Planday and AI: Building the future of shift work

In hospitality and residential healthcare, schedules are more than just calendars – they’re the heartbeat of the business. Whether you’re balancing the Friday night rush in a Copenhagen bistro or making sure you have safe staffing ratios in a Manchester care home, the scheduling stakes are incredibly high.

For over two decades, Planday has been pioneering workforce management. And now, we’re looking toward the future. Our goal isn’t just to make scheduling easier; we are building the industry’s first truly Agentic AI experience. Planday, powered by AI, will be the world’s first fully proactive assistant designed to build better, fairer and more compliant schedules – in a fraction of the time.

Real AI vs “black boxes”

Right now, everyone’s promising “AI”. It’s become shorthand for anything that’s even slightly automated. But for a care facility registered manager, or a general manager in a hotel, "automated" doesn't always mean "accurate."

Lots of platforms say they're powered by AI, but really they’re using black box algorithms. You feed in team data and a schedule pops out. But the logic is hidden. Does that schedule and “AI” actually understand the nuances of UK labour laws? Does it respect Nordic rest-period requirements? If the data you put in is poor, you have a payroll disaster or compliance breach on your hands.

That’s why we’re doing things differently. We’re not building a static set of rules; we’re developing Agentic AI. Planday’s going to become your assistant that understands your intent, anticipates your needs and takes action – all before a problem lands on your desk.

The AI dream

Scheduling shouldn’t take so much time; it shouldn’t be a source of frustration, or dread. Our AI journey will see us get rid of as much manual admin as possible. So, instead of dreading uploading spreadsheets and trying to make the most of the confusion, Planday will help customers instantly mirror their business reality, and act as a supportive, intelligent partner.

The end game is to get to continuous schedules – so your rota’s never empty, it’s always in a state of intelligent proposal, waiting for you to simply approve its suggestions. 

With AI, we can help customers escape admin hell and finally become true, strategic decision makers, once and for all.

Agentics of change: The pillars of Planday’s AI vision

Our AI journey's built on three foundations that are designed for the complexities of shift-based industries:

1. Trust and fidelity

In healthcare and hospitality, there’s no room for hallucinations. AI is only as good as the data you feed it. With more than 20 years of WFM expertise, Planday has the most, and most accurate, data in the industry that makes sure every suggestion is grounded in reality. When our AI looks at yourstaff costs,it sees the true picture, helping to keep your margins protected and your payroll accurate.

2. Human-fit 

A one-size-fits-all algorithm might work in a factory, but it won’t at a high-end restaurant or a residential care home. Our AI is built to adapt to you and your requirements, not the other way around. It’s a custom fit – for your team, culture and your region’s regulatory requirements.

Our AI engine takes into account each team member’s needs and preferences and helps you balance them with your and the business’ needs. It helps us keep your team members as fit, healthy and balanced as your business.

3. The proactive agent

It’s not hard to imagine the chaos having a team member ill, someone not show up for their shift, or you spotting a potential compliance gap in next week’s rota can cause. Now imagine an assistant that can notice and fix all of those things, before you’ve even opened Planday. Or one that suggests a shift swap based on real-time demand and team preferences. 

And it doesn’t simply suggest changes, it orchestrates everything. Our goal is automate the entire process, end to end, from spotting gaps and issues in rotas, to communicating those changes with your team. The end game is seamless simplicity, that’s as easy and low-effort for everyone involved, at every step.

This is our agentic difference. It’s how Planday’s moving from being another tool you have to manage, to an assistant that helps you manage.

The journey has just begun

Our AI journey has just begun. Some are rushing to market their capabilities that are, basically, a glorified search bar.

At Planday, we’re leaning into genuine machine learning, intelligent agents and smart algorithms so that we can finally solve the messy, human challenges of shift work. We will never cut corners on compliance or data integrity. We are focussed on building systems our customers can trust, systems that don’t just work fast, but work properly.

For our customers, our AI journey is about reclaiming time and making their mental loads lighter, by reducing manual admin, keeping the rota fully staffed, helping you priortise your team’s wellbeing and solving problems before they have a chance to become a problem.

By moving toward an agentic model, we’re giving managers the freedom to step away from their computer, and get back to what they do best. The future of shift work isn’t about being AI-enabled.

It’s about being intelligently human.

AI – it's the ultimate assistant, not a team replacement. And it might just be hospitality's secret ingredient.

Find out why