Hello, and welcome back to the Inside HR Tech column, returning after a brief hiatus. Even just a few months away from the HR technology beat seems like an eternity, given the pace of innovation and development. In fact, since I last checked in with you here, a new HR tech buzzword has taken over much of the discourse in the industry: “agentic AI.”

Agentic AI is the latest evolution in innovative HR and enterprise technology that today’s HR leaders need to understand to take full advantage of both the HR technology solutions already have in place, and the ones you may seek to add to your solution mix this year. In this article, we will cover the basics of agentic AI, share some of the most notable agentic AI releases by leading HR tech providers and offer recommendations for inquiry, and for testing and piloting these new innovations in your organization.

Agentic AI defined

Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems designed to operate with a high degree of autonomy, decision-making capability, process execution ability and adaptability within an enterprise. Unlike traditional AI-powered solutions that primarily analyze data and provide recommendations for human users to act upon, AI agents can perceive context, make decisions, take actions and continuously learn from interactions.

In an enterprise setting, AI agents are purpose-built to automate, optimize and enhance various business functions. They operate with minimal human intervention while ensuring compliance with policies, ethical considerations and strategic objectives.

In the HR context, a great example of the difference between a “simpler” AI solution and a more complex agentic AI capability would be as follows:

Simple AI: In recruiting, some of the early expressions of AI include chat bots that can respond to candidate inquiries, suggest open roles, manage simple screening questions and schedule interview times.

Agentic AI: The agent can expand from simple chat to guide complex recruiting processes. The AI agent could autonomously generate job descriptions and listings, source candidates, screen resumes, rank candidates, schedule interviews and even conduct initial assessments, dynamically adjusting search criteria based on evolving hiring needs.

Developments of agentic AI in HR technology solutions

Unsurprisingly, several of the leading and most influential HR technology providers have already released or announced AI agent technologies in support of HR and talent management processes. Here are a few notable examples from some of these providers, with the caveat that I am sure there are more out there that I can’t mention here either due to space constraints or that I simply haven’t briefed with them yet in 2025.

Oracle: The company has integrated new agentic AI features into its Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management platform. These AI agents automate routine HR tasks, enabling employees to access self-service tools for career development, learning, compensation and timekeeping, thereby reducing administrative burdens and improving efficiency.

SAP SuccessFactors: SAP has been actively integrating agentic AI capabilities into its SAP SuccessFactors suite to enhance HR processes. In late 2024, SAP introduced more than 130 generative AI features across its cloud applications, including SAP SuccessFactors, aiming to automate complex processes and improve decision-making. SAP has also announced the launch of SAP Business Data Cloud, a solution that unifies SAP and third-party data to support AI applications like Joule, SAP’s generative AI copilot.

Workday: The organization has introduced AI-powered agents within its platform to transform HR and finance processes. These agents assist in areas such as recruiting, expenses, succession planning and business process optimization, aiming to streamline workflows and enhance productivity. Additionally, the company announced its AI Agent System of Record, a solution to help organizations manage their AI agents much like human co-workers.

See also: For busy employees, could agentic AI be a morale booster?

ServiceNow: The organization unveiled agentic AI innovations designed to autonomously address complex enterprise challenges. Its AI Agent Orchestrator ensures that specialized AI agents work collaboratively across tasks, systems and departments. Additionally, ServiceNow offers thousands of pre-built agents across IT, customer service, HR and more, alongside an AI Agent Studio for building customized agents, all integrated within the ServiceNow Platform.

ADP: ADP has released ADP Assist, a cross-platform solution that combines the company’s access to an extensive HR dataset with generative AI to create an intuitive HCM experience. ADP Assist validates payroll information, checks for anomalies, identifies and helps resolve missing tax registrations and answers questions by drawing on ADP’s comprehensive compliance data. It also simplifies report creation by understanding context and generating insightful reports, allowing HR practitioners to analyze compensation, turnover, candidate profile relevancy and talent insights.

