New Study: Payroll Pros Rank Top AI Priorities
Despite the hype, artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t making much of an impact on payroll — at least not yet.
A new Zoho Payroll survey of more than 100 US payroll professionals found only 7% of payroll teams said AI was central to their process – and nearly half (44%) said they haven’t started using AI yet.
Payroll teams not yet using AI were asked their top reason for holding off. The most common reason (30%) was a lack of understanding of how AI can help payroll.
AI Priorities on Payroll’s Wish List
Researchers also asked payroll professionals which AI capabilities would have the biggest impact on their teams today. Here’s what payroll professionals want AI to do most:
- Catch payroll errors before a pay run processes (66%)
- Deliver real-time compliance updates (36%)
- Answer employees’ payroll questions (31%)
- Flag compliance risks intelligently (20%), and
- Auto-sync journal entries to accounting (15%).
Predictive analytics – often a focal point for vendors – ranked dead last at just 8%. The survey’s findings point to AI priorities focused on preventing problems and reducing manual work rather than predicting future payroll costs.
More info: Zoho Payroll Report 2026
- Share on
Free Training & Resources
White Papers
Provided by Personify Health
