Gloat and The Josh Bersin Company have partnered to embed Bersin’s Galileo HR research into Gloat’s agentic HR platform, combining external HR frameworks with live workforce data to support AI-driven talent, performance and workforce decisions.
HR technology is moving from AI that retrieves workforce information toward systems that can interpret context, recommend actions and execute parts of HR workflows. Gloat and The Josh Bersin Company are taking that shift a step further by putting Bersin’s Galileo research directly inside Gloat’s agentic HR platform.
Announced September 29, the partnership integrates Galileo’s HR research, frameworks and benchmarks with Loomra, Gloat’s Workforce Context Engine. The companies say Gloat agents can now use Bersin guidance alongside an organisation’s workforce data when generating recommendations and taking actions.
The idea is to connect two traditionally separate layers of HR technology: the external expertise used to determine what an organisation should do and the internal systems containing information about its employees, skills and organisational structure.
For example, a succession-planning agent could use a Bersin framework to evaluate readiness criteria while Loomra analyses an organisation’s skills, career histories and mobility information. Gloat says the resulting workflow can produce a candidate slate, identify readiness gaps, recommend development actions and monitor changes that could affect the plan.
That represents a broader change in how enterprise HR software is being designed. Instead of using AI simply as a conversational interface on top of an HCM system, vendors are increasingly building AI agents in HR that can reason across multiple data sources and execute multistep workflows.
Gartner defines AI agents in HR as autonomous or semi-autonomous software that can perceive information, make decisions and take actions within HR environments. Its 2026 research identifies interoperability with HCM and other enterprise applications, HR-context reasoning and the ability to execute multistep tasks as defining characteristics of the category.
Gartner has also identified agentic and generative AI as key differentiators in HR technology in its 2026 Hype Cycle, reflecting the industry’s movement toward more autonomous workforce workflows.
Gloat is positioning Loomra as the contextual layer for those workflows. According to the company, the system models relationships between employees, roles, skills and business requirements. It can also reason across systems surrounding the core HCM environment, including applicant tracking, learning, payroll and workforce planning platforms.
The partnership initially has particular relevance for SAP SuccessFactors customers. Gloat says its platform sits above existing HCM infrastructure rather than requiring customers to replace their systems of record. It can read from and write to SuccessFactors while providing an additional agentic layer for workforce-related tasks.
That positioning comes as SAP itself is expanding agentic AI across SuccessFactors. SAP’s first-half 2026 release introduced a connected network of AI agents spanning recruiting, workforce administration, payroll, learning, performance and talent development, alongside a workforce knowledge network that brings external expertise and research into the Joule experience.
SAP’s own roadmap therefore illustrates the competitive context for Gloat. SuccessFactors customers increasingly have access to native AI capabilities through Joule, while independent platforms such as Gloat are attempting to provide an agentic layer that can work across existing enterprise systems.
The distinction could matter for large HR organisations with complex technology estates. Replacing an HCM system is generally a substantial technology programme, while an agentic layer can potentially be introduced without changing the underlying system of record. Gloat says its SuccessFactors integrations can also be accessed through tools including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Chat and Gemini.
Permissions are another important consideration. HR systems contain highly sensitive employee information, including compensation, performance, career and succession data. Gloat says Loomra uses field-level permissions so agents only access information that the relevant user is authorised to see, while maintaining an audit trail for recommendations.
That requirement becomes more significant as AI systems move from answering questions to taking actions. Gartner’s 2026 research on AI-agent governance says HR organisations need defined responsibilities, ownership, autonomy boundaries and decision rights to govern agents securely and compliantly.
The market is also moving toward AI systems that combine organisational context with external expertise. In September, The Josh Bersin Company described its Galileo Jupiter release as enabling its HR intelligence to operate across AI systems including Microsoft Copilot, Workday, ServiceNow, Gloat, Claude, Gemini and Glean.
That development suggests the competitive boundary may increasingly sit above the traditional HCM application. HR technology providers can supply the underlying employee records, while specialist AI layers add reasoning, orchestration and domain-specific knowledge.
For HR teams, the potential benefit is a shorter path from workforce insight to execution. A skills-gap analysis, for instance, could move directly into recommendations for internal mobility or development. A performance workflow could combine organisational policy with external HR guidance before an agent drafts materials for manager review.
The limitation is that better contextualised automation does not remove the need for human oversight. Succession, compensation, performance and workforce planning decisions can affect employees directly, making governance, transparency and review important even when agents handle much of the preparatory work.
Gloat’s partnership with The Josh Bersin Company therefore reflects a wider transition in HR SaaS: from systems that primarily store workforce information to systems designed to reason about that information and act on it. The immediate question for enterprises will be how effectively these systems can combine trusted HR expertise, proprietary workforce context and controlled automation without weakening human accountability.
Market Landscape
Agentic HR technology is becoming a distinct layer of the enterprise software stack. Gartner’s 2026 research describes AI agents in HR as systems capable of perception, reasoning and action across HR environments, while its HR technology Hype Cycle identifies agentic and generative AI as important emerging differentiators.
SAP is pursuing a similar direction natively through SuccessFactors and Joule. Its 1H 2026 release expanded connected AI agents across recruiting, payroll, learning, performance and talent development, while adding a workforce knowledge network for external expertise.
That creates two models for enterprise buyers: AI capabilities embedded directly inside an HCM suite, and independent agentic layers that sit above existing systems and potentially connect multiple HR applications.
For HR leaders, the technology question is increasingly accompanied by governance questions. Agents handling compensation, performance, succession or employee data require clear permissions, decision rights, audit trails and human oversight. Gartner specifically identifies autonomy boundaries and accountability as central considerations for HR AI-agent governance.
Top Insights
- Gloat is embedding The Josh Bersin Company’s Galileo HR research into Loomra, combining external HR expertise with live enterprise workforce context.
- The integration is designed to let Gloat agents apply HR frameworks to succession, skills, performance, mobility and workforce-planning workflows.
- SAP SuccessFactors remains the system of record while Gloat positions Loomra as an independent agentic layer above existing HCM infrastructure.
- HR AI agents are increasingly defined by their ability to reason across enterprise data and execute multistep workflows rather than simply answer questions.
- Sensitive HR use cases make field-level permissions, auditability and human oversight important components of enterprise agentic HR deployments.
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