Recognition tech is beating AI hype. Here's what HR should do now
Here's the irony HR has been feeling for a while: The more AI takes over headlines, the more employees ask for human things. While 89% of senior HR leaders expect AI to affect jobs this year, employee expectations aren't about tech readiness. They're surging around wellbeing, belonging, and flexibility. That's the gap to close right now.
What employees actually want
- 58% value a company that cares about wellbeing over a 10% raise (up 14 points since 2023).
- Schedule control jumped 13 points.
- Manager concern for wellbeing rose 12 points.
- Learning and growth climbed 10 points.
These are relational needs, not feature requests. If you focus here, performance and retention follow.
The tech that's delivering ROI (hint: it's recognition)
The tools moving the needle aren't the flashy ones. 84% of managers say technology helps manage overwhelm. Formal recognition programs boost eNPS at levels comparable to bonuses-at a fraction of the cost.
Seventy-five percent of employees say recognition motivates them to work harder, and 78% say it matters even without money attached. That's a high-impact lever you can scale fast.
Why AI ROI lags without foundations
Research continues to show the same pattern: AI spend outruns returns when skills, culture, and manager readiness are weak. Budgets disappear into pilots while outcomes stall. Talent gaps block maturity, and low engagement undercuts adoption.
Translation for HR: Build the human system first. Then layer AI on top of a team that's ready to use it.
Do this next quarter
- Stand up a simple, company-wide recognition program with clear criteria, peer-to-peer visibility, and manager prompts. Cap rewards to protect budget.
- Standardize 1:1s: 20 minutes weekly, with a consistent agenda (wins, blockers, priorities, wellbeing check).
- Equip managers: short training on feedback, psychological safety, and workload triage. Focus on two repeatable behaviors, not a 40-page playbook.
- Adopt an engagement platform that automates shout-outs, surfaces milestones, and integrates with your daily tools.
- Measure what matters: eNPS, recognition frequency per FTE, 1:1 coverage rate, platform utilization, 90-day regrettable turnover. Baseline now, review monthly.
- Pause low-yield AI pilots. Reallocate budget to recognition and manager enablement until core metrics improve.
- Prep for AI the right way: build skills where work happens (prompts, data literacy, change habits). If you need practical upskilling by role, see these course paths.
HR tech in the news
- Workday: Co-founder Aneel Bhusri returns as CEO, succeeding Carl Eschenbach. He calls AI a once-in-a-generation opportunity and plans to lead Workday into a "fourth chapter" of transformation.
- Nium: New C-suite hires-Sekhar Cidambi (CTO), Amaresh Mohan (Chief Risk & Compliance Officer), and Danielle Gotkis (CMO).
- Workplace futurist Alexandra Levit co-authored "Make School Work" with GPS Education Partners, outlining a six-part framework for scalable work-based learning.
- Rain (earned wage access) launched a Microsoft Teams integration so employees can check available earned wages before payday inside their daily workflow.
- Country Navigator released Carla 3.0, an AI cultural intelligence coach for on-demand cross-cultural teamwork support.
- Everest Group projects the U.S. B2B earned wage access market to grow from $400M+ (2023) to $1.5B+ by 2029, driven by SMB and mid-market adoption.
- Josh Bersin Company: AI-first learning teams are 28x more likely to unlock employee potential and 6x more likely to exceed financial targets than top 2022 learning orgs.
- Indeed launched an app within ChatGPT, letting job seekers search roles directly in the chatbot interface.
- Vida Health expanded clinical coverage to support patients with noncirrhotic metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, broadening employer options for obesity-related care.
- Phenom acquired Be Applied to combine applied AI with evidence-based assessments for skills-first hiring.
- Oracle plans to raise $45-$50B in 2026 to expand cloud infrastructure capacity for AI workloads from customers including OpenAI, Meta, NVIDIA, and xAI.
- Policy watch: Lawmakers heard testimony that patchwork state AI laws may be broken; new federal rules for workplace AI are on the table.
- Funding: VCs invested $6.24B in work tech in 2025, with a 31% jump in average deal size-even as lawsuits against AI leaders could reset HR use cases.
- Event: Submissions for Top HR Products at HR Tech 2026 are open. Deadline: Friday, March 27.
The bottom line for HR
Invest where employees feel it: recognition, manager enablement, and practical engagement tools. Use clear metrics, short feedback loops, and hold leaders accountable to the basics. Build skills and culture now so AI sticks later-without burning budget on pilots people won't use.
If you're ready to upskill teams on practical AI by role, explore curated HR-focused paths.
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