ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Designing Agents for People-Centric Processes

Posted by Robert Kugel on 29 September 2026

You may be old enough to remember the Talking Heads 1984 concert film, “Stop Making Sense.” I think that phrase is a fitting warning to anyone designing agents for human-centric business processes who assumes that their behavior must always be rational. Despite significant advances in applied analytics, behavior modeling and process intelligence, achieving the right balance between achievable... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Employee Engagement, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Revenue Performance Management, Office of Revenue, Generative AI, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning, Agentic Systems, Agents

When AI Screens Talent, Who Owns the Bias?

Posted by Matthew Brown on 01 September 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) screening is forcing recruiting leaders to answer a question many organizations have avoided for years. When technology influences who gets seen, ranked, advanced or ignored, who owns the bias? The easy answer is to point at the software provider. The equally easy answer is to say the employer owns the hiring decision, full stop. Neither answer is sufficient. Bias in... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Talent Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Your ATS Isn’t Broken, Your Hiring Flows Are

Posted by Matthew Brown on 25 August 2026

Your application tracking system (ATS) may not be broken. It may be doing exactly what your hiring process told it to do. In a market buzzing with AI, agentic workflows and automation, that should make recruiting leaders pause before they blame the platform, replace the system or automate the next step in a process nobody has challenged in years. Software does not get a free pass, and neither do... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Talent Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

AI as Your Quiet Co-Manager in Performance Management

Posted by Matthew Brown on 05 August 2026

The most important artificial intelligence (AI) in performance management may not arrive as a flashy chatbot or new dashboard. It may work more quietly than that, sitting inside the performance tool, watching for patterns, connecting signals and nudging managers toward better conversations before performance problems become formal performance events. Not AI as the boss or the judge, and not AI as... Read More

Topics: Talent Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Performance Software: Progress Engine or Ritual Machine?

Posted by Matthew Brown on 30 June 2026

Performance management has always carried an uncomfortable contradiction. Organizations say they want better goals, coaching, feedback and decisions, but many still anchor the process in reviewing events that arrive too late to change performance. The language has evolved. The software has improved. Workflows have become more continuous, automated and AI-enabled. Yet too many organizations still... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Talent Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

The Best HR Tech Is Often the Stuff You Never Notice

Posted by Matthew Brown on 27 May 2026

The market loves flashy HR tech, but much of the real value sits behind the interface. That is easy to forget in a market shaped by polished demos, hot buzzwords and high-visibility features designed to win attention quickly. Copilots, assistants, dashboards and sleek user experiences tend to dominate the conversation. They are easy to see, easy to explain and easy to remember. But some of the... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Why Learning Stacks Still Fail Frontline Workers

Posted by Matthew Brown on 21 May 2026

Learning is often an afterthought for the business, even when leaders say it is not. You can see it in how learning gets funded, how it is supported and how it is threaded throughout the business. Too often, learning enters the conversation at the end when it should be there from the beginning. That applies to the technology, the content, the support model, the team structure and the broader... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

You Want HR AI—but Your Data Says “Not Yet”

Posted by Matthew Brown on 14 May 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not a feature you just turn on. It requires readiness work that many HR organizations still have not done. That may sound blunt, but it reflects a reality that is getting lost in the current excitement around AI in HR. The market is moving quickly. Providers are rolling out copilots, assistants, recommendation engines and more advanced agentic capabilities across... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Why “Can It Do X?” Is the Wrong HR Tech Question

Posted by Matthew Brown on 06 May 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t a feature gate. It creates value when you’ve defined the decisions you want to improve and you have the data and workflows to support it, with permissions and consent boundaries that hold up in the real world and an audit trail that can explain what happened, why, and what the AI touched. Too many HR tech buying cycles begin with a shortcut: grab an RFI... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

HR Data Governance: Build Trust Before Dashboards

Posted by Matthew Brown on 22 April 2026

The quickest way to derail an HR analytics effort is to publish a dashboard that people do not believe. You can feel it in the meeting when the questions stop being about decisions and start being about whether the numbers are real. Leaders ask for “the actual headcount,” HRBPs keep their own trackers, and the room quietly agrees the system is helpful but not authoritative. At that point, the... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

