ADP expands AWS tie-up to boost AI in HR & payroll

ADP and Amazon Web Services have expanded their strategic partnership, with a focus on artificial intelligence in human resources, payroll and workforce management.

Under the agreement, AWS becomes ADP's strategic cloud provider as the payroll and HR group expands its use of generative and agentic AI across its products.

ADP serves more than 1.1 million clients across 140 countries and territories. The partnership is intended to help organisations manage growing workforce complexity as AI reshapes work processes.

A key element is ADP's broader migration of core systems to AWS. ADP said it has used tools including AWS Transform and AWS Kiro to reduce the manual work involved in moving thousands of applications, including tax and payroll systems, to the cloud.

The migration is intended to help ADP roll out new AI features more quickly while meeting demand across markets. It also supports security, privacy and compliance requirements across geographies.

AI tools

Another focus is ADP Assist, the company's AI assistant for HR and payroll users. Built on AWS with Amazon Bedrock, it is designed to automate routine processes, detect and correct payroll anomalies, answer complex questions and generate reports.

ADP is also developing purpose-built AI agents for employees, managers, and HR and payroll practitioners. The company said the agents are intended to think, plan and take action under human oversight.

The expanded partnership also covers ADP Lyric HCM, ADP's human capital management platform. ADP said AWS cloud and AI technology underpin the platform, which combines HR, payroll, talent and workforce management functions.

The companies said their work on Lyric has already produced a generative AI-based client onboarding process that cut certain critical steps by more than 50%. They did not disclose financial terms of the broader partnership.

Data platform

ADP is also using AWS to develop its global data platform, which it said draws on workforce information covering 42 million wage earners worldwide. ADP described the dataset as the foundation for AI features used across its HCM products.

The platform builds on ADP's 77 years in payroll and HR administration. It is intended to support more tailored services for clients while embedding security, privacy and compliance into the system's design.

The announcement builds on an existing relationship between the two companies, including ADP's work with the AWS Generative AI Innovation Centre, which helps businesses design and launch generative and agentic AI systems.

"ADP is setting the standard for how AI can transform human capital management at global scale," said Scott Liska, Vice President, AWS. "By combining ADP's deep expertise in payroll and HR with AWS's comprehensive AI and cloud capabilities, this partnership gives companies a smarter and more efficient way to manage their people and orchestrate work across the employee lifecycle."

"AI is transforming how work gets done, but it also increases the complexity of managing a global workforce. Organisations need trusted partners that can combine advanced AI with deep domain expertise," said Sreeni Kutam, President of Global Product and Innovation at ADP. "Through our partnership with AWS, we're delivering faster, more intelligent innovation that helps our clients make high-stakes workforce decisions with greater confidence. By combining AI innovation with human expertise, we are creating meaningful outcomes for employees, managers, HR professionals, and payroll practitioners."