The ten tools at a glance
Every HR platform now has AI. What it may do differs a lot: some answer questions, some draft an action for a person to confirm, and a few act on their own. The table sets out what each vendor says on its own website. Worklayer is our own product.
| Tool | What the AI does | Acts on its own? | Approval model | AI pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BambooHR | Ask BambooHR answers questions; Bamboo AI prepares work and suggests next steps | No, Bamboo AI is in beta | Payroll runs, schedule changes and employee outreach are reviewed first | Assistant scope by plan; use may be limited without notice |
| Deel | Deel AI assistant in the app and Slack; AI Workforce agents | No, your team deploys agents when needed | AI work in workflows is flagged for review | Assistant included; agents a paid add-on, price not published |
| Factorial | One, a personal AI agent; a recruiting agent | Recruiting agent only, on your rules | One asks before it acts | Daily limit by plan |
| HiBob | Bob AI answers questions and prepares actions | No | A person approves every action | Monthly limits and extra fees possible |
| Leapsome | Four pre-built agents: coaching, HR processes, a helpdesk and analytics | Within the access you set; you can't build your own | Sign-off on consequential steps | Limited on Foundation; advanced agents with Pro |
| Leena AI | An HR assistant for employees and autonomous AI Colleagues, on top of your HRIS | Yes, AI Colleagues | Permissions inherited from your systems; high-risk actions need approval | Assistant flat per employee; Colleagues platform fee plus tokens; quote only |
| Moveworks | An AI assistant that searches and acts across your apps, owned by ServiceNow | Yes, when an employee asks | Follows your existing approval flows and access controls | Custom quote |
| Personio | Personio Assistant answers questions and analyses data; a talent screening agent | No | A person makes every screening decision | Credits for some features |
| Rippling | Rippling AI answers questions and prepares actions | IT Helpdesk agent only | A person confirms every other action | Access on request, limits at Rippling's discretion |
| Worklayer | An assistant for every employee, and agents admins build | Yes, on a schedule or when something happens | Admins grant each agent's permissions; missing ones stop the run and ask | Included: no credits and no caps, subject to fair use |
Two of the ten are not HR systems. Leena AI and Moveworks sit on top of the HR, IT and finance systems a company already runs, and they sell to large enterprises. The other eight hold your employee records themselves.
Tool by tool
BambooHR
An HR platform for small and mid-sized businesses from Draper, Utah, founded in 2008 and used by more than 30,000 customers. Its Core, Pro and Elite plans cover HR data, time off and hiring.
- What it is
- HR software with US payroll and benefits as paid add-ons.
- AI
- Ask BambooHR answers questions: HR data on Core, policies and documents from Pro, benchmark analysis on Elite. Bamboo AI, in open beta, prepares work and suggests next steps.
- Acts on its own
- No. BambooHR says payroll runs, schedule changes, job structure updates and employee outreach need review before they are applied or sent.
- Pricing
- Plans from $10 per employee per month for Core to $25 for Elite, with a flat $250 to $650 a month for 25 or fewer employees. BambooHR may limit AI use without notice.
- Strengths
- US payroll and benefits, recruiting with 5 to 50 open jobs, and published plan prices.
- Limits
- Bamboo AI is still in beta, and so is its audit trail. How much the assistant covers depends on your plan.
Deel
A global payroll and HR platform, founded in 2019 and used by more than 40,000 companies. Deel HR comes in three plans, and payroll, employer of record, recruiting and AI agents are priced separately.
- What it is
- Payroll in many countries, employer of record and HR in one platform.
- AI
- The Deel AI assistant, in the app and in Slack, is included with every Deel product. AI Workforce agents handle defined jobs.
- Acts on its own
- No. Deel says your team deploys its agents when it wants answers or help, and the AI step in its workflows is a first pass that flags its work for review. The agents' reasoning is logged.
- Pricing
- Deel HR from $5 to $29 per employee per month. AI Workforce agents are a paid add-on priced by usage and scope, with no published price.
- Strengths
- Payroll in more than 130 countries and employer of record from the same vendor as HR.
- Limits
- The agents' price comes only with a quote, and the AI keeps a person in charge of every decision.
Factorial
An HR, finance and IT platform from Barcelona, founded in 2016 and used by more than 17,000 companies. Core HR is the base, and other modules are sold separately.
- What it is
- Modular HR software with time, payroll preparation, expenses, recruiting and IT tools as separate modules.
- AI
- One, a personal AI agent, and a recruiting agent that calls candidates and screens them.
- Acts on its own
- Partly. Factorial says One asks before it acts. The recruiting agent moves candidates who meet your threshold to the next stage on rules your team sets.
