Nearly 90 per cent of payroll errors flagged by a new artificial intelligence system were corrected before payday, according to early results from more than 50,000 businesses using the tool.
The system, called WISE, short for Workforce Intelligence, Strengthened by Expertise, is built by Paychex, a U.S. provider of payroll, human resources and benefits services based in Rochester, N.Y. The company released the early adopter data Aug. 31 as it continues rolling the AI tools out across its platforms.
“WISE is not a set of AI features. It’s a shared intelligence engine embedded across our platforms to help customers complete work more efficiently and effectively,” said Ryan Bergstrom, Paychex chief product and technology officer. “From proactively identifying payroll issues to automating service interactions, WISE is already delivering measurable value at scale for customers and across our operations.”
Catching errors before payday
A feature called Intelligent Pay Cycle monitors each pay cycle for problems, flagging missing pay data, incomplete time records and unresolved approvals before they turn into payroll mistakes. Companies average a 1.2 per cent payroll error rate, and employees often start looking for a new job after just two payroll mistakes, according to Paychex.
Among businesses using the tool, nearly 90 per cent of identified time and pay rate errors were corrected before the payroll run, the company said. The average time to review and resolve direct deposit changes also fell, dropping from about three days to less than two days.
Paychex expanded general access to the payroll intelligence and direct deposit approval features across its Paychex Flex platform in late July. Tools that flag missing punches and missing pay rates are rolling out through September.
Faster service, fewer calls to humans
WISE also powers email and phone agents that handle customer service requests. Across voice and email, the agents have handled more than 350,000 workforce conversations, with more than 20 per cent resolved without any human involvement, the company said.
The WISE payroll voice agent operates at nearly 100 per cent accuracy, according to Paychex, and more than 40,000 users are now regularly choosing the AI agent over a live representative. The email agent has handled close to 300,000 interactions with an average processing time of three minutes, more than 80 per cent faster than human handling, the company said.
“By automating routine interactions and surfacing issues earlier, WISE enables our service professionals to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time helping clients solve broader workforce challenges,” Bergstrom said. “That shift from transaction handling to higher-value guidance is one of the most important benefits of our AI strategy.”
Expanding AI across operations
Paychex has also equipped its sales and service teams with AI tools that provide real-time answers to customer questions, and is using AI to help new clients get set up on its systems faster, the company said. It serves about 840,000 customers and pays one in 11 private-sector workers in the United States.
