WorkTango Debuts Constellation, an AI Tool for Employee Listening

Employee experience software maker WorkTango on July 22 introduced Constellation, an artificial-intelligence tool that conducts personalized conversations with an entire workforce at once and returns a prioritized set of recommendations in roughly half an hour, the company said.

The Austin, Texas, company is positioning the product as an alternative to conventional employee surveys and town-hall meetings, which typically capture input from only a fraction of a staff and can take weeks to analyze. Constellation instead runs simultaneous, individualized dialogues with participants, uses AI to ask follow-up questions probing the reasoning behind their answers, and synthesizes the responses into common themes in real time.

How the platform works

According to WorkTango, each session gathers input from every employee regardless of seniority, location or communication style, then lets participants propose and vote on solutions. The system compiles the results into a ranked action plan that leaders receive in 30 to 45 minutes. The company describes the output as a single organizational snapshot collected at one moment in time, rather than a rolling stream of survey data.

WorkTango is marketing Constellation for use in project retrospectives, strategic planning, organizational change and mergers and acquisitions. It is available both as a standalone product and as an add-on to the company's broader employee experience platform, which combines engagement surveys, recognition and rewards.

The launch arrives as employers face persistent difficulty keeping workers engaged. Gallup research has found that only about one in five employees worldwide report being engaged at work, a gap that vendors of workplace-feedback tools have sought to address with faster and more granular listening methods.

A test in a merger

Chief Executive Monique McDonough said one WorkTango customer used the tool to navigate the integration of two workforces following an acquisition.

"One of our customers recently went through an acquisition, and leadership had one important question: How do we become one company?" McDonough said. "Instead of guessing, they decided to run a Constellation session with employees from both sides of the deal, across geographies, to get honest input on what would actually help the two teams come together. With every session, leaders get honest answers from every employee, fast enough to act while it still matters."

McDonough, who spent three years as WorkTango's chief operating officer, was named chief executive in 2024. WorkTango, formed from the combination of Kazoo and the original WorkTango, sells its software to employers seeking to improve retention and performance and maintains offices in Austin, Chicago and Toronto.

Positioning in a crowded market

The employee-feedback category includes established survey and engagement providers, and WorkTango's pitch centers on speed and breadth of participation. By moderating conversations with AI rather than fixed questionnaires, the company argues, organizations can surface the motivations behind employee sentiment and move directly from feedback to a decision. WorkTango did not disclose pricing for the standalone version.