IRIS Software Group Unveils Generative AI, Chatbot and Automation Features for HR, Recruitment and Payroll Professionals

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Posted: 12th June 2024

New intelligent functionality in Networx, Cascade and Staffology platforms will help more than 3,600 businesses reduce time spent on manual processes

London, UK – 12 June, 2024 – From the CIPD Festival of Work tradeshow, IRIS Software Group (IRIS), a leading global software provider of accountancy, edtech, HR and payroll solutions, today announced the integration of new generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), chatbot and automation functionality within its Networx recruitment, Cascade HR and Staffology payroll platforms. Integrating these intelligent technologies will help more than 3,600 businesses streamline workflows, enhance productivity and operational efficiencies.

Building Job Descriptions with Generative AI

Recent research indicates 68% of organisations have increased their use of AI tools in the recruitment process. To help HR professionals and recruiters save time, IRIS has integrated new GenAI functionality into its recruitment software Networx – boosting productivity for more than 400 businesses.

First introduced as a trial in July 2023 and now generally available, HR and recruiting professionals can instantly build full job descriptions with GenAI by inputting the basic information for a role, such as job title, salary, location and company benefits. While human oversight, review and approval is still required, this feature helps remove the bulk of manual effort for HR professionals, freeing them up to focus on more high-level and strategic tasks.

Enhancing User Experience with Chatbot Functionality

In June 2024, IRIS unveiled ‘IRIS Cascade Assistant’, a new Chatbot feature. Powered by natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms, the Cascade chatbot is designed to understand employees’ questions and retrieve answers from Cascade’s Help Centre. The chatbot is available 24/7 and operates like a conversation, making it easy for users of all levels of technical expertise to engage effortlessly. Currently undergoing testing with a small group of customers, this chatbot feature will be available to more than 1,200 businesses in July.

Streamlining Payroll Management with Automatic Backpay Adjustments Feature

In October 2023, IRIS launched a new Staffology Payroll Automatic Backpay Adjustments feature, designed to help 2,000 businesses streamline payroll management. When this new feature is turned on, it automatically calculates back pay for any paylines.

In addition, Staffology Payroll already offers existing automation features, such as:

Autopilot automatically finishes pay runs and starts new ones based on user preferences. Users can set and schedule this feature to run as early as six days before the payment date and select a preferred time for the send.
Auto Submit Full Payment Submission (FPS) automatically sends the required payment information to HMRC when a pay run is completed.
Auto Submit Journal posts a journal for each pay run if it’s connected to an accounting platform.
Auto Submit Payments triggers payment distribution when linked to a payment platform.
Auto Emails automatically sends summary emails and payslip copies to employees when a pay run is finalised, allowing customisation of recipients, content and attachments.

Stephanie Coward, Managing Director of Human Capital Management (HCM) at IRIS said, “These latest updates to Networx, Cascade and Staffology empower recruitment, HR and payroll professionals to streamline their day-to-day operations, reduce administrative workload, and achieve greater strategic impact. For many years, IRIS has thoughtfully, and responsibly, built intelligent technologies into our products to help teams spend less time on tedious and repetitive tasks. As always, we will continue to explore new AI technologies and partnerships — while also ensuring human oversight and building appropriate guardrails into our processes.”

In February 2024, IRIS became the first payment platform provider to integrate UNIPaaS’ AI Assist into IRIS Pay, an embedded payment solution within its software ecosystem. This partnership leverages generative AI to help prevent late invoice payments by recommending the most effective payment methods for each customer based on historical data.

Today’s Networx, Cascade and Staffology features will be available for demonstration at IRIS’ stand (D31) at the CIPD Festival of Work.