Paychex Named to HRExaminer 2020 Watchlist for AI in HR
HRExaminer has named Paychex to its 2020 Watchlist for intelligent tools and artificial intelligence in HR. As part of the third annual report – The 2020 Index of Intelligent Tools in HR Technology – Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of HR, payroll, benefits, and insurance solutions, appears on the Watchlist for the first time.
“Legacy providers have massive market advantages over startups,” noted John Sumser, HRExaminer founder and principal analyst, in the report. “With large datasets and existing customers, it’s easier to see intelligent tools as a path to increased customer satisfaction while reducing overall costs. Paychex is demonstrating that a broad-spectrum utilization of ‘AI’ tools can strengthen existing operations.”
Sumser based the Watchlist on 450 hours of in-depth interviews with 110 organizations globally.
“The sheer volume of data at our disposal allows us to deploy AI and machine learning principles more effectively than most organizations,” said Mike Gioja, Paychex senior vice president of IT and product development. “Our product development strategy today enables us to automate where it makes sense to do so and, in turn, deliver a more personalized, optimized user experience. We do all of this while making the security and privacy of our customers’ data a top priority.”
Paychex Flex® Assistant, the company’s customer-facing service chatbot, can currently answer 200 questions spanning the Paychex Flex suite – from recruiting and onboarding to engagement and retirement – with more questions being added as the bot matures. The chatbot also seamlessly integrates with real-time live chat capability, functionality that connects users with a live Paychex service agent if Paychex Flex Assistant cannot yet answer their question. All chatbot transactions are visible to the live Paychex service agent, eliminating the need for users to repeat their question to the live agent. Since its introduction in December 2018, Paychex Flex Assistant has handled more than a half million transactions.
Paychex underpins other aspects of the Paychex Flex architecture with intelligent tools, as well, leveraging AI and machine learning to deliver a more personalized user experience (UX) for its millions of monthly users. This approach leads to a more predictive UX, as the system learns individual user preferences over time and makes real-time recommendations for things like a custom dashboard or the user’s learning preferences for application help.
“I’m extremely proud of the progress we’ve made as a technology-focused organization, and recognitions like this prove that work is paying off,” Gioja added. “However, as an organization with a history of providing world-class service, we will never lose sight of the value in blending humans and machines. Our AI doesn’t replace human interactions, but rather allows us and our customers to engage in more high-value human touchpoints because we’ve automated a lot of the routine interactions.”
In addition to customer-facing solutions, Paychex regularly leverages Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to complete simple, repetitive tasks behind the scenes. RPA powers the company’s approach to automated payroll processing and appointment scheduling, for example, saving thousands of hours in manual work. Additionally, leveraging consistent monitoring of client profiles and key transactions across millions of users, automated routines distribute Paychex Flex users to the most appropriate infrastructure, resulting in optimal application performance.
About Paychex
Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) is a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for payroll, benefits, human resources, and insurance services. By combining its innovative software-as-a-service technology and mobility platform with dedicated, personal service, Paychex empowers small- and medium-sized business owners to focus on the growth and management of their business. Backed by more than 45 years of industry expertise, Paychex serves approximately 670,000 payroll clients as of May 31, 2019 across more than 100 locations in the U.S. and Europe, and pays one out of every 12 American private sector employees. Learn more about Paychex by visiting paychex.com and stay connected on Twitter and LinkedIn.