The state of AI and technology in American payroll

Most conversations about AI in payroll start with what the technology can do. This one starts with what payroll professionals actually said about how their teams run payroll today, where AI fits in, and what they expect to change.

We surveyed over a hundred payroll professionals at Payroll Congress, one of the largest annual gatherings of practitioners in the United States. The findings are their words, their numbers, and their reality.

Here's what the data showed:

• Only 7% of payroll teams say AI is central to their process. 44% haven't started.
• The top barrier to adoption isn't cost or security. 30% of non-adopters say they simply don't know what AI would do for them in a payroll context.
• Mid-market firms are the most stuck. 58% of teams with 500 to 2,000 employees have no AI in their payroll process at all.

What's inside the report

The report covers four areas. How payroll is structured in US organizations today: the scale, the reporting lines, the multi-state complexity. How payroll connects to accounting, benefits, and expense systems, and what it costs when those connections are manual. Where AI adoption actually sits, broken down by company size, and why mid-market firms are the most stalled. And what practitioners want from AI now versus what they expect to matter in three years.

Whether you're evaluating AI, planning technology investments, or simply benchmarking your payroll function, the findings offer a ground-level view of where the industry stands today.

Read the full report

The research is independent. No respondent or sponsor influenced the analysis or the conclusions.