Empiraa GPS vs Viva Goals

Viva Goals closed in December 2025. Your OKRs still need somewhere to live.

Microsoft shut Viva Goals down entirely on 31 December 2025 and confirmed it would not be replaced, advising customers to look at third-party OKR tools. Most organisations exported to a spreadsheet at the time and are still there. Empiraa GPS is built for mid-market and enterprise organisations running a plan across several teams, with a built-in AI strategist and unlimited seats.

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Quick verdict

Choose Viva Goals

No longer an option. The service was shut down on 31 December 2025, support ended with it, and Microsoft has confirmed there is no successor product to move to.

Choose Empiraa GPS

A strong fit if you want OKRs owned by named people, progress that updates from the systems you already run, and reporting the leadership team will actually read.

What actually happened to Viva Goals

Microsoft stopped new feature development on 5 December 2024 and shut the service down on 31 December 2025. Its retirement FAQ was unusually direct: Microsoft said it would not be replacing Viva Goals with another solution or folding its features into other products, and encouraged customers to start looking at third-party OKR tools. The reason given was that adoption had not grown enough to justify further investment. Empiraa GPS is one of the places that work can go.

Microsoft Viva Goals

Retired, with no successor

What organisations lost when the service closed.

OKRs with owners and check-in cadence
Automatic progress from Power BI, Azure DevOps and Jira
Goal context inside Teams and Microsoft 365
Export via API, Excel and PowerPoint, now closed

Strategy execution with AI built in

Best for organisations running a plan across several teams or sites.

OKRs, KPIs, priorities or a custom framework
Connected goals, actions, owners and meetings
ANI, a built-in AI strategist, on every plan
Board-ready reporting from live strategy data

Where things stand

Factor	Microsoft Viva Goals	Empiraa GPS
Status today	RETIREDShut down 31 December 2025	AVAILABLEIn use across mid-market and enterprise
Successor	NONEMicrosoft confirmed it will not replace it	FRAMEWORK AGNOSTICOKRs, KPIs, priorities or custom models
AI	NOT INCLUDEDNo AI strategist in the product	BUILT INANI, included on every plan
Seat model	PER USERLicensed per user via Microsoft Viva	UNLIMITED SEATSPricing shared in a 15-minute demo
Getting your data in	EXPORT CLOSEDAPI, Excel and PowerPoint export ended with the service	IMPORT SUPPORTEDStart from the export you took at the time

What Viva Goals did, and where that work goes now

The left column describes Viva Goals as it was before 31 December 2025, so that you can check a replacement against what your organisation actually used rather than against a feature list.

OKRs and goal managementThe part Viva Goals did well · GPS covers it without locking you into one framework

Viva Goals was a capable OKR tool, and this section is not an argument that it was not. Everything in the left column is written in the past tense because the service closed on 31 December 2025.

Feature	Microsoft Viva Goals	Empiraa GPS
OKR creation and hierarchy	Objectives and key results	Did this
Named owners on every goal	Did this	Did this
Regular check-ins	Check-in cadence and reminders	Did this
Initiatives or projects under goals	Initiatives	Actions and initiatives
KPIs alongside OKRs	Via metric-linked key results	First-class KPIs
Quarterly priorities or Rocks	Not a distinct object	Did this
Custom strategy frameworks	OKR model only	Did this
Multiple plans across departments	Did this	Did this

Integrations and automatic progressViva Goals leaned on the Microsoft estate · GPS connects to the same systems of record

This is the category most organisations actually miss. Viva Goals updated key results automatically from other systems, and its integrations stopped working on 31 December 2025 along with the product.

Feature	Microsoft Viva Goals	Empiraa GPS
Microsoft Teams	Worked inside Teams, ceased 31 Dec 2025	Microsoft 365 integration
Power BI	Synced key results from reports	Did this
Azure DevOps	Auto-updated from work items	Via API
Jira	Did this	Did this
Salesforce	Did this	Did this
Excel and spreadsheets	Explorer export	Import and export
Open API	Microsoft Graph	Did this
Automatic progress updates	From connected systems	Did this

AI and strategic guidanceViva Goals had no AI strategist · ANI is built into GPS

Feature	Microsoft Viva Goals	Empiraa GPS
AI strategist across the plan	Not part of the product	ANI, included
AI-assisted goal creation	Not included	Did this
Stalled-priority detection	Status was manual	Built-in AI
Risk detection across the strategy	Not included	Did this
Recommended next steps	Not included	Did this
Automated executive summaries	Not included	Did this

