The Future of HR: A readiness playbook for broker partners

What is the future of HR?

The HR landscape is changing fast—priorities, decision-making, and buyer expectations are all evolving as organizations prepare for 2026 and beyond. Today’s HR leaders are looking for a unified solution that connects HR, IT, and Finance in one system. 

To see what this means for our broker partners and their clients, we partnered with Sapient Insights Group for a webinar, The Future of HR: What's Changing and What It Means for 2026.

Rippling leads Sapient's 28th annual HR systems survey

Top highlights:

• #1 payroll vendor for mid-market (500–4,999 employees)

• 40 total Voice of the Customer awards

• #1 in multiple SMB categories

Rippling made one of the biggest jumps in this year’s Sapient HR Systems Survey, moving into the #1 mid-market payroll position for the first time — while continuing to lead in the SMB segment.

Sapient’s Chief Research Officer, Stacey Harris, called the shift unprecedented:

Industry insights

• Sapient’s data highlights several trends shaping HR in 2026 and why buyer expectations are shifting.

• Only 30% of organizations plan to increase HR tech spending this year, a signal that buyers are more cautious about investments. Buyers are consolidating tools and choosing systems that reduce complexity.

• AI/ML is now in the top 5 investment priorities across every company size. 85% of Rippling customers already use AI for job tasks (vs 81% average).

• Organizations with strategic HR functions saw 44% higher improvement in talent, HR, and business outcomes over the last five years.

Discover Rippling’s product innovations 

Rippling unifies benefits, HR, IT, and Finance in one connected platform. This gives you and your clients full visibility, reducing  manual work, and more time to grow their business, while you stay their strategic advisor.

Get real-time visibility with carrier integrations

Rippling’s Integrations Tab is your home for carrier integrations. It's where you can get real-time visibility and quick insight into all your integrations. Track carrier integrations with a timeline view that shows you exactly where every integration stands—whether it’s testing live, or paused due to renewals. Plus, view your full transmission history of what was sent, when, and how—across API and EDI.

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1. One place for carrier integrations: Quickly view and track all your carrier integrations in one place. 

2. Real-time tracking of setup and transmissions: Track integration setups with a detailed timeline view and real-time status updates. Know exactly where your integration stands—whether it’s in the testing phase or ready to launch.

3. Comprehensive transmission history: Easily view transmission history across API and EDI feeds. See what was sent, when, how, and by whom.

Coming soon: Rippling is partnering with 10+ leading carriers, including Unum, Guardian and MetLife, to offer real-time API integrations at no extra cost—speeding up plan setup and ensuring the most reliable data accuracy we’ve ever delivered.

Integration support for any benefit

We are moving to a state where any benefit could be integrated and we started that work in Q3 with integrations for Carrot Fertility, Norton Lifelock ID Theft, and MetLife Legal and ID Theft. 

What this ultimately means is less manual work, fewer errors, and a simpler experience for both admins and employees:

1. Ease of use: Admins can purchase and set up these benefits in Rippling and then employees can go through enrollment in Rippling

2. Integration: Enrollments will be automatically sent to the vendor and remove the manual work needed to manage custom benefits today

3. Visibility: Employees will be able to view all benefits (including info-only) within their enrollment flow and My Benefits app

You will be able to set up your clients existing plan or purchase a plan in <10 minutes. These are fully integrated with no tedious integration setup work required—ready for production once installed.

More to come as we scale the program in 2026 and continue to add integrations with additional benefits vendors.

Helping brokers and clients work smarter with AI-powered innovation 

Rippling’s new AI Plan Parser automatically extracts details from medical, dental, and vision plan documents during setup—speeding up setup and eliminating manual data entry. By bringing AI into benefits workflow, Rippling is setting a new standard for automation—helping teams build plans faster, with fewer errors and greater consistency across clients. It’s the first step in Rippling’s broader vision to apply AI-powered automation throughout the benefits lifecycle.

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A unified platform built for brokers and clients

All of these updates, from in-house carrier APIs to AI-driven automation, ladder up to Rippling’s broader vision: a unified platform that connects people, data, and systems in real time. 

We’re building toward a future where brokers and clients can manage every aspect of HR and benefits, from plan setup to compliance, without leaving Rippling.