Nakisa Workforce Planning Portfolio 2025.R1 product release: Introducing AI-powered org design, streamlined headcount planning, and more

We are proud to unveil the latest Nakisa Workforce Planning Portfolio innovations and enhancements with the 2025.R1 release. This release introduces powerful features and refinements across our Org Chart, Org Design, and Workforce Planning suites, including powerful AI-driven features that empower organizations to optimize their workforce structures, strategies, and systems with greater precision and efficiency.

1. Introducing Nakisa AI

Nakisa is implementing generative AI, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), and agentic AI in its cloud-native platform which powers all three of our product portfolios—Workforce Planning, IWMS, and Accounting. This means that all innovations and upgrades we do for our AI technologies will be automatically available in every Nakisa product going forward. Exciting times ahead!

But first, an important note: Nakisa takes client security and trust extremely seriously. We do not and never will train our models using client-specific data. To maintain data and feature-level security, Nakisa AI inherits and respects access permissions based on user roles defined at the product level and by user groups. Each customer is assigned a unique encryption key for maximum protection, and their data is isolated and segregated to prevent accidental access by unauthorized parties. 

And now, here’s what’s coming your way:

1.1 Nakisa AI Agents (available now in 2025.R1) 

We’re introducing Nakisa AI Agents – agentic AI that is implemented to help users streamline their work with our powerful features. At its most advanced, agentic AI can operate autonomously, making decisions, taking actions, and continuously learning from interactions without constant human intervention to solve complex, multi-step problems. It interprets context, evaluates options, and adapts its behavior to achieve the specific goals it’s programmed to achieve. 

For the Workforce Planning Portfolio, Nakisa AI Agents have been implemented in the following areas across product suites:

Start using this functionality in Nakisa

Nakisa AI Agents are disabled by default and can be enabled through the "Enable AI Agent (Beta)" switch that’s been added to the General Settings page in Global Settings. Once enabled, you can use the agents to help you quickly understand and better formulate organizational design and workforce planning tasks and steps specific to your work. The UI functionality is the same across all suites (i.e., users ask the agent for a task using natural language, and the agent complies). Specific outputs per product suite are outlined in the appropriate sections below. 

Note: This feature is available for all user roles. Please consult the latest user/admin guide for more information.

1.2 Nakisa AI Assistant (Alpha release in 2025.R1, fully available to users in 2025.R2)

We are introducing the Nakisa AI Assistant that will be available in the Workforce Planning Portfolio (in addition to the Nakisa Accounting Portfolio and Nakisa IWMS). The Nakisa AI Assistant is a conversational assistant that has been under development for quite some time and leverages Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology to provide intelligent assistance to any Nakisa user. Currently in alpha release, you can try it out to test: 

• Natural language queries: General and specific questions can be asked about complex HR topics or product features in plain language, following which the Nakisa AI Assistant provides instant answers.
• Task assistance: The Nakisa AI Assistant can provide structured, step-by-step guidance on how to use Nakisa products to achieve the most efficient and effective results.
• Context-aware help (limited availability starting 2025.R2): Smart suggestions tailored to your tasks will be provided by the Nakisa AI Assistant to enhance productivity. It will provide insights about which combination of specific features, operations, or contextual information should be leveraged for understanding or executing tasks. 

This assistant is trained using Nakisa’s continuously updated documentation library, ensuring accurate responses that enhance the user experience across all products. 

Start using this functionality in Nakisa

The Nakisa AI Assistant will be automatically enabled as of the 2025.R2 release. In 2025.R1, it’s in alpha availability, so you will need help from Nakisa to test out its functionality. In 2025.R2, you can access the Nakisa AI Assistant directly from the Product Center or the side menu after logging in.  When it's fully available, you can click on “Nakisa AI Assistant” to open the tool. From there, enter any questions related to workforce planning, organizational design, or other related topics, and the AI Assistant will respond quickly and as accurately as possible. 

(Please note that the following screenshot is from the alpha release and may not fully represent the final product's appearance.)

The new Nakisa AI Assistant’s natural language query field

After that, enter any questions you may have about workforce planning, organizational design, or any related topic and then the Nakisa AI Assistant will respond quickly and as accurately as possible (do validate the responses for particularly complex queries!). 

Please note that this is a brand-new product in alpha release. While the Nakisa AI Assistant is already well-trained, it may still have limits in the breadth and scope of its responses. We are continuously refining the assistant, so its responses and abilities will improve with ongoing updates.

