Q: How has UKG’s value proposition and market positioning in Mexico evolved since the legacy Kronos era?

AL: Since the fusion with Ultimate Software, Kronos has truly become a comprehensive platform where workforce management and human capital management come together. We are no longer just measuring check-ins and check-outs; we are looking at payroll, advanced forecasting, scheduling, and real-time analytics driven by AI to provide immediate insights for decision-making. We have a positioning that spans over 20 years with massive enterprise clients in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and the wider region to prove it. What truly characterizes us since this fusion is that we are specialists in unlocking the power of people within organizations, making them the most vital asset.

To top off this technical evolution, our platform is fully cloud-native, running on Google Cloud, allowing native integrations with a large ecosystem of corporate tools. Combined with a heavy emphasis on data security certifications and hyper-scalability, we offer a 24/7 operational environment with zero downtime, guaranteeing constant availability for corporate clients.

JM: An immense effort has been made to pass from being perceived as a provider of physical terminals to focusing deeply on human resources software applications. This has brought a shift in philosophy. We have moved from being technical implementers to becoming consultative partners who understand the specific needs of our clients. We touch diverse industries; historically manufacturing was our core, but retail is now a massive, highly dynamic segment that operates differently. One of our key milestones was ensuring a secure cloud infrastructure first, giving our clients total stability before rolling out further advanced applications.

GG: A vital pillar of this evolution has been the focus on people. Historically, technology development in this and other fields has been perceived as cold. Our organization's ideology is to center technology around human well-being. This is precisely why Great Place to Work is now part of our group. Everything we develop is designed to ensure that while we meet goals like productivity, efficiency, and legal compliance, we are also actively helping our clients transform their organizations into great places to work.

Q: Mexico is facing pivotal shifts, including the proposed reduction to a 40-hour workweek and stricter electronic time-logging requirements. How are these regulations transforming workforce management?

AL: The reduction of the workweek and automated attestation are implicit needs driven by a focus on employee well-being — preventing burnout and eliminating workplace favoritism or manual log modifications. Having absolute, automated control over time tracking is crucial. However, strictly from a business perspective, reducing the workweek from 48 to 40 hours demands a 12.5% increase in operational productivity just to break even. For a retailer or a manufacturer, less available time per worker can severely impact production and store coverage. The real challenge is scheduling people effectively so they are present exactly when and where they are most productive.

JM: Time is the most critical factor, and the fact that this reform is designed to be gradual is positive for the market. There are still many companies in Mexico that lack basic automated time and attendance tracking. While mature companies utilize facial recognition and advanced scheduling, others are starting from scratch. In complex sectors like retail, where you manage fluctuating hours and part-time shifts, maximizing time efficiency is already a fine art. The great challenge of this labor reform is balancing the human element with the employer's need for productivity. To avoid severe losses, employers need tools that do not just track hours, but actively optimize schedules and motivate staff. Advanced scheduling modules that map labor requirements directly against production goals are going to become mandatory for survival.

GG: Historically, productivity in Latin America has been mistakenly tied to the sheer number of hours an employee sits at a desk. Ironically, Latin America has some of the longest working hours globally, yet lags significantly in actual productivity. This reform forces a cultural shift. When companies see their available hours cut, their immediate reaction is often reactive: "I need to hire more people" or "I need to pay more overtime." But adding headcount or doubling down on overtime exponentially increases labor costs and exhausts the existing workforce. Businesses need to analyze their actual operational capacity, simulate future scenarios, and find the right shift models to maintain output without exploding their budgets.

Q: How is the nearshoring boom reshaping industrial demands and workforce infrastructure in Mexico?

AL: Mexico is in a highly strategic position. Its proximity to the United States, double-port access, and logistics ecosystem make it incredibly attractive for global expansion. In recent years, the automotive sector alone has seen the arrival of over a dozen new global automotive brands establishing operations in the country. This massive industrial migration creates an ecosystem that demands sophisticated workforce management. The companies arriving are operating on a massive scale; they cannot manage thousands of complex shifts manually while staying compliant with Mexican labor laws and union agreements.

JM: Nearshoring provides an incredible economic opportunity, but it also creates an intense war for talent. To compete effectively with global giants, local and incoming companies must elevate their operational sophistication. It is not just about setting up a factory; it is about importing global best practices, automating complex labor processes, and scaling efficiently. The companies that win the nearshoring race will be those that leverage advanced human capital technology to optimize their labor footprint and build highly productive workforces.

GG: Managing this scale is where multinational strategies come into play. Many of our clients are global enterprises where Latin America — particularly Mexico and Brazil — represents the largest concentration of their workforce. These companies require centralized, strategic workforce planning tools that can simulate regional labor costs, predict turnover, and adapt dynamically to the unique legal requirements of each country, whether it is Mexico's reforms, Colombia's shifts, or Brazil's complex tax and labor frameworks.

Q: The introduction of AI and automation in the workplace often sparks anxiety among HR leaders and employees. How does UKG address these concerns to ensure seamless adoption?

AL: Technology must serve as an enabler for the workforce, not a threat. In workforce management, AI acts as a preventive shield. For example, our AI systems can flag behavioral trends and scheduling anomalies, alerting a manager that an employee is reaching a burnout threshold before it leads to a resignation or a safety incident. It humanizes the workplace by shifting managers away from tedious administrative firefighting and allowing them to focus on leadership and human connection.

JM: From a consultant's perspective, AI completely changes how we deliver value. We utilize data analytics to show up to a client interaction already knowing their industry benchmarks, operational leaks, and potential compliance risks. This allows us to have highly strategic, tailored conversations. For the end-user, our goal is to make AI completely intuitive. Just as people comfortably interact with AI algorithms in their daily lives via social media or virtual assistants, AI in the workplace should seamlessly simplify tasks — like auto-approving a leave request based on regional coverage rules or optimizing a shift pattern with a single click.

GG: We aim to empower the everyday employee. When you give workers mobile access to an AI-driven platform where they can autonomously review their schedules, request time off, or swap shifts seamlessly, you radically improve their daily experience. For HR leaders, having an automated system that handles these micro-transactions while maintaining compliance with local labor laws and corporate union agreements is a massive relief. It changes technology from an administrative burden into a tool that fosters work-life balance.

Q: What major trends will explicitly define the future of corporate work and operational infrastructure in Mexico as we approach 2030?

AL: UKG is fully committed to guiding organizations through this ongoing digital transformation. The operational changes demanded by the market require a tight integration of HR tech with ground-level logistics. Companies need smart systems that manage legal frameworks seamlessly while creating a healthier, data-driven work environment. Mexico has an economic window right now with nearshoring, but to sustain this foreign investment, corporate architectures must optimize labor resources efficiently and shift proactively.

JM: The marketplace will definitively favor organizations that substitute rigid, legacy systems for highly adaptable technological ecosystems. We are seeing a significant transition away from deeply specialized, compartmentalized coding or development fields toward comprehensive, full-stack, AI-driven solutions. Organizations that adapt best to tracking regional KPIs, mapping workforce trends natively, and utilizing modern analytics will navigate the 2030 landscape with a massive competitive edge.

GG: Success will hinge directly on how companies embrace structural workforce flexibility and multi-generational alignment. Organizations are now managing up to four or five different generational demographics simultaneously under one roof, all demanding vastly different operational values ranging from extreme location flexibility to rigid shift predictability. Finding a technologically guided equilibrium between commercial output metrics and the changing realities of employee health is the ultimate milestone defining successful corporations moving forward.