UKG’s CIO says HR tech is AI’s next big bet. The software firm’s employees have already launched 387 AI tools and over 12,000 agents

After a 20-year career at design software company Autodesk , Prakash “PK” Kota felt an urge for a career change, in part because he didn’t want to end his career having worked for only one employer. Upon ending his time at Autodesk with a seven-year stint as chief information officer, Kota made the leap to human resources software company UKG, where he has held the same role since April 2025. He quickly consolidated software vendors, oversaw the launch of 387 internal AI applications from more than 1,400 employee-submitted ideas, and spearheaded the internal creation of more than 12,000 AI agents across Microsoft , Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. “In the AI era, everyone is talking about how work will be reshaped; how do employees and workers coexist?,” says Kota. “HR tech is going to be a huge area of investment in every company.” AI’s ability to automate workplace tasks ranging from coding to customer service to marketing, while increasingly taking on more complex tasks via agentic AI, has put more pressure on businesses and their HR teams to envision a more collaborative workforce that blends humans and machines. There’s also far more demand for prospects who have AI skills at their fingertips: job listings that mention AI are growing almost eight times faster than the total employment market, according to consulting giant PwC. And yet, studies consistently show that the workforce’s youngest cohort, Gen Z, is more worried about their prospects in an AI era than older workers. This is partly driven by the difficulty many are facing in landing their first entry-level job, and swirling headlines of massive job cuts at major employers including Meta Platforms, Verizon , and Oracle , oftentimes with internal AI adoption attributed as a root cause. Even as major employers are overhauling their teams and quickly pivoting on the skills they desire from new recruits, a vast majority of HR leaders say they haven’t yet established a firm grasp on what their internal future workforce needs will be in the AI era. Only 11% of HR professionals reported having established strategic, long-term workforce plans that extend beyond a three-year window, according to a study of about 1,300 HR industry pros across ten countries published by consultancy McKinsey in June. While AI was certainly high on Kota’s agenda when he joined UKG, he said his first major project was addressing the long-delayed IT integration projects that hadn’t yet been completed following the pandemic-era merger between Kronos and Ultimate Software. UKG’s C-suite leadership is also encouraged to think about AI adoption through a so-called “T3” concept: talent, tools, and tokens.