The Oracle Fusion HCM Employee Goals Assistant gives employees a secure, conversational way to view, create, and update their performance and development goals. It is delivered preconfigured in AI Agent Studio, and it is surfaced to the employee through a guided journey – typically from the Goals Centre page.  

Goal management is a strong first use case for enterprise AI. The questions are frequent and repetitive, the existing experience is navigation-heavy, and the answer must always stay inside what the employee is allowed to see. This agent addresses all three points without asking the organization to loosen its security model.  

This article explains what the assistant does, what must be configured before it can be used, and how to expose it from Goals Centre. .

Key Concept – What the Assistant Can Do 

The agent covers three actions, all driven from natural language. 

Capability	What it means for the employee
View goals	Summarize performance or development goals and retrieve the details of a single goal
Create goals	Create new performance or development goals from a natural-language request
Update goals	Update approved fields such as name, description, dates, priority, success criteria, progress, and status

The experience is intentionally secure. 

• The agent follows the employee’s existing role and data-access permissions.
• It understands the current date and retains the context of the ongoing chat.
• It is preconfigured, but access must be granted and the in-page experience must be enabled.

A few natural-language examples

• Summarize my performance goals.
• Which development goals have I completed this year?
• List development goals that are due this month.
• Update the progress of my Improve risk management skills goal to 25%.

How goal creation and updates behave

The agent can resolve a goal plan and a review period from their names when the IDs are not supplied. For performance goals, the goal type defaults to PERFORMANCE and the key dates are derived from the selected goal plan. For development goals, the default type is DEVELOPMENT and the start date defaults to the current system date.

Supported update fields: goal name, description, start date, target completion date, priority, success criteria, completion percentage, and status.

Value limits: completion percentage must be between 0 and 100. Status is limited to NOT_STARTED, IN_PROGRESS, and COMPLETED. The two are linked – setting one updates the other. When both are supplied, the status takes priority.

Business Benefits of the Oracle Fusion HCM Employee Goals Assistant

The Oracle Fusion HCM Employee Goals Assistant can help organizations create a simpler and more accessible goal-management experience while continuing to work within existing Fusion HCM security and governance controls. 

1. Simplifies Employee Goal Management 

Employees can use natural-language requests to view, understand, create, and update goals without navigating through multiple pages. 

2. Reduces Routine Administrative Effort 

The assistant can handle frequent goal-related requests conversationally, reducing the effort required for employees and HR teams to complete routine activities. 

3. Supports Secure AI Adoption 

Because the assistant follows existing roles and data-access permissions, organizations can introduce AI-powered goal management without bypassing established HCM security controls. 

4. Improves the Employee Experience 

A guided, conversational experience can make performance and development goal activities easier to discover and complete. 

5. Provides a Foundation for Enterprise AI 

The Employee Goals Assistant offers a practical starting point for organizations exploring AI Agent Studio and broader AI-powered experiences within Oracle Fusion HCM. 

Before You Begin – Access and Technical Prerequisites 

Treat the assistant as an extension of Fusion HCM, not a replacement for its security model. Confirm these profile options and access controls before configuring the guided journey. 

Profile Option	Code	Required Value
Enable Security Console External Application Integration	ORA_ASE_SAS_INTEGRATION_ENABLED	Yes
Enable VBCS Progressive Web Application User Interface	ORA_HCM_VBCS_PWA_ENABLED	Y
Redwood Guided Journey Setup Page Enabled	ORA_PER_GUIDED_JOURNEYS_SETUP_REDWOOD_ENABLED	Y
Agent Task Type Enabled for Guided Journeys	ORA_PER_AGENT_TASK_TYPE_GUIDED_JOURNEYS_ENABLED	Y

Steps to Enable and Configure – Agent Studio Access

Complete these steps in the order shown. The first two are the baseline for an HCM administrator who needs to configure the delivered assistant. The external REST step is optional. 

Step 1 – Enable the integration profile option. 

• Navigate to Setup and Maintenance and open Manage Administrator Profile Values.
• Search for Enable Security Console External Application Integration (ORA_ASE_SAS_INTEGRATION_ENABLED).
• Set the value to Yes at Site level and save.

This enables the Security Console integration that AI Agent Studio access depends on. 

Step 2 – Grant HCM AI Agent Studio administrator access. 

Use Security Console to create or update a custom job role, and enable permission groups for that role. Then follow the path that matches the administrator’s current access.

Administrator Starting Point	Security Console Action
Does not have HCM Application Administrator	On Roles and Privileges, add Manage HCM Intelligent Agent (ORA_HRC_HCM_AI_AGENT_MANAGEMENT_DUTY). On Roles and Permission Groups, add Fai Genai Agent HCM Administrator Duty (ORA_DR_FAI_GENERATIVE_AI_AGENT_HCM_ADMINISTRATOR_DUTY).
Already has HCM Application Administrator	On Roles and Permission Groups, add Fai Genai Agent HCM Administrator Duty (ORA_DR_FAI_GENERATIVE_AI_AGENT_HCM_ADMINISTRATOR_DUTY).