Note: This feature will require coordination with Nakisa to be tested during the 2025.R1 release, and will be automatically enabled for all user roles in the 2025.R2. Please contact your Customer Success Manager for in-depth details. 

2. Nakisa Org Chart Suite: Enhanced visualizations and data clarity

The Nakisa Org Chart Suite continues to set the standard for organizational visualization tools, and the 2025.R1 release introduces several key enhancements:

• High-definition org chart exports: Users can now export org charts to PDF with high-definition images, ensuring readability even when zoomed in.

• Skills and capabilities visualization: Employee and position details pages now display skills and capability data, providing deeper insights into workforce strengths.

• Personalized chart options: Users can now upload custom icons for employee boxes in org charts. They can also save predefined data filters as custom filter profiles, directly accessible from their dashboard or employee directory. Finally, additional fields have been added to the chart options and details panels, so users can personalize org charts for enhanced organizational clarity.

The Nakisa Org Chart Suite’s improved visuals

The Nakisa Org Chart Suite’s increased details 

• Accessibility improvements: Nakisa Org Chart now fully complies with WCAG standards, including enhanced keyboard navigation within the org chart for improved accessibility.
• Enhanced ERP integration data error handling: Improvements in error handling ensure a smoother on-boarding process for ERP-integrated data.  

Start using this functionality in Nakisa

All these updates are automatically enabled in the Org Chart Suite. Simply log in to the suite, open your desired org charts, and then you will be able to view the charts in the best resolution possible for your display.

To view skills data, simply open an employee entry from the chart and navigate to the details tab for a deeper look at their skills and capabilities. Chart options are accessible from the options menu for greater ease of selection. The error handling improvements run automatically in the background, ensuring greater, effortless accuracy.

To get access to our Org Chart product, please reach out to your dedicated Nakisa Client Success manager.

Note: These features are available for all user roles. Please consult the latest user/admin guide for more information.

3. Nakisa Org Design Suite: AI-enhanced organizational design

The Nakisa Org Design Suite has received transformative updates in both its Operational Org Design and Strategic Org Design products, making organizational restructuring more intuitive and collaborative. Here are the major upgrades to our organizational design products.

3.1 Operational Org Design

In our Operational Org Design product, the largest innovation in this release is the integration of the Nakisa AI Agent for org design. Beyond that, we’ve made key feature enhancements and system performance improvements.

• Nakisa AI Agent for organizational design: A conversational AI agent now supports real-time discussions by summarizing conversations, suggesting replies, and tracking changes in proposals. This feature can be enabled via the new "Enable AI Agent (Beta)" switch in global settings.

• Streamlined participant management: Collaborators, approvers, and deployers are now grouped under a unified Participant section in the Proposal panel. Administrators can create custom participant groups for tailored collaboration workflows.

• New proposal API endpoint: A new API endpoint provides detailed proposal information, including status, ID, participants, and more. 
• Enhanced document management capability: A new "Documents" tab has been added to the Proposal Panel to allow users to add documents to a proposal, either by uploading a file or adding a URL. 

Start using this functionality in Nakisa

The Nakisa AI Agent for organizational design is disabled by default and can be enabled through the switch "Enable AI Agent (Beta)" that’s been added to the General Settings page in Global Settings. Once enabled, the agent can be found as a chat option on the bottom right-hand corner of the chat panel. There, users can ask for an explanation of the communications to date, suggest replies, and suggest changes to the organizational design plan that is being collaborated on directly into the chat interface. The AI agent accepts natural language.

To add participants in an organizational design task, users must first create a new participant group in the proposal by navigating to the admin page. From there, they select operational org design and click on operational org design participant groups, where all the custom-made participant groups are created and listed. Users create a new group here, add it, save it, and then the new group appears in the proposal where any employee who is a potential stakeholder can be added. 

Note: These features are available for all user roles. Please consult the latest user/admin guide for more information. 

