Inside Rival: How We Use What We Build
This blog is part of Inside Rival, a series where our team shares how we use Rival in our everyday work. From favorite tools to AI agents and automations, we're showing you what we're building, how we're using it and what we've learned along the way.
I tested an AI legislative monitoring agent to see whether it could make staying informed about employment laws a little more manageable.
Somewhere between onboarding employees, processing payroll, managing benefits, and answering the occasional "where do I find my W-2?" question, you are also supposed to be keeping up with every employment law that might affect the company. And apparently, those laws don't coordinate their schedules with your to-do list.
Picture this: You're halfway through processing payroll when a notification pops up about a new employment law. Interesting! Potentially important! And apparently, we're researching it right now. With 2 hours left to process. Suddenly, you're three browser tabs deep, wondering: Wait. Does this apply to us? What does it mean for our employees? Is there something we should be doing differently? And when exactly does it take effect? All while the Submit Payroll button sits there waiting. Tick. Tock.
And when I'm evaluating a new payroll provider? Sure, I want to hear about the fancy dashboards, automated reporting, and integrations. But somewhere in that conversation, I'm also asking, "YOU'LL TELL ME WHEN THE LAWS CHANGE, RIGHT?" Please tell me there's an email notification. A reminder. A carrier pigeon. Something.
Because here's the thing: I genuinely want to know when employment laws change. Some changes can mean better pay, benefits, or protections for employees, and making sure people receive what they're entitled to is an important part of the job. I just want to understand what's changing, who it affects, and what we're supposed to do about it. Preferably without opening 19 browser tabs five minutes before payroll is due.
My Inbox Is Not a Compliance Department
Naturally, I've tried just about everything to stay ahead of it. I've subscribed to more HR newsletters than I'd like to admit. I've set up Google Alerts with keywords related to employment laws and regulatory changes. I've even purchased an entire stack of HR law textbooks so I'd have something to reference when questions came up. Yes. Actual textbooks. They've become quite the conversation starter in my house. Usually something along the lines of, "Wow, that's... interesting," before my guests politely move on to another room.
At this point, I'm one rolling library ladder away from opening my own legal research department. And while I genuinely enjoy learning about these things, there's a small problem with my approach. I've successfully created approximately 47 different ways to receive information, but not necessarily a faster way to understand what to do with it. My Google Alerts quickly turned my inbox into a breaking-news channel for every employment law, proposed bill, and regulatory update imaginable. Did any of it apply to my company? Great question. Apparently, that was still my job to figure out. And listen, I love a good HR newsletter. Sometimes the subject line alone makes me feel understood in a way I didn't know I needed. "Five Things Only People in HR Will Understand." Yes. Tell me more. I've found my people.
But as comforting as it is to know other people are also navigating the wonderful world of benefits enrollment, a newsletter can't necessarily tell me whether a particular change affects our employees, what needs to happen internally, or when we should start preparing. And even when I find the right information, there's another challenge. A bill might be proposed, passed, amended, delayed, or repealed. Sometimes the guidance changes as the implementation date approaches. Which means the article I bookmarked three months ago might not be the whole story anymore.
I don't need another way to find out that something changed. I need a better way to understand what that change means for the people and business I'm responsible for supporting. That's what caught my attention about Legislative/Policy Monitor, an AI agent by Poetry available on the Rival Marketplace. It's designed to help track legislative and regulatory developments, identify what might matter to a business, and surface upcoming compliance deadlines. So I decided to put it to the test.
Apparently, My Fictional Company Has Compliance Questions Too
For testing purposes and to keep actual company information private until I verified the tool, I created a fictional 15-person technology startup headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Most employees worked in Georgia, but the company also had one remote employee in California and another in New York. It used an outside payroll provider and didn't have a dedicated HR compliance specialist. A pretty realistic scenario for a small company where the operations team wears approximately 17 different hats.
