TECHNOLOGY
Steve Elcock, Neuroscientist and Director of Product, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Capital Management, Zellis, explores how AI can help payroll and human resources (HR) professionals to excel when its properly understood
P ayroll isn’t just about numbers, it’s about people. And in today’s world, where the workplace is evolving rapidly, the demands placed on payroll and HR professionals are growing just as fast. But what if the very technology often feared as a cold replacement for human interaction could actually make your organisation more human? This article explores how AI can help payroll and HR professionals, emphasising that it’s a way to bring empathy, insight and intelligence to payroll and HR decisions in ways we’ve never been able to before. It enables businesses to not just keep up, but to genuinely support the wellbeing, productivity and happiness of their employees. The opportunity: AI’s moment has arrived After 70 years of mathematical models and neural networks quietly progressing in the background, AI has entered a new
phase. With the explosion of computing power and the launch of tools like OpenAI’s GPT-4o, we’ve reached a point where AI can understand and reason in real time. We now have access to on-device AI assistants, open-source innovation and secure enterprise-level tools. In short, we’re finally able to tap into AI in a meaningful way – not just as a novelty, but as a transformative capability. It’s no surprise that HR professionals are actively integrating AI into their workflows. Not because it’s trendy, but because it meets a real need: to manage complexity, respond quickly and gain insights which were previously buried in spreadsheets or siloed systems. The challenge: complexity, compliance and clarity Today’s payroll environment is a minefield of compliance, tax legislation and employee expectations. A single
error can trigger legal consequences or damage employee trust. Add to that the burden of manual tasks, data audits and year-end reconciliations, and it’s easy to see why burnout is a risk for payroll and HR professionals. But the complexity isn’t going away. Instead, we need to take a better approach. We need better ways to navigate it. And that’s where AI offers a breakthrough. The solution: AI as a human- centric assistant Modern AI is surprisingly human-like. It mimics the brain’s 86 billion neurons and trillions of synaptic connections with its own multi-layered parameters, many now reaching into the trillions. Just like us, it ‘thinks’ by drawing on layered information, gradually refining its understanding. This isn’t just philosophical; it has practical implications. Imagine a world where: l a 24/7 HR assistant understands your policies and protects sensitive data l there’s instant content generation for contracts, job postings or employee letters l knowledge is securely retrieved from company databases in real time l payroll anomaly detectors and summarisation agents highlight outliers before they become issues.
“Artificial intelligence doesn’t remove the human element. It enhances it. It reduces repetitive work, allowing teams to focus on empathy, coaching and creating better experiences for employees”
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | September 2025 | Issue 113 54
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