From Reqs to Relationships: Rethinking Recruiting Tech

Posted by Matthew Brown on 16 April 2026

Recruiting technology still carries the fingerprints of an earlier operating model, one where hiring was managed as a series of isolated requisitions and success was measured by how efficiently a team could move a candidate from application to offer. That model created durable strengths around workflow, compliance and visibility, and most organizations still need those strengths. The problem is... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Talent Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

From Payroll to Platform: Takeaways From Rethink 2026

Posted by Matthew Brown on 09 April 2026

I recently attended ADP’s 2026 Rethink event and had the chance to hear the company’s latest thinking for its international clients and analyst community. The HCM market is shifting quickly. AI is accelerating across the enterprise, labor markets are reshaping themselves, and buyers increasingly expect unified platforms that connect HR, payroll, workforce management, data, and intelligence. ADP... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

AI Agents as the New UI: What Happens to Your HR Stack?

Posted by Matthew Brown on 07 April 2026

A payroll leader gets a message the morning after payday: “Why is my net pay lower than last period?” In many organizations, that question still sends employees into a maze of portals, PDFs, tickets and handoffs. Payroll is not a background utility in the eyes of employees: it is one of the most frequent and emotionally loaded moments of truth. When pay is right, people move on. When it is wrong,... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Talent Marketplaces: When the Label Doesn’t Fit

Posted by Matthew Brown on 24 February 2026

Picture a world where a role opens and your first instinct is to look inward with confidence. You open your talent marketplace and see people who are ready now, plus people who could be ready soon with targeted support and development. Instead of defaulting to external recruiting, you redeploy talent faster and keep high potential employees from quietly disengaging. That is the promise behind... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

When HR and Finance Can’t Agree on the Same Numbers

Posted by Matthew Brown on 17 February 2026

HR and Finance rarely agree on the same numbers, and the reasons run deeper than a simple spreadsheet mismatch. It’s a symptom of siloed business processes and disconnected data models that create misalignment at every turn. Underneath that are unclear data definitions, governance strategies without real accountability and cultural priorities that pull the two functions in different directions.... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

You Bought the Software. Now What? Lessons on Post-Go-Live Success

Posted by Matthew Brown on 05 February 2026

Buying HR technology is a significant decision. It requires months of software provider reviews, internal alignment, business case development and implementation planning. When the contract is signed and the system goes live, it often feels like the hard part is over. In reality, the work that determines actual success is just beginning. Many organizations hold the misconception that... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

How To Ride the AI Wave in HR Without Wiping Out

Posted by Matthew Brown on 28 January 2026

Let's be blunt: The pressure to adopt AI in HR is a panic button being hit by the C-suite. The mandate from the boardroom is clear, and the pressure is intensifying: HR must adopt AI to remain competitive. This directive often lands on the desks of HR leaders who are already managing complex environments, creating a dangerous disconnect between executive ambition and operational reality. The... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Plug in or Fall Behind: The Heartbeat of an HR Tech Strategy

Posted by Matthew Brown on 20 January 2026

Integration has evolved from a technical requirement into a strategic cornerstone in today’s HR technology landscape. Yet many organizations still treat connectivity between systems as a back-end IT concern rather than the foundation of the employee experience. That mindset is rapidly becoming a liability. The reality is simple: If your systems cannot connect, your strategy cannot connect either.... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Platform Thinking: The HR Tech Strategy You’re Probably Missing

Posted by Matthew Brown on 14 January 2026

HR technology is entering a new era, and with it comes a challenge that many leaders underestimate: the need to embrace platform thinking as a core competency. For years, we’ve approached technology decisions as a way to solve pain points—patching gaps, fixing inefficiencies and responding to immediate needs. That mindset is understandable, but it’s also the reason so many organizations are... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

The Importance of Data in HR Strategies

Posted by Matthew Brown on 18 November 2025

You can buy the flashiest software in the marketplace, win awards for digital transformation and run a picture-perfect implementation project. But if your data foundation is shaky, none of it will deliver. Organizations invest millions in tools only to stumble over incomplete, misaligned or fragmented data. The wall they hit afterward? It is built from poor decisions disguised as “glitches.”... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies