If my experience helping to produce 3Sixty Insights’ recent survey and report taught me anything, it’s that AI is not always the future.
The momentum we’ve all experienced as we’ve been thrust headlong into an AI-centric tomorrow has produced a whiplash effect that is reverberating throughout the tech industry and society writ large. It seems clear that while AI has a profound number of use cases, there is still a lot to appreciate about speaking with or working with a human being to solve your problems.
3Sixty Insights, in partnership with Insperity, tried to hone in on this concept as part of our recent survey, and the results spoke for themselves: half (49%) said they would pay more for an HCM platform with better human-led support.
The data leads me to believe that a few major trends are brewing in the HR tech industry, and a few possible directions could be taken as priorities shift to accommodate new technological norms:
- AI dependency is becoming an opportunity for service-enabled providers
The current trajectory of the HCM industry is toward AI-assisted self-service: AI agents, AI search engines, and AI customer service. These all can certainly have their benefits, but at a certain point, many people still want to work with a human being. And not just any human being, but one who remembers who you are, or can at least pull up your profile and review your client file, while projecting both spoken and unspoken empathy.
The research cited multiple cases in which organizations switched providers specifically because they were downgraded from dedicated human support to chatbot- or ticketing-based systems.
Respondents expect their HCM provider to be a knowledgeable partner, not just a routing mechanism, and the survey’s most satisfied respondents described having dedicated account managers, proactive outreach, and context-specific support. Organizations with complex payroll environments involving multi-state, multi-entity, or high-variability workforces are especially poorly served by AI-only support models that lack contextual knowledge of the client’s specific configuration and compliance obligations.
This trend is creating a service gap that well-positioned third-party providers can exploit. And while vendors cutting human support today may have the cost structure to reinvest in it tomorrow, how far behind the 8-ball will that put them?
- Service becomes the differentiator
It seems less and less frequent for buyers to chase capabilities and features. Potential clients want them all, and most platforms are willing to give them to them. This means feature claims are becoming harder and harder to use to make a vendor stand out.
When it came to measuring the importance and value of service, there were consistent themes around a desire for operational efficiency, cost reduction, service-enabled solutions, and expert support tailored to their organization. In fact, 62% said support is critical to how effectively they use their system, and 49% would pay more for it. That means simple human elements, like the ability to ask questions and get them answered, will set vendors apart.
What remains uncertain is whether vendors can lure customers away from their existing providers: only 7% express an active intent to switch.
- Implementation gets funded properly because underutilization is now measurable
Roughly nine out of ten (87%) of the 524 U.S. business leaders we surveyed were chronically underserved and underwhelmed by their HCM platforms, often due to inadequate implementation. Only 37% say their systems do what they were intended to, making the line from implementation quality to utilization to retention very traceable.
Yet, the C-suite, who often end up writing the checks to pay for implementations, ranked the need for a dedicated implementation team the lowest of any group we surveyed (38%). And while a poor implementation can quietly erode profits through hidden costs, inefficiencies, or scope creep, managers, who bear the greatest operational burden, rank a dedicated implementation team at 62%. The unfortunate reality is that the people who want a strong implementation are not the ones buying it.
There’s often a belief that a ready-to-use HCM solution can be easily set up and understood by the team on their own. However, once a vendor has won the business, transferring the knowledge gained during the sales and discovery process to the implementation team is crucial. Many people have implementation PTSD from hard and ineffective implementations, and are skeptical that things can be better or different. Nonetheless, collaborating with a provider has been proven to enhance the success, usability, and implementation of an HCM system, helping maximize its benefits.
- HR compliance competency shifts from feature to liability
In our report, HR compliance was the single leading switching trigger at 52%, ahead of payroll errors (38%), pricing opacity (36%), and employee complaints (36%). This was especially pronounced in highly regulated industries like manufacturing, financial services, and consulting, where the cost of non-compliance is both financially and reputationally severe.
Three out of five reported that their HR compliance burden increased over two years, and external developments confirm it: 20 states raised their minimum wage in 2026, 13 now run active Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) programs, and employers say the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has not kept pace with modern work, as it’s now nearly 100 years old.
In the data, even if buyers don’t explicitly mention “compliance,” this report and others show it is often an underlying stressor. HR compliance was also often what broke vendor-client relationships, even though it wasn’t what occupied most of their day.
To me, this means that for a provider, compliance capability is increasingly a category-defining differentiator rather than a table-stakes feature.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the data points to a consistent imperative: HR executives want HCM systems and provider support that reduce complexity, eliminate friction, and free them to focus on strategic value creation. Providers who combine technical reliability with fast, knowledgeable, and proactive support will be best positioned to maximize satisfaction and retention.
The ‘meh’ characterization used by respondents to our survey suggests that most organizations are receiving adequate support but not experiencing the kind of proactive, expert partnership that drives genuine loyalty.