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The non-profit Moms First, which advocates for the interests of mothers in the workplace and culture, is expanding an AI-powered tool to help parents and companies navigate paid family leave systems in their states.
The tool, called Paidleave.ai, was initially piloted starting last December in New York, which is one of thirteen US states that have passed paid family and medical leave policies, in addition to Washington, DC. It was built using OpenAI’s API platform, and features a chatbot that answers common questions about state paid leave, such as whether a worker can take it concurrently with benefits offered by their employer.
After the New York tool received 25,000 visits in the first month, Moms First decided to widen the rollout to states where paid leave programs are currently in effect. One of the primary goals of the tool is to increase utilization rates among working parents, and in a statement, Moms First CEO and co-founder Reshma Saujani said she hoped the tool would “reduce common barriers to access” for the benefit, such as complex application processes.
Paid leave on the ballot. Even as more employers are starting to offer paid parental leave, the benefit isn’t yet ubiquitous in the private sector, with 40% of organizations offering it as of 2024, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. HR professionals based in states with paid family leave policies must navigate these systems on top of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which grants 12 weeks of unpaid leave and hasn’t seen a serious overhaul in more than 30 years.
Caregiving has become a central issue in the 2024 presidential race, and the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns offer differing visions of what enhanced support for employees with such duties could look like. Harris has pledged to revitalize efforts to institute a federal paid family leave program, and while the Trump administration included a proposal for paid family leave in its 2021 budget, the campaign hasn’t specified how he would tackle the issue during a second presidential term.
Harris’s running-mate, Tim Walz, reiterated the campaign’s support for federal paid family leave during the vice presidential debate on Oct. 1, while Republican VP pick J.D. Vance called for “a family care model that makes choice possible.”
A resource for HR. Navigating the patchwork of state and federal policies surrounding paid leave can be complicated for both employees and employers, but Moms First said it is optimistic that the tool it’s built may help lessen the administrative burden of securing time off after a worker has a child.
In January, Saujani told HR Brew that Moms First had seen a fair amount of interest from HR pros in Paidleave.ai, noting that some employers rely entirely on their state to administer leave programs.
“It’s gonna save HR professionals time, because they’re gonna be able to navigate these benefits faster, and get answers for their employees,” she predicted.