AI is forcing HR to confront the data, systems, and compliance problems that manual work used to hide.
HR technology has spent years patching problems together with disconnected systems, spreadsheets, and human intervention. Now AI, compliance, risk, data quality, and HR technology are forcing those problems into the open. Susan Richards says the pressure is no longer just about adopting new technology. It is about whether the underlying data and processes can actually support the future.
In this episode… Susan breaks down what she is seeing across the HR tech market, why compliance has become such a prominent concern, and how AI is exposing problems that organizations could previously work around behind the scenes.
Key Takeaways :
Compliance has moved to the center of HR tech conversations. Susan says it was the first time in about 15 years that she heard compliance consistently raised as a top client concern.
AI is surfacing bad data faster. Organizations once had time to manually piece together, clean up, and work around messy information. AI’s demand for speed leaves less room to hide those problems.
“Speed of thought” changes the standard. When HR expects technology to deliver answers almost instantly, outdated systems and unreliable data become much harder to ignore.
HR tech categories are expanding, not simply replacing each other. Sapient Insights went from reporting on roughly 14–15 categories in 2020 to 22 categories the following year, with the research continuing to grow.
Technology transformation creates people problems too. Sapient Insights works not only on technology problems but also on leadership, change, and culture issues that surface during transformation.
The real problem may be underneath the technology. AI can accelerate what organizations already have. If the underlying data and processes are messy, faster technology can simply expose the mess faster.
This episode was recorded live at SHRM Annual 2026
The Heroes of HR podcast is a limited series sponsored by isolved.
isolved is an HCM platform that modernizes HR, benefits, and payroll across Healthcare, Hospitality, Manufacturing, and more.
Learn more about isolved: https://www.isolvedhcm.com/
Guest : Susan Richards
Founder & Owner at Sapient Insights, Susan Richards works at the intersection of HR technology, research, leadership, change, and culture, with a particular focus on the problems organizations encounter when technology transformation meets real-world HR operations.
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/susansapientinsights/
The Heroes of HR Podcast is hosted by
Amy Miller, Product Evangelist at isolved
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amycmiller/
Ryan Leary, Co-founder at WRKdefined
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanleary/
William Tincup, Co-founder at WRKdefined
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tincup/
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