September has been quite a month for HR and payroll technology!

First, a special mention for the payroll professionals celebrated during the CIPP's National Payroll Week. It's an important reminder of just how much expertise sits behind getting people paid accurately, on time and in line with ever-changing requirements. Payroll might not always get the recognition it deserves, but its contribution to the employee experience and wider business is enormous.

Elsewhere, September brought new product launches, strategic partnerships, industry recognition and the publication of Fosway Group's latest 9-Grid™ for Cloud HR.

And the Fosway research provides a particularly interesting backdrop to this month's news.

Its central message? AI might be shaping demand, but organisations are still investing most confidently in technology that can demonstrate real operational value. Payroll, workforce management, connected processes and getting more from existing systems remain firmly in focus.

It's a useful reminder that innovation and business value aren't necessarily the same thing.

Here's what caught our eye this month 👇

Fosway's latest Cloud HR research: AI is advancing, but operational value still matters

The September 2026 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Cloud HR provides an independent look at how the market is developing, and this year's findings offer plenty for HR leaders to think about.

One of the strongest themes is the continued resilience of the Cloud HR market, despite uneven growth and greater scrutiny around new investment.

Organisations are increasingly prioritising business performance, profitability and simplifying their technology ecosystems. While AI remains a major area of innovation, Fosway notes that operational depth, product sophistication and expansion within existing customers remain more dependable drivers of vendor growth.

The research also highlights several important developments:

• HR suites are broadening their capabilities across HCM, payroll and workforce management, although specialist providers continue to offer valuable depth in particular areas.
• Workforce intelligence needs to move beyond job titles and static skills profiles to understand the actual work people do.
• AI is beginning to remove the need for employees to navigate traditional HR systems, making access through everyday workplace tools increasingly important.
• Agentic AI introduces new questions around governance, accountability and cost predictability.

Why this matters: There is a temptation to assess HR technology based on which vendor has announced the most exciting new capabilities. But as Fosway highlights, broader functionality doesn't automatically translate into better outcomes.

For HR leaders reviewing their technology, the real questions remain: Does the platform support the complexity of our organisation? Can we demonstrate its value? Will it work with our wider technology ecosystem? And do we have the internal capability to make the most of it?

The research also reinforces why vendor selection needs to consider total cost of ownership, implementation and ongoing service, rather than functionality alone.

🔗 Read more – Fosway 9-Grid™ for Cloud HR, 2026

Dayforce and UKG receive recognition across HCM and workforce management

September brought significant analyst recognition for both Dayforce and UKG.

Dayforce was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for HCM Suites for 1,000+ Employee Enterprises for the seventh consecutive year. It was also recognised in Gartner's inaugural Magic Quadrant for Workforce Management Technology.

UKG likewise announced Leader recognition in both Gartner reports.

The introduction of a dedicated Workforce Management Magic Quadrant is particularly interesting when considered alongside Fosway's latest research.

Fosway identifies payroll and workforce management as operational areas where organisations can more readily demonstrate business value. It also highlights the increasing importance of connecting workforce management with core HR and payroll, particularly for frontline organisations.

Why this matters: Workforce management shouldn't be treated as an afterthought in a broader HR technology project.

For organisations managing shifts, complex scheduling, time and attendance, variable pay or large frontline populations, these capabilities have a direct impact on operational performance and payroll accuracy.

Analyst recognition provides useful market context, but buyers still need to test how well a platform supports their specific workforce requirements and how effectively its different components work together.

🔗 Read more – Dayforce recognised in the Gartner HCM Magic Quadrant

🔗 Read more – Dayforce recognised in the Gartner Workforce Management Magic Quadrant

🔗 Read more – UKG recognised in the Gartner Workforce Management Magic Quadrant

🔗 Read more – UKG recognised in the Gartner HCM Magic Quadrant

HiBob brings external expertise and workforce intelligence together

HiBob has announced a partnership with The Josh Bersin Company, introducing Galileo-powered workforce intelligence directly into Bob.

The integration combines external HR research and expertise with an organisation's own workforce information, giving HR teams and managers access to contextual guidance within their existing workflows.

Initial use cases include job architecture, compensation and performance management.

The announcement follows a Brandon Hall Group review of HiBob's HCM platform, which explored its approach to bringing workforce information and business operations together.

This direction also connects closely with another finding from Fosway's research: workforce intelligence needs to become more dynamic.

Traditional approaches often rely on job titles, established roles and historical skills data. But as work changes, organisations increasingly need to understand the tasks people perform, where new capabilities are required and how employees might move into different roles.

Why this matters: Access to workforce data is one thing. Knowing what to do with it is another.

Bringing relevant external expertise together with internal workforce information could help HR teams and managers make better-informed decisions without relying on disconnected reports or manual research.

However, the usefulness of those insights will still depend on the quality of the underlying data and how effectively organisations maintain it.

🔗 Read more – HiBob and The Josh Bersin Company launch Galileo-powered workforce intelligence

🔗 Read more – Brandon Hall Group's HCM platform review of HiBob

MHR updates People First and strengthens its product leadership

MHR has announced an updated version of People First, with new capabilities designed to connect HR, payroll, finance and workforce information.

Unveiled at its World of Work 2026 event, the updated platform includes an embedded AI assistant, skills-based workforce capabilities, enhanced expense management and greater visibility of the financial impact of people decisions.

One particularly interesting development is the ability for managers to understand how headcount decisions affect business costs.

The updated platform is scheduled for global availability from April 2027.

MHR has also appointed Kerry Crewe as Chief Product Officer. Having spent 27 years with the business, Crewe will focus on aligning product development with customer requirements and business outcomes.

