CGI consultant Jill Knutson highlights payroll, AI, and mentorship

Jill Knutson, a Senior Consultant/Analyst at CGI, is being featured by Influential Women for nearly four decades of payroll experience across government, healthcare, and corporate operations. Her story underscores how payroll work is shifting toward AI and stronger security while still depending on human judgment, training, and employee support.

Why it matters: - Jill Knutson’s career shows how payroll now sits at the intersection of compliance, technology, and employee experience. - Her background across government, healthcare, and corporate environments reflects the growing need for payroll leaders who can manage complex systems and sensitive data. - The rise of AI in payroll makes security, accuracy, and human oversight more important for employers.

What happened: - Influential Women featured Jill Knutson, a Senior Consultant/Analyst at CGI. - Knutson works on a government payroll project focused on accurate and standardized public-sector payroll operations. - Her current responsibilities include payroll compliance, system implementation, garnishments, and training. - Knutson has nearly four decades of payroll experience. - Her career has spanned healthcare, corporate, and government settings. - She has held payroll leadership roles at HCA and worked as a Payroll Consultant with PayTech.

The details: - Knutson has managed payroll operations for thousands of employees. - Her work has included developing standardized procedures, supporting compliance efforts, and training teams on enterprise payroll platforms. - Systems she has worked with include Kronos and UKG. - Knutson’s experience includes payroll work across Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas. - She has supported healthcare payroll operations involving both employees and physicians. - Knutson studied marketing at the University of Wyoming. - She has held the Certified Payroll Professional credential for more than 25 years. - She earned the CPP designation in 2000, when the American Payroll Association began offering professional certifications. - Her career started at a skilled nursing facility in San Diego, where she was hired to bill Medicaid and was later invited to learn payroll after mentioning accounting classes. - She later expanded into accounts payable and general ledger work when accounting processes were still largely manual. - Knutson says the early experience shaped her understanding of financial processes, accuracy, and operational structure. - In Denver, while working for HCA, she led hospital-based Kronos training and created on-call and callback policies adopted across multiple hospitals. - Knutson says her success has been shaped by opportunities, mentors, and her ability to learn new systems and take on more responsibility. - Her approach to payroll centers on accuracy, accountability, active listening, mentorship, and resilience. - She works out with a trainer, goes to the gym, and has maintained an active lifestyle through sports. - Family remains a central part of her life, and she frequently returns to Colorado to spend time with relatives and friends. - A college professor’s advice to pursue accounting helped steer her into payroll and financial compliance.

Between the lines: - Knutson’s story reflects a common payroll career path: technical skill first, then broader leadership through process improvement and training. - Her emphasis on listening suggests payroll problems often begin outside the payroll team, with timesheets, approvals, or upstream data issues. - Her view of AI is balanced. She sees automation as useful, but not as a replacement for employee support and judgment. - Her focus on security points to a core risk for payroll teams because they handle ACH files and payment details.

What's next: - Knutson expects AI to play a larger role in payroll operations. - She says payroll teams will need to adopt new tools carefully to reduce fraud, misuse, and unauthorized access. - She believes payroll professionals will still need to provide personal guidance and communication as compensation questions become more complex. - Her continued work in consulting and government operations will focus on accuracy, mentorship, and operational improvement.

The bottom line: - Jill Knutson’s career highlights where payroll is heading: more automation, more security, and still a heavy reliance on people who can train, explain, and solve problems.