UKG: The company has introduced UKG Bryte AI Agents, designed to work alongside employees. These AI agents proactively solve problems and make recommendations through multi-step processes that learn and improve over time. For example, they can execute multiple tasks in the employee promotion process and identify impacts of new tax regulations, assisting in maintaining compliance. By incorporating more than 2,500 AI models, the UKG platform helps HR professionals streamline day-to-day tasks, allowing them to focus on more meaningful, people-centered decisions.

Again, this is just a selection of what has already been announced by the top HR technology providers on their development of agentic AI. By the HR Technology Conference in September, I’d expect easily two or three dozen similar announcements.

How HR leaders can approach agentic AI

There are many best practice recommendations for HR leaders considering any new technology: Understand the business needs, involve key stakeholders, develop appropriate success metrics—among many others. There are additional considerations for HR teams that are assessing, testing and deploying adding agentic AI capabilities.

Here are a few suggestions for HR leaders for starting the conversations about these powerful tools with:

Internal stakeholders

Before engaging with vendors, HR leaders must align with internal stakeholders (e.g., HR, IT, finance, legal, compliance and employee experience teams) to assess readiness and objectives.

Key questions and concerns of internal groups include:

• What specific HR challenges or inefficiencies are we trying to solve with agentic AI?
• How mature is our organization’s AI strategy?
• Do we have the necessary data infrastructure and governance policies in place?
• How will we prepare employees and HR teams for AI-driven workflows?
• What training or change management support will be needed?

Current HR technology providers

For organizations already using HR tech solutions (such as Workday, Oracle, SAP SuccessFactors, ADP, UKG), it’s essential to assess what agentic AI capabilities these providers offer.

Key questions for current partners include:

• What agentic AI features do you currently offer, and what is planned for future releases
• Can AI agents be tailored to fit our organization’s specific workflows and policies?
• How does your AI handle sensitive employee data, and what security measures are in place?
• Is agentic AI included in our current subscription, or is it an add-on? What are the pricing models?

Potential HR tech partners

This is all about selecting the right new partners for the organization. When evaluating new HR tech vendors specializing in agentic AI, HR leaders must assess the technology’s capabilities, reliability and long-term viability.

Questions to ask of potential new HR tech partners include:

• What real-world results have your agentic AI solutions delivered for similar companies in our industry?
• Does your AI agent simply automate tasks, or does it continuously learn and improve from interactions?
• How does your AI explain its recommendations or decisions? Can HR teams audit AI-driven outcomes?
• Can your AI scale as our organization grows?
• What innovations are in your development pipeline?

By addressing these three categories—internal alignment, existing provider assessments and potential vendor evaluations—HR leaders can make informed, strategic decisions about implementing Agentic AI while mitigating risks and ensuring alignment with business needs.

Looking ahead to agentic AI

We recently welcomed Dan Beck, president and chief product officer of SAP SuccessFactors on our soon-to-be-released System of Record podcast to discuss his and the company’s outlook on the most important developments, areas of focus and opportunities for HR technology this year. The first thing he mentioned was agentic AI.

On our HR Happy Hour Show, Chris Leone, executive vice president of human capital management and supply chain management clouds at Oracle—who is leading the development efforts for Oracle Cloud HCM—described the company’s focus on AI agents and the growing number of agents that have already been deployed by Oracle customers. And don’t forget about Workday, which—as noted above—recently announced major developments regarding agentic AI, including a new set of tools to manage, deploy and measure AI agents across the enterprise.

When the most important HR technology solution providers are all investing so heavily in a new type of technology, the rest of the industry and the HR community more broadly have to take note. Agentic AI—if it can live up to its promise (and admittedly, the hype)—then it represents one of the more significant HR and enterprise technology leaps forward in some time.

While up until now, AI might be described as “cool” or “neat,” in that it has made some processes a bit faster and allowed some HR organizations to drive more efficiency, I’d argue truly transformative change driven by AI has been relatively rare. But if agentic AI can be the enabling expression that unlocks the true promise and value of AI in HR and in the organization, then it will be the story of 2025. We will be watching closely here and will share updates and progress throughout.

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