Why this matters: Workforce planning is becoming much more than an HR exercise.

As organisations look to connect people strategy with business performance, understanding the relationship between headcount, skills, capacity and cost is increasingly important.

Fosway's research also identifies organisational modelling as an emerging area of HCM innovation, with more vendors bringing workforce scenario planning into their core platforms.

For HR leaders, the opportunity is to move from reporting on the workforce they have today towards modelling what the organisation might need tomorrow.

🔗 Read more – MHR launches updated People First platform

🔗 Read more – MHR appoints Kerry Crewe as Chief Product Officer

ADP expands its partnership with AWS to accelerate AI innovation

ADP has announced an expanded strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), combining ADP's HR, payroll and compliance expertise with AWS cloud and AI technology.

The partnership will support further development of ADP Assist, including purpose-built AI agents designed to help HR and payroll professionals automate processes, identify payroll anomalies, answer complex questions and generate reports.

AWS technology also supports ADP Lyric HCM, with the partnership intended to accelerate innovation across ADP's wider portfolio.

Interestingly, Fosway's latest report identifies a shift in payroll intelligence from explaining errors after they've occurred towards identifying and preventing issues earlier in the process.

Why this matters: For payroll teams, the potential value of AI isn't simply about answering questions faster.

Identifying anomalies before a payroll run, validating inputs and highlighting potential issues earlier could help reduce corrections and improve the overall pay experience.

But as these capabilities develop, organisations will also need to understand the controls behind them, particularly where AI moves from identifying a problem to taking action.

🔗 Read more – ADP expands its strategic partnership with AWS

Factorial celebrates ten years and makes HR more accessible through Microsoft

Happy tenth anniversary to Factorial!

Celebrating its milestone on 16 September, Factorial shared that it has grown to more than 17,000 customers globally, supporting fast-growing SMBs across their hire-to-retire processes.

The company is also continuing to develop Factorial One, its agentic AI offering, alongside integrations with Microsoft Copilot, Outlook and Teams.

According to Factorial, users can complete everyday HR activities such as booking time off, checking company policies and approving expenses directly through familiar Microsoft applications.

Factorial One is built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, and the platform is also available through Microsoft Marketplace.

This development connects particularly well with one of the more interesting themes in Fosway's research: the evolution towards what some vendors describe as 'headless HR'.

Essentially, employees shouldn't always need to open their HR system to access an HR service.

Why this matters: HR technology adoption can be a challenge, particularly when employees and managers have to navigate multiple platforms to complete relatively straightforward tasks.

Making HR services available through tools people already use could reduce friction and improve the employee experience.

And with these capabilities increasingly reaching the SMB market, it's another sign that sophisticated, connected HR technology is no longer exclusive to large enterprises.

🔗 Read more – Factorial celebrates its tenth anniversary

🔗 Watch – Factorial's latest product releases

Cezanne focuses on practical payroll improvements and employee support

Cezanne's September release brings several practical improvements across its platform, including additional payroll export options, API enhancements and AI-powered support.

Three new payment file export formats have been introduced, covering Bank of Ireland UK BACS, HSBC Hex4W BACS and Danske Bank Faster Payments.

The release also includes additional API functionality for regular pay schedules and additions and deductions, alongside updated bank holiday libraries and greater flexibility around performance management terminology.

Cezanne has also introduced an AI Helpdesk designed to answer common support questions and guide users towards relevant information.

Why this matters: Not every valuable development needs to be a major product launch.

For HR and payroll teams, additional export formats, better integrations and improvements to everyday processes can make a meaningful difference.

Fosway's research makes a similar point about HR service delivery. While AI can make it easier for employees to access information and initiate requests, organisations still need clear processes, ownership and appropriate human support behind the technology.

The aim should be to make HR services easier to access and resolve, rather than simply introducing another interface.

🔗 Read more – Cezanne September 2026 release notes

Workday appoints Sarah Kennedy Ellis as Chief Marketing Officer

Workday has announced the appointment of Sarah Kennedy Ellis as Chief Marketing Officer, effective 5 October 2026.

Kennedy Ellis joins from Google, where she led global marketing for Google Cloud and Google Workspace. Her previous experience also includes senior marketing leadership roles at Adobe Experience Cloud and Marketo.

She will lead Workday's global marketing and communications function as the company continues to develop its enterprise AI positioning across HR, finance and IT.

Why this matters: As HR technology vendors expand their capabilities, the audience for their products is changing too.

HR technology decisions increasingly involve finance, IT, operations and wider business leadership, particularly where platforms connect workforce information with broader enterprise processes.

For HR leaders, building a business case that reflects those wider priorities is becoming just as important as demonstrating the benefits to the HR function itself.

🔗 Read more – Workday appoints Sarah Kennedy Ellis as CMO

Final Thoughts

September's developments paint an interesting picture of where the HR tech market is heading.

Vendors are continuing to invest in AI, workforce intelligence and more connected platforms, while analyst research reinforces the importance of operational depth, measurable outcomes and getting more value from existing technology.

Perhaps the most important message from Fosway's latest report is that transformation is about more than simply about acquiring new capabilities.

It's about understanding where technology can genuinely improve the way an organisation works, whether that's preventing payroll errors, helping managers make better workforce decisions or allowing employees to access HR services without navigating multiple systems.

And as platforms become broader and more intelligent, HR leaders will need to pay increasing attention to the less glamorous questions too:

How well does everything integrate? Who is accountable when an AI agent takes action? What will the technology cost as adoption increases? And do we have the processes, data and people in place to realise its potential?