Payfit bets on AI to turn its payroll software into a full HR service

Payfit has rolled out an AI layer across its payroll and HR platform that detects payroll errors, drafts reports, enters payroll variables and answers staff questions directly, the Paris-based company said. The update, live since July across its UK, French and Spanish markets, marks a shift in how the eleven-year-old firm wants to be seen: less a software vendor, more a service that runs payroll and HR on a company's behalf.

Payfit serves more than 22,000 businesses and pairs its existing network of roughly 200 in-house payroll experts with the new AI tools, branded Payfit AI. The company says it plans to extend the system later this year so it can act directly on employee queries about contracts and leave, handling them in confidence rather than just flagging them for a human.

From software to managed service

Payfit's pitch until now has been a digital system that automates payroll runs, compliance and variable pay for small and medium-sized businesses. The new layer is meant to close the gap between the software doing calculations and a person having to interpret the result.

Chief executive and co-founder Firmin Zocchetto framed the move as a deliberate change in what the company sells. "PayFit is moving beyond software to become a service that manages payroll and HR for its customers," he said. He added that the firm wants to become, by the end of the year, the single service that business leaders and HR teams rely on for everything related to their people, including health insurance and IT.

That is a broader ambition than payroll compliance alone, and it puts Payfit in more direct competition with HR platforms that already bundle benefits administration and IT provisioning alongside core people-management tools.

What the AI actually does

On the employer side, Payfit AI checks payroll runs for inconsistencies before they are processed, generates HR and payroll reports from natural-language requests, and reduces manual data entry for variable pay items such as bonuses or overtime. Administrators review and validate its suggestions before anything reaches a live payroll run.

Staff can also now ask the system directly about payslips, leave balances and company policies, rather than going through HR each time. Its answers are shaped by an individual's own contract, seniority and leave entitlement rather than generic guidance, and it can draw on internal policy documents that administrators upload.

Chief product officer Inès Salhi described the aim as making the tool act rather than merely respond. "PayFit AI marks a major step forward for us. It no longer just answers questions, it takes action. It's a real payroll and HR companion for teams that continuously evolves, working alongside our payroll experts," she said.

Why employers get a say in employee-facing AI

The company points to a specific reason it built its own assistant rather than letting staff rely on general-purpose chatbots. Those tools cannot see someone's actual contract, leave balance or company policy. Asking them workplace questions can also mean sharing personal pay or employment details outside systems an employer controls. Payfit's version keeps that data inside its own platform, which it says is hosted in Europe, carries ISO 27001 certification and is not used to train outside AI models.

That is a pitch aimed squarely at HR leaders nervous about shadow use of consumer AI tools inside their organisations, a concern that has grown as more employees turn to public chatbots for workplace advice.

What to watch

Payfit has not disclosed how much of its support volume the AI now handles, nor given a firm date for the promised extension into acting on contract and leave requests. The firm separately told French broadcasters this summer that it had reached profitability roughly a decade after launching, and was widening its target market to companies of all sizes. That claim will be tested as rivals in European HR-tech, from Lucca to Personio, push their own AI features into payroll and compliance work. Payfit is betting that pairing expert staff with an AI layer, rather than replacing one with the other, will keep customers from switching.