I asked the agent to identify employment-related laws, upcoming regulatory changes, and compliance deadlines that might affect payroll, benefits, onboarding, and employee policies. I also asked it to distinguish between actual requirements and proposed legislation, prioritize what needed attention, and provide official sources. Basically, I wanted to know: What should a company like this be paying attention to, and how can we make sure we're prepared? And then something interesting happened.
Wait, It Asked Me a Question First?
Instead of immediately producing a giant list of laws, the agent stopped and asked about the company's legal business structure. LLC? S-Corporation? C-Corporation? I selected C-Corporation.
Now, this might not sound particularly exciting, but I appreciated it. I can practically hear the polite "Wow, that's... interesting" from here. But the last thing I want is an AI assistant confidently recommending a compliance action without first understanding the company it's advising. It also retained the information I'd already provided about the company's size, employee locations, and payroll arrangement. That gave me some confidence that it was trying to understand the business before making recommendations. Of course, asking the right questions doesn't automatically mean the answers will be right. But it was a promising start.
Ten Pages of Laws. One Slightly Overwhelmed Operations Manager.
After researching, the agent delivered an entire 10-page Employment Compliance Watchlist. Ten pages. I asked for help managing my workload, and for a brief moment, I wondered whether I'd accidentally assigned myself homework. But once I started looking through it, I understood what it was trying to accomplish.
Instead of presenting everything as equally urgent, it organized the findings into categories:
Take Action Now: Requirements it identified as already applicable or approaching an effective date.
Prepare: Changes that could require upcoming payroll, policy, or benefits adjustments.
Monitor: Developments worth watching but not necessarily requiring immediate action.
Proposals & Pending: Bills and proposed rules that shouldn't be treated as current law.
It also included standing compliance checklists by jurisdiction, a calendar of upcoming dates, and questions that needed answers before the analysis could be finalized. That last part was particularly important. Because there's a big difference between a law that exists and a law that applies to your company. And there's an equally big difference between a bill being introduced and an employer actually needing to change something.
The report identified several issues to investigate, including California wage requirements, New York employment records rules, Georgia E-Verify obligations, and retirement plan provisions. It even highlighted three missing details: the California employee's city, the New York employee's location, and whether the company sponsored a 401(k). I appreciated the organization. But I also had a thought. This is great. Now can you tell me what I actually need to do with it?
Okay, But What Actually Needs My Attention?
I gave the agent a follow-up challenge. Imagine I'm in the middle of processing payroll when an employment law notification appears. I don't have time to read ten pages or research every item immediately. Tell me what changed, why it might apply, whether I need to act now or later, and what I should ask my payroll provider or attorney. I also answered its outstanding questions. Our fictional California employee worked in Los Angeles. The New York employee worked in New York City. And the company sponsored a traditional 401(k). The agent responded with a new report titled "What Actually Needs My Attention?" This time, it was two pages. Progress!
It narrowed the discussion to three priorities and explained how the additional company details affected its recommendations. For example, specifying Los Angeles prompted it to look at the city's minimum wage rather than relying only on California's statewide requirements. Confirming the 401(k) plan prompted a discussion of retirement contribution rules, while also identifying additional information needed to determine whether those rules affected anyone at the company. And rather than just listing effective dates, it tried to distinguish between when a law takes effect and when an operations team should prepare for it. That's a distinction I care about.
If a payroll-related change takes effect January 1, I don't want to discover it while processing the first January payroll. I want to know beforehand what needs to be checked, who needs to confirm it, and whether my payroll provider already has it covered. Not just to avoid a compliance issue, but to make sure employees receive the correct pay and benefits when they're supposed to. The agent also suggested specific questions to ask those providers. Which, frankly, is a lot more helpful than sending an email that just says: "Hi! I saw something about a new law. Are we okay?"
Two Pages Is Still Two Pages
Now, was the shorter briefing magically simple? Not exactly. It was still two pages of employment laws, effective dates, salary thresholds, and questions I needed to answer. Nobody handed me a giant green button that said, "Congratulations! You're compliant! Submit that payroll!"
