The future of work in HR: AI agents, skills-first growth, and trusted intelligence
The future of work isn't creeping along - it's accelerating. New research shows employees using AI are saving an average of 75 minutes a day. The opportunity for HR is clear: reinvest that time into innovation, connection, and impact while building a workforce that can flex with change.
Economic shifts, new regulations, and a global skills crunch demand a tighter link between people and business. This isn't just a phase. It's a window to rethink how HR leads agility, resilience, and growth.
How SAP SuccessFactors is moving HR forward
SAP SuccessFactors brings trusted intelligence and operational strength together across core HR and payroll, talent acquisition, talent management, and people analytics. SAP Business AI is embedded across the HCM suite, and SAP BTP enables extension and customization. With over 10,000 customers, the focus is consistent: give HR the tools to act fast and act with confidence.
Agentic AI in action: Joule for HR
Joule, SAP's AI copilot, is integrated across enterprise applications to provide real-time assistance through a conversational interface. It currently covers roughly 80% of the most-used tasks in SAP systems and supports 11 languages. The first HR-focused Joule Agent - the Performance and Goals Agent - is set to be generally available next month to help managers run higher-impact conversations with targeted insights and live goal progress.
Next up, four more agents coming to SAP SuccessFactors in the first half of 2026:
- Career and Talent Development Agent: Automates succession planning and helps managers spot and develop future leaders.
- HR Service Agent: Acts as a direct point of contact for employees and reduces time spent answering routine questions.
- Payroll Agent: Combines paycheck details with time data to explain pay (for example, flag unexpected overtime) and suggest next steps.
- People Intelligence Agent: Connects People Intelligence in SAP Business Data Cloud with Joule and SAP SuccessFactors, enabling natural-language questions and intuitive workforce analytics.
A workforce knowledge network inside your flow of work
To bring even more context to decisions, a new workforce knowledge network lets Joule pull in third-party content from industry experts. Content from G-P (Globalization Partners) and The Josh Bersin Company flows directly into Joule, enabling agent-to-agent interaction and guidance grounded in trusted research.
HR leaders can access G-P Gia for global employment guidance within Joule. They can also ask questions like, "What are best practices for hiring engineers in a high-cost location?" and receive research-backed recommendations from Galileo, an AI agent from The Josh Bersin Company used by thousands of users across hundreds of companies.
Operational strength: updates in core HR
- New SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Scheduling (Early adopter January 2026): Build smarter, demand-aligned schedules with required skills in mind to reduce admin, avoid over/understaffing, and maintain compliance.
- Enhanced time-off capabilities in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central (Generally available next month): Support complex, country-specific leave rules in markets including Australia, Germany, and the U.S., simplifying processes for managers and employees while staying compliant.
- SAP SuccessFactors Enterprise Service Management (Generally available now): Streamline HR service delivery with automated workflows and service requests so HR can focus on high-value work.
Better decisions with People Intelligence
People Intelligence in SAP Business Data Cloud turns people, skills, and business data into actionable insights. Initial capabilities announced at SAP Sapphire 2025 are now generally available. New prebuilt insights cover recruiting, learning, succession, career development planning, and performance and goals management.
More prebuilt insights are planned for May 2026 across rewards and recognition, benefits, time management, and onboarding. The goal: faster, clearer decisions that link workforce moves to business outcomes.
Hiring, upgraded: SmartRecruiters + SAP
SAP's acquisition of SmartRecruiters strengthens an AI-driven approach to attracting, recruiting, and hiring. By combining SAP SuccessFactors scale, SAP Business AI, and SmartRecruiters' expertise, organizations get an end-to-end global hiring solution that simplifies recruiting and aligns every hire to business and workforce goals.
What HR leaders can do now
- Pick one process to automate with Joule (for example, performance check-ins or HR service Q&A) and run a 60-90 day pilot with clear success metrics.
- Tighten data quality and access controls across HR, payroll, and learning. If you need a framework, review the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
- Refresh your skills taxonomy and link it to succession, learning paths, and internal mobility. Make managers accountable for skills signals in quarterly talent reviews.
- Baseline time saved from AI today (for instance, the 75 minutes/day benchmark) and reinvest it into coaching, career development, and strategic projects.
- Upskill HR and managers on practical AI use. If you need a curated starting point, explore AI courses by job role.
Watch the keynote replay
Missed the announcements at Success Connect in Las Vegas? Register for SAP Connect Virtual on October 9 to catch the keynote replay and see these innovations in action.
