Every year, the conversations at Payroll Congress shift. Five years ago it was platforms and providers. Then remote work and resilience. But at the 44th Payroll Congress in Nashville, every conversation kept circling back to the same two questions: what can we actually trust AI to do, and what is going to be inside our payroll teams in five years' time?
In this special live episode of @thepayrollpodcast and PayTalk, recorded on the expo floor in Nashville, Nick Day and Natalie Lloyd sit down with seven payroll leaders and innovators to get honest answers from the people living these challenges right now.
Across every conversation, one thing stands out: the payroll professionals who are thriving are not the ones with the biggest budgets or the newest tech stacks. They are the ones with the clearest point of view on where their function is heading and why.
Throughout the episode, Nick and Natalie explore how agentic ring-fenced AI is set to become as foundational to payroll as Excel once was, why global payroll is now the dominant conversation on the Congress floor, how cultural intelligence is becoming a core leadership skill, why change management is the steering wheel and technology is only the engine, and how payroll must move from invisibility to influence inside modern organisations.
Whether you are navigating AI adoption, managing global teams, or trying to position payroll as a strategic function, this episode will sharpen how you think about the profession and your place in it.
This episode is sponsored by Deel
Managing a global team is complex, Deel makes it simpler with payroll, HR, IT, and compliance all in one place. That's why over 35,000 businesses trust Deel to hire, pay, and manage their teams worldwide.
See how Deel works at www.deel.com/nickday
Guests and Hosts:
Connect with Danny Gillespie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannygillespie/
Connect with Stanislava Susla: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanislava-susla-6a8298b2/
Connect with Kira Rubiano: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirarubiano/
Connect with Kristi Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-smith-sphr-gphr-2269787/
Connect with Susan Baptista: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbaptista1967/
Connect with Michael Chen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-chen-9761b735/
Connect with Dale Wethered: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-wethered-cpp-11977317/
Connect with Natalie Lloyd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalielloyd94/
Connect with Nick Day: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickday/
Find your ideal payroll candidate with our job vacancy system: https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/919cf6b9ea
Sign up to the Payroll Podcast Newsletter: https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/23e7b153e7
Stay tuned for the next episode of The Payroll Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!
Enjoyed this? Check out our sister podcast @thehrldpodcast for more great content!
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction and Welcome to Payroll Congress 2026 Nashville
(00:45) What Every Conversation at Congress Is Really About This Year
(02:19) Danny Gillespie on Global Payroll Growth and the Rise of EOR
(05:00) How Deel Gets Companies Global in Days Not Months
(10:50) Stanislava Susla on AI in Payroll and the Power of In-Person Connection
(14:21) Kira Rubiano on Culture, Leadership, and the Global Payroll Mindset
(25:13) Kristi Smith on AI Adoption, Change Management, and Cross-Functional Alignment
(29:57) Sue Baptiste on Community, Giving Back, and Never Stopping Learning
(37:03) Michael Chen on Navigating the Complexity of Asian Payroll Markets
(43:08) Dale Wethered on Agentic AI and the Future of the Payroll Profession
(49:36) Why Payroll Congress Is the Community the Profession Cannot Afford to Miss
(54:51) Closing Reflections and What Is Coming in Episode Three
