Paychex launches new AI-powered intelligence platform

Paychex announced this week the launch of its new AI-powered intelligence solution Workforce Intelligence Strengthened by Expertise (WISE), designed to embed autonomous decision-making and task execution directly into the payroll and HR workflow for customers who use Paychex products.

The move comes as large HCM and HR tech vendors race to redefine HR processes amid an enterprise-wide AI transformation.

The new WISE solution layers an intelligence system behind Paychex flagship products including Paychex Flex, Paycor, and SurePayroll. WISE combines AI assistants, predictive analytics, and autonomous agents that can work on behalf of HR teams and managers, according to execs.

“It is really our next generation platform, and our goal is really to create that more agentic-, digital-workforce for our customers,” Ryan Bergstrom, Paychex’s chief product officer, said. “Not really just providing insights, but anticipating the needs and really getting to the point of recommending and executing work on their behalf, always with the human in the loop.”

The capabilities WISE features are organized into three pillars: it can surface actionable insights and intelligence, provide assistance and guidance during task work, and agentically work on behalf of human users.

“We really want to shift from this concept of tools, HR tools in particular, being reactive to these much more proactive systems that work alongside people,” he said.

WISE can autonomously schedule shifts, approve timesheets, and surface compliance risks. Customers can also use the platform to orchestrate entire HR and payroll workflows with their own bespoke guardrails.

“The most common customer for Paychex—these are small business owners, so—they are struggling with all aspects of the business. They are running the business, they are making the donuts if it’s a bakery; they are running out and servicing customers if it’s a plumbing company; and they don’t have the ability to grow and scale by adding more support within HR and payroll, and we think we really have an opportunity to help them solve that problem.”

Earlier generations of AI-powered workplace tech largely focused on chatbots or copilots that required human users to initiate requests. WISE and other newer product launches by HCM and HR tech vendors are built around agentic AI.

“When it’s time to run payroll, I just want to understand where I’m at, what’s wrong, what I need to do about it, so I can process through it,” he said. “What we want to make sure is that we’re making the administrator job significantly easier than it’s ever been before, but that they always have the ability to review any of the changes that are being recommended…or that they’re going through and programming their own agents within the system.”