Phenom to address HR leaders’ ‘biggest infrastructure challenges’ with Included AI acquisition

Talent experience platform provider Phenom has confirmed the acquisition of agentic people analytics platform, Included AI.

The acquisition will expand Phenom’s AI capabilities for workforce planning by integrating the Included proposition, which addresses inconsistencies and gaps in people data via proprietary algorithms, into its Workforce Intelligence solution.

Included AI is the seventh acquisition by Phenom, following last year’s deal for resource management and talent mobility platform, EDGE, and 2024’s purchase of Employee Data Platform (EDP) provider, Tydy.

Speaking exclusively to UNLEASH, Phenom’s CEO and Co-Founder Mahe Bayireddi says the acquisition of Included AI aligns with the organization’s “innovation pipeline, our purpose of helping a billion people find the right work, and the value it will provide our customers.”

He adds that the deal will have a “major impact” on Phenom users’ “biggest infrastructure challenges” concerning people analytics and workforce planning.

“Currently, companies have large datasets, but much of it is unstructured and often disconnected,” Bayireddi explains.

Included’s agentic AI weeds out the noise to provide a more cohesive set of data. Fully integrated into Phenom’s Workforce Intelligence solution, our customers will have visibility into people analytics to easily make informed decisions about workforce planning.”Included’s agentic AI weeds out the noise to provide a more cohesive set of data. Fully integrated into Phenom’s Workforce Intelligence solution, our customers will have visibility into people analytics to easily make informed decisions about workforce planning.”

Better people analytics and decisions at a micro and macro level

As factors such as uncertain operating conditions, rapid skills change, and rising labor costs continue, HR leaders require the ability to harness and act on reliable people data analytics.

At the same time, the rise of agentic and enterprise-grade AI can plug gaps and address inconsistencies in people data that would have historically been fragmented or incomplete.

Bayreddi details that by integrating Included in Phenom’s platform, HR and business leaders will be able to use an AI agent that surfaces “business-critical data and insights” to inform and enhance workforce planning, while eliminating dependencies on external experts and analysts.

“The depth of knowledge from Phenom ontologies combined with the flexibility of Included algorithms and canonical models will allow leaders to drill down and segment the data in a variety of ways," Bayreddi tells UNLEASH.

“This means immediate access to talent supply and demand to expedite workforce planning at a company, division, department, or even team level.”

At an organizational level, the acquisition and integration will also mean HR leaders are able to better align with and meet business strategy objectives.

Bayreddi says the combination of agentic AI with Phenom’s Enterprise Optimization and Work Redesign solution means people leaders will be in a position to get strategic business initiatives underway.

If a leader was planning for the opening of a new plant, for example, the AI Agent would provide a summary of what is required to achieve success, people analytics to define whether to build, buy, or borrow talent, take action on development plans or hiring as needed based on skill availability and employee readiness,” he concludes.If a leader was planning for the opening of a new plant, for example, the AI Agent would provide a summary of what is required to achieve success, people analytics to define whether to build, buy, or borrow talent, take action on development plans or hiring as needed based on skill availability and employee readiness,” he concludes.