Save the role and assign it to the implementation users. If you are running a broader AI Agent Studio administrator model across products, Oracle also documents the Manage All Intelligent Agents privilege (ORA_FAI_MANAGE_ALL_AI_AGENTS). 

Step 3 – Synchronize security data. 

• Navigator > Tools > Scheduled Processes > Schedule New Process. Search for and submit Import Resource Application Security Data.
• After the first process completes, use Schedule New Process again and submit Import User and Role Application Security Data.
• Wait for both processes to complete successfully before validating the administrator’s access to AI Agent Studio.

After changing roles or privileges, run both scheduled processes sequentially. Do not reverse the order. 

Step 4 – Grant runtime access to the published agent. 

• Open the Employee Goals Assistant agent team in AI Agent Studio.
• Open the Security tab and add the required business roles or permission groups.
• Publish the agent team, then sign in as a representative employee and confirm that the assistant respects existing HCM data security.

Step 5 (optional) – Allow external REST API tools. 

• This step is needed only when you build or extend an agent with an External REST API tool. It is not a prerequisite for using the delivered Employee Goals Assistant template. 
• In Security Console, create or edit the custom job role used by the agent developer.
• Open Function Security Policies and select Add Function Security Policy.
• Search for and add Create and Edit Backends for Visual Builder Studio (ORA_FND_TRAP_PRIV). Save the role and assign it to the developer.
• Run the security-data synchronization processes again if the privilege assignment was changed.

Optional capabilities.

• Agent collaboration channels. Add Collab Tools Duty (ORA_DR_FAI_GENERATIVE_AI_AGENT_COLLAB_TOOLS_DUTY) to the custom role’s Roles and Permission Groups. 
• Scheduled agent workflows. Add Fai Batch Job Manager Duty (ORA_DR_FAI_BATCH_JOB_MANAGER_DUTY) to the custom role’s Roles and Permission Groups.

Configuration Workflow – From Template to Goals Centre 

The implementation is straightforward once the prerequisites are ready. The central pattern is to take the delivered template, expose it through a guided journey, and invoke it from the employee’s Goals Centre page. 

1. Start with the delivered agent template. 

In AI Agent Studio, locate the Employee Goals Assistant under the HCM – Goal Management family. 

Use Copy Template to create a version you can own, review, and publish. 

2. Review and publish the agent team. 

Review the copied agent team and its associated agent. Confirm the agent team code, business configuration, user access, and publication state before exposing it to employees. 

3. Surface the assistant with a guided journey. 

Create a guided journey task of type Agent for the Employee Goals Assistant, and record the guided journey code. Then use the Goals Centre page property to set that code for the page-level experience. 

• Go to My Client Groups > Show More > Guided Journey, under Journeys Setup.
• Open the guided journey where the task should live and, on the Overview tab, add a task in the Tasks section.
• Enter a task name, set Task Type to Agent, and select the Employee Goals Assistant in the Configuration field.
• Save the task and note the guided journey code.

4. Configure Goals Centre in Visual Builder Studio. 

Creating the guided journey task is only half of the implementation. The Goals Centre Redwood page must be configured with the guided journey code so that employees can invoke the assistant in context. 

• Navigate to the Redwood page to be enhanced: Me > Career and Performance > Goals Centre.
• Open Settings and Actions in the upper-right corner, then select Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio.
• Create a new Visual Builder Studio project, or select the project used for your page customizations.
• In the Business Rules panel, locate the page-level property: Set Guided Journeys Code at the Page Level.
• Enter the guided journey code created for the Employee Goals Assistant task, then save the page customization.
• Publish the customization following your organization’s deployment process, switch to the live page, and test the assistant interaction.

5. Put the employee journey first. 

A good rollout begins with a small group of high-value requests – summarize goals, identify goals due soon, create a goal in a known plan, and update progress. These scenarios make the experience useful without overextending automation on day one. 

Tips and Considerations

• An important design boundary. Oracle notes that the Employee Goals Assistant does not consider configurations made for the Goals Centre page in Visual Builder Studio. Keep the agent’s scope, security, and guided-journey setup explicit, and test them independently. 

• Status wins over percentage. When an employee supplies both a status and a completion percentage, the status is applied and the percentage is adjusted to match it. 

• Approvals are honoured from 26B onward. Where approvals are enabled, the employee is prompted to confirm submission, and the change lands in the goal plan only after approval.  Approvals driven by ORA_HRG_PERF_GOAL_ROLE_BASED_APPROVL and ORA_HRG_PERF_GOAL_LVL_APPROVL are still outside the agent’s scope. 

• The Agent task type has boundaries. It can be used only inside a guided journey on Redwood pages, it cannot be created in the task library or a task group, and the chat interaction is displayed on the screen only – it is not stored. 

