UKG Launches UKG Beacon and Expands AI-Powered Capabilities in UKG Ready to Transform Small and Midsized Business Operations

New employee engagement solution accelerated by the acquisition of Mo and AI innovations help SMBs reduce administrative burden, celebrate their people, and operate more intelligently

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UKG Aspire 2025 — UKG, a leading global AI platform for HR, pay, and workforce management, today announced the launch of UKG® Beacon, a groundbreaking solution that transforms how small and midsized businesses engage, recognize, and retain their workforce. UKG Beacon integrates Mo, an award-winning employee recognition and culture-building platform recently acquired by UKG, with UKG Ready's comprehensive workforce data to deliver intelligent, data-driven employee engagement.

UKG Beacon is available immediately with seamless integration and provides:

• Real-time achievement recognition: Fueled by workforce data in UKG Ready, UKG Beacon can prompt managers to send immediate recognition or automated rewards to frontline employees during key moments to celebrate.
• Predictive engagement nudges: The combination of scheduling data and sentiment analysis allows UKG Beacon to proactively suggest actions and activities for employees.
• Personalized, preference-based acknowledgement: When an employee completes a project or task milestone, UKG Beacon will recommend acknowledgement that resonates most with each individual, such as private thanks over public kudos, increasing its effectiveness.

“By combining Mo's innovative recognition technology with UKG Ready's robust workforce analytics, UKG Beacon represents a quantum leap forward in employee engagement for the small business and midsized market,” said Chris Kiklas, General Manager of UKG Ready. “We’re helping customers simplify work, celebrate their people in the moment, and build cultures where performance and purpose go hand-in-hand.”

“Joining UKG allows us to bring the power of recognition to more organizations and more people than ever before,” said Luke Fisher, Chief Executive Officer at Mo. “Together, we’re making it easier for every business to build cultures where appreciation is part of everyday work, especially for critical frontline workers. By combining Mo’s innovation with UKG’s scale and unmatched workforce data, we’re accelerating our shared mission to help organizations create stronger, more connected, and more human workplaces.”

The acquisition of Mo follows Mo’s participation in UKG Labs, which accelerates innovation by connecting UKG customers with early stage start-ups, and supports UKG's vision for human-centered innovations that amplify the moments that matter most, creating a great workplace. By embedding feedback directly into the daily flow of work, managers are equipped with contextual nudges to improve their leadership and enhance the employee experience.

Agentic AI Helps Frontline Employees Behind the Scenes

Additional Ready enhancements include the introduction of UKG’s Paycheck Agent, which will help SMBs simplify work and operate more intelligently without added technical expertise. Using UKG Bryte™ agentic AI, the UKG Ready® Paycheck Agent instantly answers common paycheck questions for frontline employees and managers, providing clear, easy-to-understand explanations to improve the employee experience, while reducing HR and payroll workload.

Unburdening Frontline Managers

A number of additional UKG Ready enhancements were released specifically to unburden frontline managers from routine and repetitive tasks so they can focus on their teams and customers:

• Applicant interview scheduling seamlessly integrates with Google and Microsoft calendars and incorporates conversational AI to guide applicants through self-scheduling, helping SMBs hire more efficiently.
• Self-service scheduling setup provides an easy, AI-guided walkthrough for managers to define schedule rules and preferences, speeding up implementation of employee self-service scheduling.
• Weekly accrual reports improve compliance and decision-making by leveraging policy-driven accrual tracking across a variety of timeframes, including weeks, days, and even hours.
• EEO-4 automated report generation helps ensure accuracy for the biennial U.S. State and Local Government Information Report with less time and effort.
• Document management reduces time spent managing employee documents while enabling secure sharing, mass uploads, legal holds, and Docusign eSignatures, creating a culture of audit-readiness.

“Small and midsize businesses are under immense pressure to stay competitive and keep their people engaged, especially in today’s challenging economy,” said Joey Price, Executive Analyst at Aspect43. “By delivering intuitive, AI-guided experiences that simplify critical actions for the frontline workforce, from compliance to recognition, UKG continues to redefine how SMBs build cultures of performance centered on people and business success.”

“With innovations like UKG Beacon and agentic AI within UKG Ready, we’re empowering customers, especially those with frontline workforces, to create workplaces that grow stronger with every shift and keep the economy running,” added Kiklas.

Supporting Resources

• UKG Aspire is the official conference for UKG, bringing together thousands of customers, partners, and influencers, for three days of collaboration, learning, and networking.
• Each attendee who tags UKG and uses #UKGAspire on social media posts about the event will be entered daily for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Follow UKG on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube.
• The Aspire Expo Hall is home to the next generation of frontline innovations for UKG’s Workforce Operating Platform and is sponsored by Titanium sponsor Accenture, Diamond sponsors HyBridge Solutions and Mosaic Consulting Group, and Platinum sponsors Equifax, Google Cloud, HR Path, KPMG, RCM Technologies, and RSM US.
• Did you know? UKG’s Workforce Operating Platform is a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud HCM suites and a Leader in The Forrester Wave™ Human Capital Management Solutions, Q4 2025.
• Learn more about UKG and our leading global AI platform for HR, pay, and workforce management.

About UKG

UKG is a leading global AI platform for HR, pay, and workforce management. Unifying award-winning solutions with the world’s largest collection of workforce data and people-first AI, UKG delivers unrivaled insights into today’s workforce, helping organizations in every industry turn data into decisions that elevate productivity, culture, and the customer experience. Trusted by more than 80,000 organizations across 150 countries, tens of millions of employees — from small businesses to global enterprises — use UKG every day. To learn more, visit ukg.com.

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