Alight Solutions, a leader in benefits, payroll and cloud deployment solutions, has announced the creation of Eloise, an intelligent virtual assistant that will drive payroll processing into a new era.

Deploying a patented AI algorithm, Eloise analyzes historic pay data to detect, classify and correct anomalies, and through machine learning, she can continuously glean information from past anomalies that will inform future predictions. Eloise delivers payroll with 100 percent quality consistency across the entire population and eliminating stress, time, duplicative effort and incomplete payroll validations.

Brannon Lacey, chief solution & strategy officer at Alight stated, “Eloise marks Alight’s latest achievement in technology innovation that transforms the role of HR. We’re leveraging machine learning to automate time-intensive processes and create efficiencies that enable payroll processors to focus on higher-value matters and serve as strategic advisors—deepening the impact that HR can have on the business.”

The AI assistant’s key feature is its automated paycheck anomaly detection and correction capability, where it researches potential paycheck errors, at the per employee, per earning and aggregate pay levels, to correct known anomalies and provides recommendations for new corrections. In addition, it constantly assesses and audits payroll data to alert payroll processors of errors caused by dropped files, incomplete calculations or human error.

In addition, Eloise will actively prevent “bad” data entries at the source and provide recommendations for autocorrecting small and bulk data sets. It will also provide a digital checklist to payroll processors to ensure timely action and accuracy, as well as a dashboard with macro-level data analysis and insights that inform future payroll decision-making. Eloise will allow employees to review and edit their paycheck details before they are finalized and push text notifications to employees regarding missing or incomplete information.

The AI-based assistant is expected to be available in early 2020. As the payroll function is becoming increasingly complex and companies struggle to keep pace with accelerating technology and shifting workforce demographics, there is a huge opportunity for Eloise to leverage.