- Pricing
- Core from €8 per user, other modules on top, at least 10 to 19 seats depending on the country. One has a daily limit that depends on each person's plan.
- Strengths
- Recruiting, a DATEV export, and IT and finance tools on one platform.
- Limits
- No agent permissions or run history, and the AI's daily use depends on the plan.
HiBob
An HR platform founded in 2015 and used by more than 5,500 companies, with offices in New York, London, Berlin and other cities.
- What it is
- HR software for mid-sized companies, with payroll, recruiting and compensation as add-ons.
- AI
- Bob AI answers questions and proposes actions in Bob.
- Acts on its own
- No. HiBob says Bob AI always needs a person to approve actions that affect company data.
- Pricing
- On request. HiBob's fair use policy allows monthly limits on AI requests and extra fees for heavy use.
- Strengths
- UK and US payroll, recruiting and compensation planning, each as an add-on.
- Limits
- No published prices, and a person approves every AI action, which caps how much work the AI takes off HR.
Leapsome
A people platform from Berlin, founded in 2016 and used by more than 2,000 companies. It started with performance reviews, goals and engagement, and has added core HR and AI agents.
- What it is
- Performance, engagement and learning, with core HR on the same platform.
- AI
- Four pre-built agents: Development Coach for 1:1s and growth, PeopleOps Partner for onboarding, role changes and offboarding, HR Helpdesk in the app or in Slack, and Data Analyst. An MCP connector in every plan links agents built elsewhere.
- Acts on its own
- Partly. Leapsome says its agents act only inside the access you set, with a person signing off consequential steps. You can't build your own agents inside Leapsome, and a person approves each change an outside agent makes through MCP.
- Pricing
- €40 per employee per month with every module at list prices. AI features are limited on Foundation, and advanced AI agents come with Pro.
- Strengths
- OKRs, engagement surveys and learning next to core HR, every agent action logged, and an MCP connector on every plan.
- Limits
- Pre-built agents only, and advanced AI agents need the Pro plan.
Leena AI
An AI platform for HR, IT and finance service desks in large companies, based in New York, with more than 500 enterprise customers by its own count. It runs on top of systems such as Workday, SAP and ServiceNow rather than replacing them.
- What it is
- An AI layer over your existing HRIS and ticketing tools, not an HR system of record.
- AI
- A Universal HR Assistant that employees ask about leave, benefits, payroll questions and policies, and AI Colleagues: agents that follow written procedures, built by the team that owns the process.
- Acts on its own
- Yes. Leena AI's line is that the assistant works when a person asks, and an AI Colleague runs on its own, such as screening every résumé or watching a queue.
- Pricing
- No published prices. The assistant is a flat licence per employee per year with unlimited use; the AI Colleagues platform is an annual fee plus usage billed in tokens. Quote after a six-question form.
- Strengths
- More than 200 pre-built enterprise connectors, permissions inherited from your source systems, a replayable log of every step, and high-risk actions such as record updates behind explicit approval.
- Limits
- Built for enterprises: Leena AI says customers go live in 45 days on average. It needs an HR system underneath it.
Moveworks
An AI assistant platform for employee support across IT, HR and finance, now owned by ServiceNow. More than 350 large organisations use it, by its own count.
- What it is
- An AI front door over the apps a company already has, such as Workday, ServiceNow and Microsoft 365, not an HR system of record.
- AI
- An AI assistant employees ask in chat, web and portals, for answers and tasks such as booking time off or updating an address, plus Tool Studio for building agents.
- Acts on its own
- When an employee asks. Moveworks says it completes requests end to end across systems.
- Pricing
- No published prices: a custom quote after a call with sales.
- Strengths
- Works across hundreds of enterprise systems in more than 100 languages, respects existing approval flows and access controls, and logs every system access.
- Limits
- Aimed at large enterprises, and it needs an HR system underneath it. Moveworks says time to value is typically eight weeks.
Personio
An HR suite from Munich, founded in 2015 and used by more than 16,000 companies. It covers core HR, time tracking and payroll for Germany, with recruiting, performance and more as paid apps.
- What it is
- HR software for companies of 10 to 10,000 employees, mostly in Europe.
- AI
- Personio Assistant answers HR questions and analyses your data. The Talent Screening Agent checks job applications against your criteria.
- Acts on its own
- No. A person makes every screening decision, and an AI that runs multi-step workflows is on Personio's roadmap.
- Pricing
- Quote after a demo, with a one-time setup fee. Some AI features run on credits that stop when they run out, until an admin buys more or turns on paid usage.
- Strengths
- Payroll for Germany in the same system, more than 200 integrations, and recruiting and performance as apps.
- Limits
- No published prices, and some of the AI is metered in credits.
