When the HR tech giants move, the market usually feels it. And ADP—one of the category’s most established players—has officially expanded ADP Lyric HCM, its AI-powered, human-centered platform, into Australia and New Zealand. After debuting in the U.S. last year, Lyric’s ANZ rollout marks a major step in ADP’s strategy to modernize payroll, HR, talent, and people experience on a single, unified cloud platform.
For ANZ organisations still juggling fragmented systems or bolting third-party apps onto legacy software, this expansion isn’t just another HCM product drop. It’s a signal that the region’s notoriously complex compliance landscape is finally being met with modern architecture—and that AI-driven HR tech is shifting from hype to practical, day-to-day value.
Why Lyric Matters: A Unified, AI-Powered Ecosystem for Real-World Work
Lyric arrives with a focus that feels refreshingly grounded. Instead of layering AI on top of existing workflows, Lyric rebuilds them around how people actually work—complete with a graph-based architecture, intelligent search, and low-code configurability. Everything from onboarding to time and attendance, payroll, talent, recruitment, and analytics is now available within one ecosystem.
That unification isn’t just a convenience. It’s a competitive advantage.
Consider the current ANZ HR landscape:
-
HR teams are overrun with regulatory updates.
-
Payroll leaders are managing near-constant compliance changes.
-
Productivity pressures are rising as economic conditions tighten.
-
Talent acquisition has shifted toward experience-centered hiring.
Lyric aims to simplify all of it—with UX that feels closer to consumer apps than traditional HCM systems and AI features built to automate, predict, and streamline.
It’s no surprise the platform was named a Top HR Product of 2025 by HR Executive, noted for its blend of automation and human-centred design—a rare mix in enterprise HR tech.
Built for ANZ’s Compliance Maze (Finally)
If any region needs thoughtful payroll design, it’s Australia and New Zealand. Between Australia’s award interpretations, Long Service Leave variations, and Single Touch Payroll rules—and New Zealand’s Holidays Act and IRD requirements—the administrative load is immense.
ADP designed Lyric to meet that complexity head-on. It ships with:
-
Australian Fair Work compliance
-
State-based Long Service Leave rules
-
Single Touch Payroll Phase 2
-
Tax and superannuation automation
-
New Zealand Holidays Act alignment
-
IRD and KiwiSaver reporting compliance
-
Automated regulatory updates
This matters more than ever: a recent Australian Payroll Association survey found one in three Australian companies haven’t completed a payroll compliance audit in three years, and many admit they struggle to keep up with legislation.
Lyric’s promise? Always-on payroll calculations, automatic downstream payments, and audit-ready reporting—a trio designed to reduce errors before they become fines.
AI as a Partner, Not a Buzzword
A growing number of HCM vendors are racing to add AI features to their platforms—but Lyric is positioned as AI-first rather than AI-later.
Its AI capabilities include:
-
Intelligent search, allowing employees to ask natural-language questions
-
In-app analytics for workforce insights and anomaly detection
-
Predictive suggestions and automated workflows
-
Context-aware recommendations for HR and payroll teams
The platform’s graph-based architecture—essentially a dynamic model of real-world relationships—helps Lyric understand organisational changes more naturally. Instead of reconfiguring a dozen different modules, updates ripple through the system automatically.
This architecture is becoming increasingly influential across the HR tech sector, with competitors like Workday and SuccessFactors also leaning into database modernization. But ADP’s approach is particularly focused on agility and speed of configuration—an area where payroll teams often feel technology slows them down more than it helps.
Local Support Backed by Global Scale
One of ADP’s biggest differentiators is its ability to pair global R&D power with deep local support. Lyric’s ANZ rollout includes:
-
A regional team of 350+ payroll experts
-
60 implementation consultants
-
24/7 global monitoring by 300+ cybersecurity specialists
The scale is hard to match. ADP remains one of the few Fortune 500 companies with a global, multi-functional security organisation—an important point for ANZ businesses operating under tightening cybersecurity legislation and increasing insurer requirements.
As Srini Konidena, vice president of R&D and Product Development for APAC, put it:
“Lyric brings together our global R&D strength and local expertise to deliver a solution that is flexible, intelligent, and human.”
The Bigger Picture: ANZ’s HR Tech Market Is Ripe for Modernization
ADP’s move isn’t happening in a vacuum. The ANZ region has become one of the most competitive global battlegrounds for HCM platforms. Vendors like Employment Hero, ELMO, Dayforce, Workday, and Smartly are all competing for HR and payroll modernization budgets.
But many mid-market and large enterprises still operate on aging systems—some of which were never built for hybrid work, modern compliance, or multi-country operations.
Lyric enters the market at a moment when:
-
Digital transformation initiatives are accelerating
-
CFOs are pushing for cleaner data and consolidated systems
-
HR leaders are under pressure to automate
-
Employees expect intuitive tech experiences, not clunky portals
ADP’s pitch is simple: a system that’s powerful enough for payroll, flexible enough for HR, and modern enough for today’s workforce expectations.
The question now is whether organisations across Australia and New Zealand will seize the opportunity—or cling to the patchwork systems that make every HR audit feel like a fire drill.
What Lyric’s Expansion Signals for HR Leaders in 2025 and Beyond
For HR, payroll, talent, and business leaders, this rollout underscores several clear trends shaping the future of work technology:
1. Unified HCM is becoming the new baseline.
Fragmented tools are losing ground to platforms that deliver seamless experiences.
2. Compliance automation is no longer optional.
ANZ’s regulatory model demands technology that keeps pace with legislation automatically.
3. AI is shifting from future promise to operational necessity.
Not for sci-fi tasks—just to eliminate administrative overload.
4. HR tech is becoming more human-centred.
The industry is moving beyond rigid workflows toward intuitive, user-first design.
5. Market competition is accelerating.
ADP’s expansion adds pressure for every vendor to modernize or risk being left behind.
With Lyric now live across Australia and New Zealand, HCM modernisation in the region is entering a new phase—one shaped by AI, compliance intelligence, low-code configurability, and a real push toward systems that fit the way people actually work.
Join thousands of HR leaders who rely on HRTechEdge for the latest in workforce technology, AI-driven HR solutions, and strategic insights
