing not to use a computer or the internet.' 'Gen Z may be on the leading edge of AI adoption in the workplace, but this technology has the power to transform work for every generation,' he continued. 'From simplifying and automating everyday tasks to increasing productivity to unlocking more time for creativity, innovation, and personal connection, AI will reshape the employee experience in the years ahead. The sooner organizations act on AI's potential, the greater competitive advantage they'll gain.' All Generations See Value in AI, Though Trust Remains Limited to Select Tasks While Gen Z may be at the forefront of teaching themselves the AI skills they use at work, employees of all ages share a strong preference for AI that supports, rather than replaces, human work. 84% of U.S. employees agree that AI is best used to automate tasks, not entire roles. This belief is consistent across companies of all sizes – from 88% of employees at businesses with fewer than 75 employees, to 85% at companies with more than 15,000 employees. 89% say AI should be viewed as a tool, not a co-worker. 'Since our 2023 study, we've seen a meaningful shift in employees' trust in and understanding of AI at work,' said Vittal. 'Just two years ago, over half of employees had 'no idea' how their organization was using AI. Today, about 2 in 5 employed Americans (39%) are hopeful about how it can improve their role – a sign that may point to increased transparency, dialogue, and education on the many effective uses for AI in the workplace.' Tasks Employees Are Ready to Hand Off to AI As for the characteristics that U.S. employees believe make a task appropriate for AI to take over, they range from highly repetitive or routine responsibilities (49%) to data-intensive duties (42%) to time-consuming tasks (38%). More than a third also point to tasks that require little judgment, empathy, or nuance (35%), or those that are often prone to human error (34%). When it comes to specific use cases, UKG's research finds many of the tasks U.S. employees would trust AI to handle are repeatable, data-driven, or prone to human error, including: Summarizing company policies when they have questions (83%); Creating their work schedules based on availability (81%); Verifying their paycheck is correct (78%); Ensuring their timecard is accurate (78%); and Reviewing and approving their time-off and shift-swap requests in real time (74%). About UKG At UKG, our purpose is people ®. We are on a mission to inspire every organization to become a great place to work through HCM technology built for all. More than 80,000 organizations across all sizes, industries, and geographies trust UKG HR, payroll, workforce management, and culture cloud solutions to drive great workplace experiences and make better, more confident people and business decisions. With the world's largest collection of people data, work data, and culture data combined with rich experience using artificial intelligence in the service of people, we connect culture insights with business outcomes to show what's possible when organizations invest in their people. To learn more, visit Survey Methodology: This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of UKG from April 15 to 17, 2025, among 1,146 employed adults ages 18 and older. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 3.6 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact media@ All other trademarks, if any, are property of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change.
