MarketsandMarkets on December 9 projected the employee performance management (EPM) market to grow from $3.52 billion in 2025 to $6.33 billion by 2030, a 12.4% CAGR. The core driver is a shift away from annual reviews toward continuous, analytics-led performance cycles, as organizations seek more agile development and stronger retention. The report notes that firms such as Adobe, Accenture, Deloitte, and Microsoft have already moved to continuous feedback models, demonstrating faster development and higher engagement than traditional reviews.
AI-enabled platforms sit at the heart of this transition. Vendors including Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Betterworks, Lattice, and Culture Amp use predictive analytics to surface development needs, align goals, and reduce bias in evaluations.
The outlet highlighted broader HR digital transformation amplifies EPM adoption, with large enterprises such as Bank of America and Adobe rolling out unified cloud HCM suites that knit together performance, goals, engagement, and learning. As employers shift toward skills-based talent strategies, linking performance data to learning pathways and internal mobility becomes another structural demand driver.
SAP ‘People Intelligence,’ Oracle AI Agents
SAP’s latest moves are framed around its new “People Intelligence” platform. In October 2025, SAP announced major enhancements to its HCM suite, including AI-powered capabilities under that banner and a “Performance and Goals Agent” designed to improve performance management and goal tracking.
SAP SuccessFactors HCM remains the delivery vehicle: a cloud suite spanning core HR, payroll, talent, performance and goals, learning, and people analytics. In the EPM context, SAP offers modules for performance appraisals, goal setting and tracking, continuous feedback and learning, and analytics, effectively covering performance systems, goal-tracking platforms, continuous feedback tools, and people-analytics use cases.
Recent additions such as an AI copilot for HR tasks, embedded throughout the suite, and unified skills and performance analytics position SAP as a front-runner for organizations seeking a modern, integrated, data-driven performance management solution.
Oracle, meanwhile, pushed hard into AI in February 2025 with new role-based AI agents inside Oracle Cloud HCM, aimed at helping HR and business leaders automate workflows, streamline tasks, and raise workforce productivity. Oracle Cloud HCM spans core HR, payroll, talent, performance, goals and feedback, learning, and workforce analytics; for EPM, it integrates performance appraisals, goal/OKR management, continuous feedback, talent review, and skill-based development into a single ecosystem.
The report notes that AI agents and an improved Redwood-based UX under “Activity Centers” strengthen Oracle’s appeal as an all-in-one performance, talent, and HR solution.
Consolidated Market
The EPM market appears consolidated, with the top five players—SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Workday, and ADP—holding an estimated 40% to 55% global share. Where SAP’s SuccessFactors suite delivers AI-enabled performance and goals management across large enterprises and regulated sectors, Oracle Cloud HCM offers unified performance, skills intelligence, and analytics, supporting continuous, data-driven evaluations within large global HR estates.
Microsoft enters via Viva and Microsoft 365, enabling goal alignment, feedback, and employee insights woven into everyday productivity tools used across knowledge-driven organizations. Workday drives enterprise demand through its skills-based architecture, talent optimization, and deep penetration in the Fortune 500, while ADP leverages its payroll-centric footprint, offering integrated HR and performance modules widely adopted by mid-market and large organizations seeking unified HR and performance workflows.
Together, these five vendors “anchor the global ecosystem” by providing scalable, cloud-based, AI-driven performance management solutions that set the standard for other providers, per the outlet.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
HCM suites are becoming the primary site for AI-driven performance data. As SAP and Oracle embed agents, copilots, and unified skills analytics into their cloud HCM platforms, performance management stops being a standalone tool and becomes a core layer of the broader ERP/HCM stack. That consolidation will influence how talent, finance, and operations data must interoperate to support skills-based planning and workforce productivity analytics.
Market concentration raises the stakes for integration and extensibility. With SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Workday, and ADP controlling up to half of global EPM share, their data models and APIs will shape how performance and skills travel into adjacent systems, including core ERP, learning, and workforce planning tools. For architects and systems integrators, this makes vendor-agnostic integration frameworks and data governance critical if enterprises want to avoid locking performance intelligence inside a single HCM silo.
AI-native performance management will increasingly differentiate enterprise platforms. The report’s emphasis on AI-driven feedback, predictive analytics, and skills-linked mobility signals that “good enough” appraisal modules will fall short of buyer expectations. ERP and HCM product teams that can align performance data with skills graphs, learning journeys, and internal marketplaces—while maintaining fairness and explainability—will be better positioned as organizations scale continuous, data-driven performance cultures globally.