• Do not edit delivered artifacts in place. Artifacts inside a preconfigured template are not directly editable. Copy the artifact, edit the copy, remove the original from the agent team, and add your copy. 

What to Test Before Production 

• An employee can see only their own goals and plans.
• Manager and HR access follows existing HCM security and role assignments.
• Goal creation uses the correct defaults for goal type, dates, review period, and plan.
• Status and completion percentage behave as expected, including the case where both are supplied.
• Error messages clearly explain missing data, unavailable plans, or unsupported requests.

Access Requirements

Role or Privilege	Purpose
Manage HCM Intelligent Agent (ORA_HRC_HCM_AI_AGENT_MANAGEMENT_DUTY)	Agent Studio access for administrators without the HCM Application Administrator job role
Fai Genai Agent HCM Administrator Duty (ORA_DR_FAI_GENERATIVE_AI_AGENT_HCM_ADMINISTRATOR_DUTY)	Configure HCM AI agents in AI Agent Studio
Access Intelligent Agent Chat (HRC_ACCESS_AI_AGENT_CHAT_PRIV)	Allows an end user to open the agent chat
Fai Genai Agent Runtime Duty (ORA_DR_FAI_GENERATIVE_AI_AGENT_RUNTIME_DUTY)	Runtime interaction with published agents
Create and Edit Backends for Visual Builder Studio (ORA_FND_TRAP_PRIV)	Optional – only for building External REST API tools
Collab Tools Duty (ORA_DR_FAI_GENERATIVE_AI_AGENT_COLLAB_TOOLS_DUTY)	Optional – agent collaboration channels
Fai Batch Job Manager Duty (ORA_DR_FAI_BATCH_JOB_MANAGER_DUTY)	Optional – scheduled agent workflows

A Practical Rollout Checklist

1. Confirm profile options, Agent Studio access, and user permission groups. 

2. Copy and review the delivered Employee Goals Assistant template. 

3. Create the Agent guided journey task and add its code to Goals Centre. 

4. Test employee, manager, and HR personas with real but non-production goal data. 

5. Publish only after confirming data-security boundaries and user-facing behavior. 

6. Monitor adoption, failed requests, and feedback, and refine prompts and guidance over time. 

Best Practices for Enterprise Implementation 

1. Prove the Security Boundary Before Anything Else 

The first question every HR leader ask is whether an employee can see someone else’s goals. Make that the first UAT script, not the last. Test with an employee, a line manager, and an HR specialist against the same goal plan, and record the result. Once that evidence exists, the rest of the rollout conversation becomes easy. 

2. Roll Out Read-Only Questions First, Then Write Actions 

Start by letting employees only summarize and list goals. Give the population two or three weeks with that, then enable create and update in the same guided journey. Splitting the rollout separates trust problems from data problems, and each is far easier to fix on its own. 

3. Clean Up Goal Plans and Review Periods Before Go-Live 

The agent resolves a goal plan and review period from the name the employee types. If plan names overlap across review periods, goals will land in the wrong plan and it will look like an AI defect when it is really a setup problem. Rationalize plan naming first. 

4. Keep the Guided Journey Code Under Change Control 

The whole experience hangs on one code entered in one Visual Builder Studio page property. Record it in your configuration workbook alongside the agent team name and the roles attached to it, and include it in the migration checklist between environments. This is the item most likely to be lost during a Pod refresh. 

5. Monitor Failed and Unusual Requests After Go-Live 

Collect the questions employees actually ask in the first month. The pattern of failed requests tells you whether to adjust starter questions, extend the guided journey instructions, or simply train users. Treat this as an adoption workstream with an owner, not a one-time deployment. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Publishing the agent team but never adding roles on the Security tab, so employees see nothing
• Running the two security data import processes out of order, or checking access before both have completed
• Assuming Visual Builder Studio changes made to Goals Centre will control how the agent behaves
• Editing the delivered template artifacts directly instead of copying the agent team first
• Creating the guided journey task but forgetting the page-level property on Goals Centre
• Enabling create and update for the whole employee population before goal plan setup is validated

Conclusion 

The value of an Employee Goals Assistant is not simply that it can create or update a goal. Its real value lies in making the goal-setting conversation easier to start, simpler to navigate, and safer to complete—without bypassing the governance already present in Oracle Fusion HCM.

While the configuration itself is relatively light, the success of the implementation depends on the right security setup across different role sets, reliable goal plan and review period data, and a disciplined rollout approach. Getting these foundations right can help organizations adopt AI-powered capabilities while maintaining the structure, security, and governance required for effective performance management.

At Kovaion, we provide Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM services to help organizations implement, optimize, and transform their HCM processes, including the adoption of AI-powered capabilities that support more efficient and connected employee experiences.

Connect with Kovaion to explore how our Oracle Fusion HCM expertise can help you implement and optimize AI-powered HCM capabilities for a more efficient and scalable workforce management ecosystem.