Employee experience (EX) platforms emerged to ensure that tasks, communication, and resources were unified into a single, coherent hub. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Microsoft, Meta and others fuelled a new EX market, offering platforms that proved vital for supporting diverse, distributed workforces.
Major enterprise tech players incorporated EX capabilities into their ecosystems. Microsoft Viva in particular stood out, offering an AI-powered hub to streamline productivity, foster collaboration and centralise resources.
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Viva’s success underscored a major shift: organisations wanted one interface to navigate complexity. With AI at its core, Viva simplified how employees accessed information and completed tasks, ringing the promise of a seamless digital experience closer to reality. Then came generative AI.
Generative AI has brought a more fluid, intuitive experience to employees. Instead of clicking through layers of menus, employees can engage a conversational assistant to surface answers and automate work.
This transformation is redefining EX in three key ways:
- AI is the new experience layer: AI assistants are replacing static portals with conversational interfaces. Tasks like password resets or paid time off (PTO) balance checks are handled instantly, reducing load on IT and HR teams.
- The rise of the AI-powered employee: In a study of CHROs and CEOs that we published in January, entitled The Rise of the Superworker, we found that AI is reshaping white-collar work. Employees now interact with AI daily to amplify their output, ushering in the age of the ‘superworker’.
- Personalised support at scale: AI allows HR to move from administrative tasks to strategic enablement. Viva clients, for example, are using Microsoft’s Copilot to transform everything from onboarding to learning to decision-making.
Recent breakthroughs from DeepSeek and Alibaba suggest that AI could replace many EX functions within a decade, potentially making current platforms obsolete. But for now, structured EX tools remain essential. Regardless of the vendor, these platforms still play a key role in document search, workflow automation, and knowledge access – critical steps toward unlocking the superworker advantage.
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So, what’s the priority for CHROs and EX leaders?
It’s deciding where AI adds value (for example, for answering questions, automating tasks), and where structure is still needed (for example, for complex case management). Copilot, for example, now summarises meetings, drafts action items, and automates sales and HR workflows. But are your teams equipped to use it effectively, or are they just left to figure it out?
Let’s be clear, the shift isn’t just technological; it’s strategic. AI-driven change is unlike any transformation before it. Unlike traditional change initiatives, like the rollout of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, AI transformation is fluid, ever-evolving, and demands an agile approach.
Read more: Why the time is right to re-think employee experience
To unlock AI’s full potential and reach superworking productivity, organisations must rethink HR, workforce planning, and adaptive information flow. Employee experience is at a pivotal moment. AI is shifting it from rigid platforms to fluid, intelligent systems. The challenge – and the opportunity – is to make sure your organisation keeps up.
If your employee experience platform is already in place, now is the time to use it as your ladder into the AI future. Superworker success awaits.
Josh Bersin is a global analyst specialising in HR, business and technology
This article was published in the May/June 2025 edition of HR magazine.
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