UKG wants to reintroduce itself to you, and it is an invitation worth taking.
This is not the same organization that was formed in 2020, early in the pandemic, through the merger of Kronos and Ultimate Software. CEO Jennifer Morgan, who took over in July 2024, has brought in an experienced team of leaders from top-tier SaaS companies across all functions. Together, they are reinventing the culture and positioning of the company.
I recently returned from the annual UKG global analyst day in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where everyone from analyst relations professionals to the top corporate leaders I spoke with enthusiastically described a new energy and direction.
There will be a brand refresh in the fall, but the transformation work is in full swing, with UKG reintroducing itself as an AI-first workforce platform, uniquely positioned to lead in workforce understanding. But this isn’t just about adding AI features — it’s about fundamentally reimagining how they operate as a company, serve customers, and think about the future of work.
Though UKG’s marketing tagline has been “our purpose is people,” their approach was product-centric. They are moving toward being customer-centric and outcome- and persona-based, which aligns with the full employee lifecycle that UKG leaders describe in four stages: Plan, Engage, Schedule and Pay.
One asset from the past remains front and center: their depth and experience in understanding the frontline workforce and their Great Place To Work® acquisition from 2021. GPTW gives UKG a distinct competitive advantage in the amount of structured and unstructured workforce data they have to drive their AI platforms and tools and offer benchmarks to customers.
As several leaders stressed to me, UKG is now focused on changing how people work, not just producing software. The AI and the software are the tools.
New Leadership, New Vision
Since Morgan took the helm as CEO (she has been on the UKG Board of Directors since 2021 and previously was co-CEO of SAP), UKG has been methodically and quickly building a leadership team with the expertise to expand UKG’s profile as a global player.
Arlen Shenkman, who also has SAP roots, joined as President, CFO in January, bringing financial discipline to their growth trajectory. Beth Conway, the new Chief People Officer, is tasked with not just internal culture transformation but also serving as an ambassador in the field. Sarah Hodges, the Chief Marketing Officer, whose experience includes roles at multinational software leader Autodesk, is spearheading their brand elevation and global expansion strategy.
Perhaps most telling is their approach to product leadership. Suresh Vittal joined as Chief Product Officer in January, and they’re in the final stages of bringing in a dedicated CTO, splitting responsibilities that were previously combined under its prior leadership structure.
“Every great team starts with great leaders and culture,” Morgan told us. “We’re bringing in people with global, SaaS, and AI experience because we need leaders who understand where we’re going, not just where we’ve been.”
Cultural Transformation: A ‘Kind Meritocracy’
Morgan, in a conversation with me, didn’t shy away from acknowledging that the company had grown significantly from the original Kronos and Ultimate Software organizations, but hadn’t evolved its operational approach accordingly.
The company conducted a GPTW survey early in the fiscal year, with a 77% response rate of 14,000+ employees. While employees valued the company’s welcoming and caring culture, they also expressed a desire for more transparency and communication from leadership, particularly after a layoff last year.
Morgan said she is establishing a “kind meritocracy.” As she explained, “Every employee must understand the company’s goals and their department’s goals. Everyone should always know how we are doing against goals — continually. Every employee deserves feedback, constant real-time feedback, two-way feedback.”
The transformation is visible in how they’ve restructured their operations. Where decisions were once made informally and in silos, they’ve implemented more formal, transparent processes that put the customer at the center of every decision.
It’s all about execution, as Morgan, Vittal, President of Go-to-Market Rachel Barger, and other executives stressed repeatedly.
“We truly need to connect to root causes, set goals and hold people accountable for execution,” Morgan said, but while building a culture where employees feel safe to give feedback, which is a tricky balancing act. “I try to end all my conversations with people by asking what I can be doing better as well.”
From Product-Centric to Customer-Centric
The shift from selling products to selling outcomes was a recurring theme throughout our day. Barger explained their new approach to customer engagement, which focuses on personas rather than just company size or industry.
“We don’t want to think of customers as a company but as people working in a company,” she said. This persona-driven approach spans from CEOs to administrators and end users, with UKG tailoring their engagement strategy based on specific industry challenges around the Plan-Engage-Schedule-Pay pillars.
Vittal reinforced this customer-centricity by sharing that UKG has delivered 40% of the top 50 customer-voted ideas, collected 4,000 comments to prioritize product improvements, and hosted nearly 2,000 discovery discussions to gather requirements. They’ve interviewed over 2,600 customers and users to ensure improvements are easy to use.
This level of customer engagement represents a significant operational shift. As Morgan noted, “We had too much product management done at the point of sale; we had a lot happening in customer support reacting to feedback; we were addressing symptoms rather than root causes.”
The AI-First Evolution
Perhaps the most significant transformation is UKG’s evolution into what they’re calling an “AI-first company.” This goes well beyond adding AI features to existing products — they’re reimagining the entire user experience around conversational AI.
Vittal shared their vision for an AI-first suite where “there is no homepage.” Instead, users simply start a task or return to their last task in a workplace environment that adapts and learns from their behavior. The interface becomes as simple as the ask or task, with adaptive reasoning every time you use it.
Frontline workers can ask about their earnings, request vacation time, or inquire about available shifts through natural conversation. The system can suggest training opportunities, internal job openings, or additional shifts if someone needs extra income. It’s all conversational, and it can even integrate with platforms like Siri or WhatsApp for global teams.
Strategic Partnerships and Ecosystem Expansion
The company is also expanding its strategic partnerships, most notably a recently announced multi-step agent-to-agent collaboration with ServiceNow. UKG’s AI solutions, powered by UKG People Fabric, will integrate with ServiceNow’s new AI Agent Fabric to modernize digital employee experiences. The agents will be in the background, seamlessly, without switching applications, making the employee experience richer and more productive. This partnership, borne in part from Morgan’s relationship with ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott when they were both at SAP, puts UKG in a strong market position.
But the partnership focus goes well beyond this headline-maker. Jay Dettling, whom I had the pleasure of dining with, is a few weeks into his role as UKG’s inaugural Chief Partner Officer and is focused on expanding their network of 370 technology and service partners, including in some “unconventional ways,” he said with a wry smile. “Stay tuned,” he said.
The Road Ahead: Refreshing the Brand and Global Expansion
CMO Hodges walked us through their strategic shift from competing on features to competing on value, and from being product-focused to outcome-focused. As UKG re-introduces itself to the world in the coming months, it will be about positioning UKG in what Hodges calls the “whitespace” of workplace understanding.
This isn’t a company making incremental changes — they’re fundamentally reimagining their identity, operations, and value proposition.
The key, of course, is execution. Morgan was refreshingly candid about past challenges and that their work is still in the relatively early stages. But with their new leadership team, customer-centric approach, and AI-first vision, UKG appears positioned to deliver on their ambitious transformation.
As companies worldwide grapple with workforce challenges — from persistent labor shortages to employee engagement crises — UKG’s evolution couldn’t be more timely. They’re positioning themselves to lead the market if they can execute on their strategy. UKG is already a leader in workforce management and one of the top HCM vendors, so this evolution can take them to another level. It will be interesting to watch.
