HRIS obsolescence: the "SaaS robustness" vs. "AI speed" match is not over.
- Jean-Baptiste Audrerie
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Two HR directors facing two architectures: SaaS HRIS and AI. Sometimes presented as an intelligent and agile alternative, agentic AI should not make us forget that it is an attractive and powerful complement to a foundation of controlled and defined data and processes, serving the organization.
AI makes any HRIS look obsolete
HRIS obsolescence is a concern, especially if yours is over 20 years old and still hosted ("on premise").
The global SaaS market, estimated at between $375 and $465 billion in 2026, is undergoing a brutal and somewhat unjustified devaluation in view of the services provided.
The " SaaS Apocalypse " means over $1 trillion in market capitalization wiped out of the sector [1] . AI is reclassifying everyone from SaaS to a Legacy System.
Growth for legacy vendors has fallen to 9%, compared to over 20% in 2021-2022, while AI-native SaaS is growing at over 40% per year [1] . Even the best-of-breed non-native AI solutions are being reclassified as legacy systems.
Gartner predicts that 80% of companies will have deployed applications integrating AI by the end of 2026, compared to 5% in 2023 [2] .
HRIS obsolescence: a question of perspective
While LLMs have absorbed the explicit world of the web to answer our questions, HRISs continue to record and organize private HR data. Too often, the blame falls on HRISs, accused of being information-poor, when all too often HR departments have neither taken the time nor possessed sufficient analytical skills to organize and make sense of HR data at a decision-making and operational level.
Furthermore, the SaaS business model based on monthly user fees is losing its appeal in the face of the growing popularity of AI conversational assistants. Increasingly powerful, these AI agents act on your behalf, but they charge based on token consumption. If you reach your consumption limit, you either pay extra or wait for the next month's top-up. This can drastically increase your IT and HRIS budget. This is similar to what tech companies experience with the cost of vibe-coding for programmers, adding an extra expense that sometimes costs more than hiring a full-time employee.
The MCP server redefines the HRIS selection
Open architecture is becoming a selection criterion in its own right.
As we wrote in our analysis on connecting Claude to an ATS or an HCM via an MCP server , these MCP connectors release HR data locked in application silos.
By July 2026, 78% of enterprise AI teams were already using agents backed by an MCP server in production, and 28% of Fortune 500 companies were operating one. Monthly downloads of the MCP SDK were approaching 97 million [3] .
MCP adoption jumped by more than 300% in one year [4] .
The market for agentic AI in HCM, valued at $4.56 billion in 2026, is expected to reach $13.48 billion by 2031 [5] .
Publishers who expose an MCP server escape proprietary lock-in; others lose speed, as detailed in our article on the HR Tech 2026 market, consolidation and agentization .
Conversational experience is becoming the norm
Static HRIS forms have been obsolete for a long time.
92% of HR directors anticipate increased integration of AI in 2026, compared to 83% in 2025, and 39% of HR functions are already using AI, with recruitment leading the way (27%) [5] .
The HRIS will therefore not collapse, it is its architecture that needs to be revitalized.
Legacy systems (SaaS HRIS solutions less than 15 to 20 years old), well governed, remain the engines of trusted data; they are the foundations that power conversational experiences and AI agents.
“ The speed of generative AI doesn’t eliminate the need for data governance; it demands it even more. A poorly governed HR architecture doesn’t become smarter simply because it speaks natural language. ” — Jean-Baptiste Audrerie, co-founder of NexaRH
Before declaring your HRIS obsolete, focus on building solid foundations.
HR Tech disruption is not about the speed of a prototype, but about the quality of the data foundations.
The quality of an HRIS implementation is fundamental. Employee data, organizational data, rules, policies, and job and position architecture make or break an HRIS. This cannot be replaced by ChatGPT or Claude Cowork, even with the best skills and skill repositories on GitHub, except perhaps in very small businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
Vibe-Coding in HR and Shadow AI are creating an "underground HRIS." Some tech-savvy professionals use Claude Cowork with Skills and Claude Code with Vibe-Coding to program workflows and applications that replace certain HRIS solutions. These are often highly specialized applications. While the temptation to code a complete HCM system from scratch is strong, be aware that the challenge is immensely disproportionate in terms of security, maintenance, and token costs. With Vibe-Coding (on-the-fly programming), some HR departments, in partnership with the IT department, must curb both clandestine AI (Shadow AI) and the emergence of Vibe-Coded applications, in addition to the Excel files that create a makeshift HRIS within the organization.
Key concepts
MCP (Model Context Protocol): an open protocol connecting AI assistants to HR systems to query, analyze, and orchestrate data in real time. Read our article .
Legacy system: established SaaS solution, now being re-evaluated in the face of the iterative speed of native AI alternatives.
Agentic AI: autonomous agents capable of performing end-to-end HR tasks, beyond simple recommendation.
Vibe coding: rapid AI-assisted development from prompts or screenshots, with no guarantee of compliance or governance.
References
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NexaRH can support you in developing a conventional HRIS roadmap and an AI in HR roadmap to accelerate your AI in HR plan and leverage your data securely.
To maximize your HRIS, NexaRH supports HR directors in Canada, Quebec and France in redesigning or optimizing their HRIS foundations with job, position and skills architecture .
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