Dive Brief:
- As artificial intelligence is being incorporated into more areas of daily work, many employees have drawn a line in the sand: Of more than 9,400 workers recently surveyed, nearly half said they were either somewhat or very uncomfortable with the tech being used in payroll processes, according to a Tuesday report from PayrollOrg, a professional payroll association.
- Meanwhile, only a quarter of workers said they were somewhat or very comfortable with AI being used in payroll.
- AI’s use in total rewards remains in the early stages, driven in part by compliance challenges, data quality issues and employee trust concerns, reports have shown.
Dive Insight:
“When it comes to AI, payroll is at an inflection point, still largely in evaluation and pilot mode while the rest of the business moves from experimentation to transformation,” said Patrick Tripp, senior director of product marketing at tech company UKG. “Payroll must navigate regulatory complexity, financial accuracy, and employee trust in ways most departments don’t.”
A 2025 report from PayrollOrg showed similar unease around AI in compensation processes. Of the more than 25,000 Americans surveyed at the time, 34% said they were uncomfortable with AI calculating their wages, and 45% said they were against the use of AI in answering payroll inquiries instead of a person.
“As AI becomes more integrated into the workplace, payroll leaders have an opportunity to help employees understand how the technology is being used and how it can support payroll processes,” Dan Maddux, executive director of PayrollOrg, said in a statement. “Building trust and transparency alongside new AI capabilities will be important as organizations consider how the technology can strengthen payroll operations.”
Most companies “are still in the beginning” of their AI in compensation journeys, according to an August report from professional services firm Marsh. While 70% of organizations said they had some automation in compensation, just 1% reported being at an advanced level.
AI is mainly used for basic tasks like market pricing a job, Marsh’s U.S. workforce reward solutions leader said in a statement at the time. The barriers to its greater adoption are governance, data quality and system integration, the leader said.
Similarly, more than half of the HR and total rewards professionals surveyed by Korn Ferry in February said they weren’t yet experimenting with AI in total rewards.