Rippling
An HR, IT and finance platform from San Francisco, used by more than 30,000 businesses. Each product is bought separately on top of a required core platform.
- What it is
- HR, payroll, device management and spend tools from one vendor.
- AI
- Rippling AI, launched in March 2026, answers questions and prepares actions. AI automations that run on schedules and events are behind a waitlist.
- Acts on its own
- Only the IT Helpdesk agent, which resolves requests such as password resets. Every other action Rippling AI proposes needs a person to confirm it.
- Pricing
- On request. Existing customers have to request access to Rippling AI, and AI use is limited at Rippling's discretion.
- Strengths
- Payroll in Germany, the US and many other countries, employer of record, and IT and finance tools in the same system.
- Limits
- No published prices, and scheduled or event-driven AI is not generally available yet.
Worklayer
Worklayer is our own product: an HR platform run by AI agents. It holds your employee records, time, leave, expenses and documents, and prepares payroll for your provider. It does not run payroll, recruiting or performance reviews.
- What it is
- HR software with people and org, time and leave, preliminary payroll, expenses, documents and analytics in one price.
- AI
- An AI assistant every employee can ask, on the web and in Slack, and agents that admins build for onboarding, leave, expenses and payroll preparation.
- Acts on its own
- Yes. Agents run on a schedule or when something happens, such as a new hire or a leave request, using only the tools and data an admin has granted. A step that needs a permission the agent lacks stops and asks an admin, and every run is recorded step by step.
- Pricing
- €10 per employee per month ($12, £9), billed annually, with every module, every integration and unlimited AI: no credits and no caps, subject to fair use. Free for up to 3 employees.
- Strengths
- You build your own agents, admins control every permission, and the AI is in the one published price.
How to evaluate AI in HR software
Demos show the AI answering a question. Ask each vendor about these five points to learn what it will do with your data when nobody is watching.
- 1.
What it can change without approval
Ask for a list of actions the AI completes on its own and the ones a person confirms. "Human in the loop" can mean one approval per run or one per field. In Worklayer, an agent acts within the permissions an admin granted, and some actions can never be granted: deleting employee records, changing pay or bank details, roles and permissions.
- 2.
Who grants its permissions
Some tools give the AI the rights of the person who asks. Others let admins set them per agent. Check what a new agent can do on day one. In Worklayer it can do nothing until an admin grants read or read and write per area, as Controls and permissions explains.
- 3.
Whether every action is logged
You will need to show what the AI did and why, for an employee query or an audit. Ask whether the log records each step, the data it read and the change it made, and whether it covers the beta features too. Worklayer records every run in its audit trail.
- 4.
Credits, caps and fair use
Credits, tokens, daily limits and fair use clauses all decide how much work the AI can take on. Ask what happens when a limit is reached mid-month and what heavy use costs. Worklayer's AI has no credits and no caps, subject to fair use.
- 5.
Where the model runs and who processes the data
Ask which AI providers process your employee data, in which regions, under which contract terms, and whether they keep prompts. Get the answer in writing from the vendor's data processing documents rather than a sales deck, and ask Worklayer the same.
For the wider picture of where AI fits in HR work, read our guide to AI in HR.
Questions
HR software that uses AI to answer employee questions, prepare tasks or carry them out. Most tools today offer an assistant that answers and drafts, with a person confirming each action. A smaller group runs agents that finish work on their own within permissions you set.
Of the tools here, Worklayer's agents run on a schedule or when something happens, within the permissions an admin grants. Leena AI's AI Colleagues run on their own on top of your existing HR system. Leapsome's four pre-built agents act inside the access you set, with sign-off on consequential steps. Rippling's IT Helpdesk agent and Factorial's recruiting agent act on their own for their one job. Bamboo AI, Bob AI, Factorial's One and Rippling AI ask a person to confirm.
Often not fully. Personio charges credits for some AI features, Deel sells its agents as an add-on, Leena AI bills its agents in tokens, and HiBob, BambooHR, Factorial and Rippling can limit use. Worklayer includes unlimited AI in €10 per employee per month: no credits and no caps, subject to fair use. See Worklayer pricing
An assistant works when someone asks it something, and usually answers or drafts. An agent is started by an event or a schedule and carries out a task, such as setting up a new hire's accounts or checking a month's leave before payroll. Leena AI draws the same line: who triggers the work decides which one it is. How Worklayer's agents work
No. Both sit on top of the systems a company already has, such as Workday, SAP or ServiceNow, and answer and act through them. You still need an HR system to hold employee records. Both sell to large enterprises and quote prices on request.
It depends on the tool and its settings, so ask the vendor. In Worklayer, changing compensation or bank details, deleting employee records, and changing roles and permissions can never be granted to an agent. Controls and permissions