At its Fall Showcase 2026, Gusto announced AI connectors for Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools, invoice ingestion for contractor payments, project tracking, and more for small businesses.
Running payroll on top of everything else? Gusto's Fall Showcase brought new AI help. Here's what Gusto's official news post says, as we read it on Oct 28, 2026.
What Gusto announced:
- AI connectors: connect Gusto to Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools to ask about payroll and teams, prep payroll, and generate reports. Gusto says you approve every change before it's final.
- Before each payroll: Gusto says an agent can prepare what it can and send a prioritized list of decisions that need your approval.
- Invoice ingestion: Gusto reads an uploaded contractor invoice and prefills the paysheet for your review and approval.
- Project tracking: tag hours to projects, clients, and tasks to see the labor cost of every job.
Where to start:
- Ask a simple payroll question.
- Review every prefilled paysheet.
- Keep your accountant in the loop.
More in our Gusto AI profile and our timesheet review playbook.
A small-business example: a small web design studio pays three freelance contractors each month. With invoice ingestion, the owner uploads each invoice, checks the prefilled paysheet, and approves it. Project tracking then shows the labor cost of each client project. (Our illustration of what Gusto describes.)
Questions to ask before you turn these on:
- Who approves payroll and contractor payments, and who backs them up?
- Which projects or clients should you track hours against?
- What should your accountant see?
Background: Gusto also announced updates for accountants and HR tools at the same event. Our Gusto AI profile covers Gus, Gusto Cofounder, and the AI connectors in more detail.
Who should pay attention: small businesses that run payroll in Gusto, pay contractors, or bill clients by project.
Plain-English terms:
- AI connector: a link that lets Claude, ChatGPT, or another assistant work with your Gusto data.
- Invoice ingestion: Gusto reads an uploaded contractor invoice and fills in the payment details.
- Project tracking: tagging hours to clients or jobs to see labor costs.
A simple first step: before your next payroll, ask your connected assistant to list anything that changed since last time, like new hires, raises, or extra hours. Check the list against your own notes before you approve.
What we'll watch next: how these tools roll out across Gusto plans. See Gusto's site for the full list of Fall Showcase announcements, including tools for accountants.
Sources
- Gusto Fall Showcase 2026 (checked Oct 28, 2026)