HR software is being rebuilt around real-time data, tighter integration between systems, and AI that can act as well as answer. Ciphr’s May 2026 product showcase webinar set out exactly how that shift is playing out across its own suite.
In short: onboarding now sits fully inside Ciphr HR with one login. Benefits data syncs with HR in real time, with automatic starter and leaver processing. Two new AI features have gone live: AI-assisted performance reviews and an HR AI assistant that answers workforce questions and books leave. Cloud payroll has new back pay, journal reporting and compliance tools. And further out, expect a universal dashboard, holiday buy and sell, and payroll changes ahead of the mandatory payrolling of benefits in kind from April 2027.
Smarter employee onboarding software, built into Ciphr HR
Last year we refreshed the look and feel of Ciphr HR. This year, that work extended to onboarding, and it now feels genuinely joined-up rather than bolted on. New starters log in once and land in the same interface they’ll use once they become employees, updating personal details, emergency contacts and policy acceptance all in one place.
One login for onboarding, benefits and learning
The bigger shift is what onboarding now connects to. A new starter can see which benefits they’re eligible for on day one, after six months and after a year, then click straight through to the benefits platform to review and select them. The same applies to learning: assign a health and safety course as part of onboarding, and a single click opens it directly in the LMS, with the same menus and branding throughout. It’s one login, one experience, and one less system for HR to explain.
Real-time benefits integration between Ciphr HR and Ciphr benefits
Alongside the onboarding work, we’ve built a real-time, API-driven data sync between Ciphr HR and Ciphr benefits. Personal details, pay information and benefit scheme or level now update within minutes of a change in HR, with HR as the single source of truth. Starters and leavers are processed automatically too: add a new starter in HR and their benefits record is created without extra admin; process a leaver, and their benefits account closes on their leaving date.
A live view of starters, leavers and data changes
A new benefit management screen sits inside HR, split into four tabs:
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Records not yet synced to benefits
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Records with a data issue that needs attention
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Records currently in progress
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Records that have synced successfully
Every change carries a full, timestamped audit trail, and you decide who can access and manage this area. A new bulk assignment tool also sets benefit levels for groups of employees at once, rather than one record at a time.
AI in HR software: from performance reviews to a full HR assistant
Two new pieces of AI functionality have gone live this year, and both are designed to save time rather than add another tool to learn.
AI-assisted performance reviews, powered by your own data
Anyone with our full talent management module now has access to an AI feature that drafts suggested answers to performance review questions, based on an employee’s own monthly one-to-ones. Choose a date range, select which one-to-ones to include, and the system pulls out achievements and challenges already recorded, then suggests an answer that the employee, or their manager, can edit, add to or remove before it’s submitted. It replaces the scramble to remember what happened months ago with a starting point built from what was actually said at the time.
Ask Ciphr: an HR AI assistant built on existing permissions
The second release is a natural-language HR AI assistant, accessed through an ‘ask’ button inside Ciphr HR. Users can ask plain English questions about headcount, training compliance or team structure, request a chart of the results, and even ask it to book annual leave, all through conversation. Crucially, the assistant works within Ciphr’s existing HR report security model, so people only ever see the data they’re already permitted to see. Full detail on how our AI features are secured is available at trust.ciphr.com.
Payroll software updates: legislation, back pay and new reporting tools
Our cloud payroll platform has had a busy year of legislative and functional updates. Statutory sick pay changes, the first since the 1980s, are reflected in the system, alongside the usual annual tax table updates. Multi-factor authentication is now standard, and customers with both HR and payroll can authenticate through Ciphr HR directly. On the configuration side, a new default payday option now supports patterns such as ‘last set day of the month’, and a new reducing balances feature handles repayments like season ticket loans or salary advances, with a fixed deduction amount that runs automatically until the balance clears.
Configurable journal reporting, you can build yourself
Back pay calculations are now fully automated, including pro-rata for mid-month changes, with the underlying calculation surfaced so it can be checked, or copied straight onto a payslip note. Alongside that, a brand-new journal configuration tool lets you build your own payroll journal export: choose how debits and credits are coded, pull in custom analysis fields, and reorder or add columns to match your finance system, with built-in validation before you run the report.
What’s next on the HR technology roadmap
There’s plenty more in progress. In the near term, benefits integration will extend to payments, allowances and bonuses, payroll integration will add absence data, and customers will get self-serve control over notifications: starters, leavers and contract changes come first, from Q3 2026. A new bulk data importer will also let customers load records into the system themselves after, say, an acquisition.
Get ready for payrolling benefits in kind ahead of April 2027
Further out, look out for:
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Holiday buy and sell schemes that update HR and payroll automatically
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A universal dashboard across HR, payroll, benefits and learning
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A reworked approach to performance management with our partner MyTeamBuilder
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Compliance updates tied to the Employment Rights Act, from trade union representative data to menopause reporting
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Updates to our payroll software in preparation for the phased mandatory payrolling of benefits in kind, which HMRC has confirmed will begin in April 2027 for benefits such as company cars and medical insurance
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AI assistant improvements, including the ability to query policy document queries, expanded actions for the HR assistant, and our first autonomous agent, built to support onboarding
If you’re an existing customer, your customer experience manager can talk you through the full product roadmap in more detail. And if you’d like to see any of this in action, from onboarding through to the HR AI assistant, get in touch or book a demo.