ADP recently held its 2023 Analyst Day (#ADPaday) event at its Chelsea Lab Innovation Center in New York City, where ADP leaders and clients shared strategies, product roadmaps, transformational impacts, and industry insights related to the human capital industry.

As the company nears its 75th anniversary in 2024, ADP President & CEO Maria Black shared the company's three strategic pillars to grow stronger, smarter, and with purpose:

• Greater focus on leading with best-in-class HCM technology through the innovative application of GenAI, ML, and AI
• Continuing to provide unmatched expertise and outsourcing supported by its 60k staff members
• Leveraging the organization's global scale to benefit clients.

Execution of the ADP growth strategies, particularly the integration of GenAI, is evident across its product roadmaps as the company pilots and refines its advanced solutions internally and within limited client engagements.

NextGen HCM

The company's NextGen HCM gives users access to intelligent tools, providing real-time support and insights in the flow of work. Demonstrating the results of its recent product enhancements were four ADP clients representing various industries, diverse organizational needs, and different desired outcomes. For example, the Total Rewards Director for agribusiness Scoular shared how the NextGen HCM platform enabled their business to minimize auditing time following its annual open enrollment period from three weeks to a few hours. Also, the Vice President of Human Resources from fashion retailer Steve Madden explained how the company achieved its strategic sustainability goals of reducing its carbon footprint and paperless environment by deploying ADP NextGen HCM.

ADP Assist

ADP's introduction of its GenAI-enabled intelligent assistant, ADP Assist, illustrates the company's commitment to making HCM 'more human'. With ~85% of HR work transactional, ADP product engineers imagine future HR products with role-based co-pilots (assistants) that pop up in the flow of work, supporting role leaders. ADP Assist allows users to ask the system questions, issue custom commands, generate reports, and compose and personalize emails to an employee or specific group. For example, ADP Assist can create and send tailored emails about upcoming tax legislation on retirement accounts that may impact particular employees or nudge a hiring manager about completing required tasks, such as ordering IT equipment before a new employee onboards.

ADP's analytics support critical conversations with employees by offering instant manager feedback. The application of AI and ML provides intelligent insights to managers throughout the employee lifecycle, such as identifying employees at risk of separation, new employee onboarding tasks, internal mobility opportunities, and performance reviews. Taking these insights further, ADP Assist nudges leaders to initiate discussions to understand what may be causing these trends and take empathetic steps to provide support.

ADP API Central

In June 2023, ADP acquired low-code intelligent workflow automation and data integration provider SORA. The technology supports ADP API Central, targeting the SMB market and enabling an organization to quickly create an API marketplace using pre-built APIs based on specific functional use cases.

API Central allows organizations to define and implement required changes quickly, removing roadblocks to increase agility and speed. Beyond analyzing traditional HR data, ADP also considers employee work and family data when developing an API. For example, a recently developed scheduling API scans an employee's work schedule and family data to avoid personal conflicts, such as a child's birthday. The API can intelligently schedule work with another employee, preventing a personal clash and sending a birthday cake to the employee's residence via DoorDash.

Importance of AI Transparency

As ADP continues innovating and delivering real-time HR insights through GenAI and other intelligent technologies, the company understands the importance of transparency around data security, privacy, and broader ethical considerations, such as worker displacement. To remain engaged and apprised of emerging trends and concerns, ADP sustains an active AI & Data Ethics Committee comprising industry leaders, clients, and ADP experts. ADP's continued industry leadership and supplemental tools provide a robust AI safety umbrella, supporting client understanding and acceptance as these transformational solutions gain mainstream adoption. 

ADP remains focused on the human experience, the power of data analytics, and transactional efficiency. While clients continue to inquire about process automation and the appropriate application of AI across HR, ADP’s product engineers remain focused on the company’s product philosophy and reimagining the future of HCM by making it easy, smart, and human.