Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Apple & Smart Payroll. YES! I said Payroll.

This was originally published as the feature article in the Jan. 2017 PayTech Magazine issue, titled "AI Turns Ambition into Reality for Payroll Industry." But... I mean I wrote it so, it's all good. Super slight modification to this article for my LinkedIn audience.

Marc Andreessen, the former entrepreneur and current high-profile venture capitalist, famously said, “Software is eating the world.” The point he makes is an important one because it encapsulates the notion that software, in many ways, has become an all-consuming part of life. No industry, or individual, is unsusceptible to this reality.

The latest craze in software is artificial intelligence (AI). I’m sure the first thing that comes to mind is something out of sci-fi movie. While AI is more subtle than that, the notion that surrounds us is apparent. Don’t believe me?

How about smart devices like iPhones, Apple Watches, Amazon Echo, GoPro cameras, Tesla’s autonomous vehicles, and smart TVs? These are all examples of AI. And while some believe AI is here to replace humans, I believe it will augment and enhance our efforts ... especially in the payroll space.

For centuries, humans have been thinking of designing machines that will replicate human intelligence. Our intelligence is not an isolated ability but more of a composition of skills including reasoning, learning problem-solving, perception, and understanding of language.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently discussed his vision for how machine learning and AI will transform Microsoft. “AI is at the intersection of our ambitions,” he said. “It will allow us to reason over significant amounts of data and convert that into intelligence.”

It’s not enough that business data is moving to the cloud, or that you get charts and graphs of payroll data. Imagine the ability to apply reasoning, creativity, decision-making, and automation to payroll and time data. These opportunities represent a truly exponential shift in workforce management technology.

Think about when you watch a YouTube video, and it suggests a similar video you might like based on your most recent and previous video selections. Think about auto text and auto-correct functions on your smart phone. How about the latest software updates, which now include auto emojis suggesting the right icon based on your real-time text. Or how about when Gmail provides you with a list of links that may have value to your message based on the content of your email. These are all forms of AI. How does all this apply to payroll and timekeeping specifically? Let’s take a look.

Examples of Payroll AI

Payroll and timekeeping data are rich and insightful when machine learning is applied. One example would be when new employees are added to the system, the software should be intelligent enough to make suggestions/decisions in real time as information is entered for that staff member. Taking it a step further would mean pre-populating information on a new employee as more data is entered. For example, add a new truck driver into the payroll system and automatically order a new GPS from procurement. Onboard a new executive and grant him or her access to company performance tools and trends.

Opportunities for AI to impact payroll and time tracking will often stem from human errors. Most notable in larger companies, mistakes are bound to be made with manual data entry, as it can be difficult to track and execute the changes to employees, time, and payment. These problems can also be mitigated by AI, which can “automagically” correct errors in data entry and automatically make updates to employee profiles, saving money and time.

AI will help surface actionable data and even help payroll teams find the next best action as they are trying to solve critical business and payroll issues. You’ll be able to use an AI-powered virtual agent to help payroll staff better answer employee questions via email, text, phone calls, and more. As workforce management systems gather more data and connect to more systems and work devices, it’s important the tools we use become smarter. Smarter is accomplished by bringing better machine analytics tools to the workplace to help employees be more productive and businesses be more efficient.

Another important use case, particularly relevant in high- volume payroll environments, is eliminating time theft, where employees get paid for work they have not done. Examples of time theft include extended breaks, time spent on the clock not working, and “buddy punching” (having a colleague punch in for an absent or late employee). All of these practices are extremely common, with the average company losing roughly four hours per week per employee, which costs 6% to 10% of total payroll spend and employee productivity. In other words, millions of dollars are lost every year at large enterprises, according to the APA, as a result of time theft. All is not lost, though. The sheer fact that we have these data points means we have the ability to start solving problems, facilitated mostly by AI.

Also included under the time umbrella are:

• Time and attendance
• Scheduling
• Absence management

The main question to ask ourselves here is, “Can we get smarter about these things?” Getting smarter about areas like scheduling sure seems like a good idea, right? Why not let AI help us?

Top Uses for Payroll AI

Facebook, Google, and even Yahoo have acquired facial recognition startups to solve the identity theft problem. Time and attendance is a perfect use case for facial recognition as it can help reduce time theft and buddy punching at scale. Although facial recognition is itself a form of AI, it is also a great use case for AI, as you can apply it to analyze your employees’ emotions and potential productivity. Imagine not only using AI to know who someone is, but how that person feels and then be able to predict his or her performance. AI will allow us to understand people’s positive, negative and neutral sentiments.

We can also use AI to detect facial expressions, including smiles, frowns, and signs of anger, surprise, and delight. We can then measure those emotions against employee productivity and use predictive analytics to make future shift decisions based on the data patterns. Not to mention discovering new ways to improve the overall happiness of our people.

Here’s a list of some of the top reasons you should be excited about AI in payroll and time management:

? The biggest advantage of AI is that computers do not need sleep or breaks, and can work continuously. They can perform the same task without getting bored or tired. ? AI can be utilized in carrying out repetitive and time- consuming tasks efficiently.

? Because machines don’t have emotions, they can think logically and make the right decisions. Sentiments are associated with moods that affect human efficiency. This is not the case with machines and with AI.

? AI allows for digital assistants who interact with the people, lightening the payroll and HR staff’s load and helping more employees.

? Fraud detection.

? Workforces are increasingly becoming more mobile. Smart phones are one of the most recognized examples of the use of AI.

? Greater precision and accuracy.

To simplify the ways that AI can help payroll and time management, I’ll break it down into three buckets:

1. Process—AI can improve and enhance high volume payroll processes.

2. Product—AI will allow us to build new payroll and time products.

3. Analysis—Specifically predictive analytics,but all AI (machine learning), will help us identify patterns in payroll and time data that may not be visible to us as humans.

Things are obviously moving at an exponential rate when it comes to AI. I'm here to make sure payroll doesn't fall behind.