AI gold rush: HR leaders navigate a tsunami of tech vendor sales pitches
As AI reshapes the workplace wall-to-wall, people managers face a special challenge in their departments: separating genuine tech innovation from the marketing hype in an increasingly crowded marketplace of HR tech vendors.
HR executives report they are awash in emails making lofty promises but offering precious little detail about the tech tools they need. With some 2,000 HR products listed on the software reviews site Capterra alone, making the right choice of AI partners has never been more confusing.
“Compared to function-specific software confined to a specific department, HR software is unique in the sense that most employees in a given organization, and sometimes even job candidates, interact with these platforms,” said Brian Westfall, principal HR analyst at Capterra. “This raises the stakes for businesses to invest in the right HR software.”
The consequences of making the wrong decision can be catastrophic. According to Capterra’s 2025 Tech Trends Survey, 6 in 10 businesses that regretted their HR software purchase characterize the financial impact as “significant or monumental,” with half reporting increased costs and/or losses in productivity.
While many HR managers are in the market for the latest software, the reality is they end up sending most marketing emails straight to the trash.
“The pitches I receive almost every week from vendors promising to revolutionize talent sourcing, performance reviews and employee engagement can be compelling but they hardly influence our decision making,” said Damien Filiatrault, CEO of remote tech talent platform Scalable Path. “To us, peer recommendations, practical experiences and independent assessments are still the best ways to go about software selection.”
Edward Tian, CEO of AI detector GPTZero, notes that while the surge of new vendors gives people managers more choice, it also complicates their decision making. For his part, Tian tends to gravitate toward established companies versus startups, simply because he finds he has more confidence in the resources that back them, paving the way for an experience with minimal hiccups.
For HR leaders evaluating AI solutions, experts recommend a methodical approach.
Katya Laviolette, chief people officer at password management platform 1Password, advised forming cross-functional evaluation teams. “The best approach is to test both,” she said. “Form an employee task force to evaluate usability and an IT team to probe security. Their insights will reveal if a solution truly fits.”
Danielle Itani, senior director of marketing and strategy at HCM platform Innovative Employee Solutions, says cutting through the clutter is elemental. “Organizations need to focus on solutions that align with their goals and offer scalability and reliability, not just flashy marketing promises,” she said. “The key is staying grounded, evaluating tools objectively and resisting the pressure to adopt AI just for the sake of keeping up.”
Some key considerations for evaluating AI tools include:
Security and scalability. Ask vendors tough questions about security vulnerabilities, Laviolette advised. Questions might include: “Can your platform be securely used across different devices and regions?” and “How responsive are you to security concerns?”
Long-term viability. Look at the vendor’s leadership, growth plans and investor backing, she also recommends. Can the vendor’s product scale with your company’s ambitions? What’s its strategy for evolving technology and reducing AI bias?
Specific use cases. Justin Belmont, CEO of marketing and staffing agency Prose, advises focusing on those tools that solve specific pain points. “AI enhances efficiency, but it’s humans who bring empathy and judgment to the table,” he said.
At the end of the day, success for HR leaders weighing the galaxy of choices out there may lie in combining rigorous evaluation with practical testing and the advice of peers — with one’s ultimate choice of AI helpmate holding the power to effectively serve an organization or else throw it off its game.