3.2 Strategic Org Design 

We have been laser focused on enhancing the efficiency and user experience of the Strategic Org Design product. We’ve launched a reorganization scenario feature and have enhanced the ability to track changes and derive organizational insights. Here are the key improvements in this release: 

• Scenario creation and management: Easily create, edit, manage, and export reorg scenarios. This includes the ability to quickly locate specific positions, employees, or changes within scenarios charts using a scenario search feature. 
• Dynamic analytics and delta dashboards: Visualize the impact of changes with real-time, in-chart updates to analytics within org charts as scenarios evolve. This provides dynamic, in-chart analytics that automatically update with modifications.
• Enhanced editing capabilities: Modify positions, employees, and organizational structures directly within scenarios. This includes creating, moving, editing, delimiting, and deleting positions during org restructuring, as well as modifying employee details directly within a scenario. 
• Tagging and filtering: Focus on specific elements within org charts using advanced tagging and filtering options to highlight important details.
• Change reporting: Access detailed summaries of modifications within scenarios for better tracking, available through a change report in the application. 
• Role-based permissions: Define roles for scenario collaboration to ensure secure access, aligning with org design roles that allow for customized permissions.
• Field-level visual indication: Easily recognize edited values within the org chart with visual indicators to track changes.
• Detailed pages for positions and employees: Access detailed pages with key information about positions and employees to facilitate informed decision-making.
• Setting and monitoring targets: Establish headcount and structure targets, then track progress to ensure alignment with organizational goals.
• Default dashboard for comparison: Easily compare scenario structures with baseline organizational data using a default dashboard to visualize differences.
• Scenario export: Download and share scenarios for review and collaboration with stakeholders.

Start using this functionality in Nakisa 

All features in the Strategic Org Design product are enabled by default to the Writer role only and function in the same way as they did in our previous Hanelly product, albeit more efficiently and with a modern UI. To get access to our Operational Org Design and Strategic Org Design products, please reach out to your dedicated Nakisa Client Success manager.

Note: This feature is available for the Writer role only. Please consult the latest user/admin guide for more information or contact your Customer Success Manager for more in-depth details.

4. Nakisa Workforce Planning Suite: Launching Operational Workforce Planning

The 2025.R1 release introduces the new Operational Workforce Planning product as part of the Nakisa Workforce Planning Suite. This AI-powered solution streamlines workforce planning by combining data-driven insights with user friendly and intuitive tools. Operational Workforce Planning helps organizations optimize headcount planning, track workforce costs, and easily switch between budget and headcount views to help organizations stay on track towards goals. Here are the product’s most important features: 

• Nakisa AI Agent for headcount planning: The most useful innovation in the product is a conversational AI agent that simplifies headcount planning by analyzing HR data pertinent to the workforce plans. It suggests adjustments, tracks feedback, and summarizes collaborations. It also enables the creation of headcount plans from a single, well-worded prompt.

• Workforce cost tracking: This feature provides real-time insights into salary allocations and budget tracking for better financial planning. 
• Flexible planning views: Users can create plans and subplans. Plans can be further be created at both monthly and quarterly levels for greater adaptability. 

• Headcount and budget toggles: Users can seamlessly switch between headcount-focused and budget-focused views.
• Org chart integration: Nakisa Operational Workforce Planning connects with Nakisa Org Chart for a unified view of organizational structures. 
• Vacant position calculation: Vacancies are automatically identified to streamline recruitment planning. 
• Plan expansion tools: Users can easily add new items to workforce plans. 

• Enhanced access controls: The product allows users to manage user roles, product center access, and URL-based restrictions for secure governance. Because the Operational Workforce Planning product introduces new features, we created three levels of functionality for users depending on their needs: 
  • Full access: For users responsible for managing headcount across one or more business units (e.g., HRBPs). These users can create new plans and have complete access to all headcount planning features. 
  • Partial access: For users assigned as owners to headcount plans and subplans. These users can make substantive changes, access their assigned plans/subplans, and create subplans within their assigned scope.  
  • Minimal access: For users with consultative roles. These users can only access the plans/subplans to which they have been assigned as participant.  

Note: These roles are intended to be used in combination with another user role assigned in the overall Workforce Planning Portfolio. 

Start using this functionality in Nakisa 

All features in the Operational Workforce Planning product are enabled by default to Manager and HR user roles. To get access to our Operational Workforce Planning product, please reach out to your dedicated Nakisa Client Success manager.

Note: This feature is available for the Manager and HR user roles. Please consult the latest user/admin guide for more information. 

Conclusion 

Nakisa Workforce Planning Portfolio 2025.R1 continues our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that empower HR professionals and managers in global enterprises. From AI-driven insights to enhanced visualization tools, powerful organizational design capabilities, and strategic and operational workforce planning functionalities this release marks a significant step forward in workforce optimization.  

Experience these capabilities firsthand by booking a personalized demo with one of our experts today! Are you a Nakisa client? Reach out to your dedicated Customer Success Manager for tailored support and guidance. To access the latest release notes, visit the Nakisa Resource Center.