The News:

Human capital management (HCM) solution provider UKG and Google Cloud have expanded their partnership, bringing Google Cloud’s generative AI technology into UKG’s HCM suites. UKG is now an early partner that will be using Google Cloud’s enterprise-grade GenAI and large language models (LLMs) through Vertex AI, building applications for unified search AI and conversational AI. Additionally, UKG is one of the first HCM providers in the Google Cloud Marketplace. Existing UKG customers, as well as new ones, can now apportion their committed Google Cloud spend to purchase UKG suites and solutions through the marketplace. See the complete press release from UKG here.

Google Cloud’s Generative AI Comes to UKG’s HCM Suites

Analyst Take:

UKG, like many other companies providing workforce technologies, has announced an expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud, leveraging the latter’s generative AI technology into its HCM solutions. As of late, generative AI is making a splash, in the employee experience (EX) and HR technology area, promising efficiencies, streamlined processes, and insights. Specific use cases include learning and training, talent acquisition, and self-service.

UKG has already been using AI across many of its products such as its HCM and workforce management solutions. Capabilities are wide-ranging, including the ability to support analytics, sentiment analysis, real-time recommendations, compliance risks, proactive reminders, long-range forecasting, and payroll anomaly detection.

UKG will be layering in Google Cloud’s LLMs with UKG’s AI models as well as its Great Place To Work proprietary data set. This rich combination will allow for broader opportunities for insights as well as efficiencies. The company points to the ability to enhance employee requests with more targeted business insights and support managers as they strive to improve employee engagement.

“UKG’s application of Google Cloud LLMs and GenAI is a great example of how these technologies can streamline important but common processes at work and tangibly improve the day-to-day experience of employees everywhere,” says Thomas Kurian, CEO at Google Cloud. “Our partnership to bring GenAI to more businesses will help build great, technology-forward workplaces and ensure that teams have access to the leading technology they want to engage with every day.”

This announcement builds on a partnership the companies already formed in 2016, allowing UKG HCM and specialty products to run on Google Cloud’s infrastructure and unified data platform. The UKG FleX technology platform for UKG solutions also uses Google Cloud to support advanced security and extensibility.

“Our expanded partnership with Google Cloud is another chapter in our commitment to providing organizations around the world with the opportunity to move from a good workplace to a truly great workplace for all,” says Chris Todd, CEO at UKG. “We are committed to exploring how all emerging technologies, including GenAI, can enhance the workplace experience for everyone.”

The new collaboration promises even deeper benefits to UKG, a company that has been expanding beyond HR tech to support the broader employee journey and experience through improved efficiencies, less day-to-day friction and insights that will help managers take action in a way that will better support employees. This partnership signals that continued commitment.