But here's what I appreciated. Instead of seeing a notification about a new law and spending the next hour researching whether it even applied to my company, I had a starting point. The agent had already organized the information around the fictional company's size, employee locations, and benefits. It explained what might need attention, what could wait, and what questions I should bring to the appropriate professionals.
I wasn't starting with a vague alert and a Google search. I was starting with a list of questions that actually made sense for the business. And when you're juggling payroll, benefits, onboarding, and approximately 47 other things, that's a pretty meaningful difference. I don't necessarily need AI to make every compliance decision for me. I need it to help me understand the situation so I can make better decisions, involve the right people, and support our employees appropriately. Preferably without turning a five-minute payroll task into an afternoon of legal research with the 3PM deadline looming.
A Reminder Is Nice. Understanding What It Means Is Better.
One feature I haven't explored yet is connecting my calendar. The agent organized upcoming compliance deadlines into a calendar-style report, and it let me know that a calendar connection would be needed to take the next step toward managing reminders.
For this experiment, I focused on researching and understanding the changes rather than setting up notifications. But having those deadlines organized and ready to add to my calendar is already helpful. And considering how many times I've begged payroll providers to keep me updated on new laws, you can bet that's a feature I'd want to explore. The carrier pigeon may finally be able to retire.
There's also an important distinction worth making when it comes to using AI for compliance research. While the agent provided sources and described its findings as verified, I wouldn't treat an AI-generated compliance report as a final legal determination. Employment laws can involve exceptions, employee-count thresholds, local ordinances, amendments, and details that aren't obvious from a short summary. An AI-generated watchlist still needs to be checked against authoritative sources and, when appropriate, reviewed with a qualified professional. But I don't think that makes the tool less useful. It just clarifies what it's useful for.
The goal isn't to replace your payroll provider, HR professional, or employment attorney. It's to help you arrive at those conversations informed, organized, and ready to ask better questions. And ideally, without 19 browser tabs open.
So, Would I Use Legislative/Policy Monitor Again?
Yes, with realistic expectations. I wouldn't rely on it as my company's sole compliance monitoring system, and I wouldn't assume it was continuously watching for changes or sending notifications without confirming those capabilities.
But I could absolutely see myself using it to research an unfamiliar employment law, prepare for a payroll or benefits change, review compliance considerations when hiring in a new state, or organize questions before speaking with an advisor.
What impressed me most wasn't that it produced ten pages of information. It was that I could challenge it, provide more context, and ask it to turn that information into something more actionable. It didn't eliminate the responsibility of staying informed and compliant. It helped make the research and preparation side of that responsibility feel more manageable. And that's an important difference.
One Last Thing
I think there's a misconception that finding ways to make administrative work easier means you don't appreciate how important that work is. For me, it's the opposite. The reason I want better tools for HR and operations is because the details matter.
When employment laws change, those changes can represent important new protections, benefits, or opportunities for employees. Understanding and implementing them correctly is part of taking care of the people who make a business run. And I want to do that well.
But taking that responsibility seriously doesn't mean every answer needs to begin with an afternoon of searching through government websites or consulting my growing collection of HR textbooks. Sometimes being better at your job means finding a smarter way to get the information you need, recognizing what still requires human judgment, and knowing when to ask for help.
So, will I continue reading my HR newsletters? Absolutely.
Sometimes they're informative. Sometimes they're genuinely useful. And sometimes I just need to know someone else understands why open enrollment feels like a competitive sport. But now I have another tool I can turn to when I need to go beyond "something changed" and start figuring out "what does that mean for us?" And my next step? Exploring that calendar connection so those compliance deadlines can make their way onto my schedule.
The carrier pigeon can finally start planning its retirement.
Explore Legislative/Policy Monitor by Poetry on the Rival Marketplace.
About the Author
Laura Braun is the Operations Director at Rival.io, where she helps keep the people, processes, and day-to-day operations of a growing technology company running smoothly. Her work spans HR, finance, compliance, and everything in between. She's passionate about finding practical ways to make work more efficient, support the people behind the business, and put emerging technology to good use. When she's not solving operational puzzles, she's probably finding another process to improve (or adding another HR law textbook to her collection).