Dashboards and reportingViva Goals reported on OKRs · GPS reports on the whole strategy

Feature	Microsoft Viva Goals	Empiraa GPS
OKR dashboards	Did this	Did this
Organisation-wide visibility	Did this	Did this
Board-ready reporting	PowerPoint export	From live strategy data
Risk reporting	Not a dedicated output	AI-powered
PDF and CSV export	Did this	Did this
Custom dashboards	Did this	Did this
Reporting across mixed frameworks	OKR-shaped only	Did this

Status, pricing and rolloutNo longer available at any price · Unlimited seats on GPS

Feature	Microsoft Viva Goals	Empiraa GPS
Available to buy	Retired 31 December 2025	Did this
Supported by the vendor	Support ended with the product	Ongoing support
Successor product	Microsoft confirmed there is none	Did this
Seat model	Licensed per user via Viva	Unlimited seats
Pricing	No longer sold	Shared in a 15-minute demo
Implementation and training	Not included	Included
Data import from an export	Export closed with the product	Excel and CSV import

A per-user licence you can no longer buy, or unlimited seats

Viva Goals was licensed per user through Microsoft Viva and is no longer sold at any price. Empiraa GPS includes unlimited seats, so bringing another department into the plan does not change the invoice.

Unlimited users

Pricing shared in a 15-minute demo
Unlimited seats
Implementation and training included
Built-in AI strategist included
OKRs, KPIs, priorities and custom frameworks
Import from the export you already took

Book a 15-minute demo How GPS pricing works →

Microsoft Viva Goals

No longer sold

Retired 31 December 2025

Service shut down entirely, access cannot be extended
Licensed per user while it was available
No successor product from Microsoft
Vendor support ended with the product
API, Excel and PowerPoint export have closed
Integrations ceased operating on the same date

Viva Goals retirement dates and Microsoft’s statements are from Microsoft’s own retirement documentation, checked 19 September 2026. Empiraa GPS pricing is shown in AUD.

AI comparison

Viva Goals tracked the plan. It did not have a view on it.

Empiraa GPS’s built-in AI strategist is called ANI. It works across goals, KPIs, actions, meetings and progress, whichever framework the organisation uses.

Microsoft Viva Goals

No AI strategist

Automatic progress updates from connected systems
Status reflected what the integrations reported
No risk detection across the plan
No recommended next steps for leadership
Narrative and analysis written by people

ANI, the built-in AI strategist

Helps build and adapt the strategy using any framework
Identifies stalled priorities and risks
Works across goals, KPIs, actions, meetings and progress
Recommends what leadership should focus on next
Included across GPS plans

Learn about ANI

Is Empiraa GPS the right replacement?

Look elsewhere if you only need lightweight OKR tracking.

If one team sets a handful of objectives each quarter and checks in manually, a dedicated OKR tool will be simpler and cheaper than a strategy execution platform. GPS is built for organisations whose plan crosses several teams or sites, and that is a different problem.

Choose Empiraa GPS if the plan crosses the organisation.

You want OKRs owned by named people, progress that comes from the systems you already run, reporting leadership will read, and the freedom to run KPIs or quarterly priorities where OKRs were never the right shape.

Rebuilding after Viva Goals

Most organisations have an export from late 2025 and a spreadsheet that has drifted since. Both are a perfectly good starting point.

Start from the export

The Excel or API export taken before the shutdown carries your objectives, key results and owners. Where it has gone stale, the spreadsheet the team has been keeping since is the more current record.

Decide what was never really an OKR

Migration is the moment to notice which teams were forcing business-as-usual measures into objectives. Those become KPIs or quarterly priorities in GPS rather than being carried across unchanged.

Reconnect the systems

Rebuild the automatic progress you lost, so key results update from the tools your teams already work in rather than from a monthly chase.

Run the rhythm again

Check-ins, meetings and reporting on live data, with ANI flagging stalled priorities and risks before the quarterly review.

Implementation and training are included, so the rebuild is not another project for a team that has already done this once.

FAQs

Has Microsoft Viva Goals been retired?

Yes. Microsoft stopped investing in new features on 5 December 2024 and shut the service down entirely on 31 December 2025. Its own documentation stated that access would end on that date and could not be extended. Viva Goals is no longer available to buy or to use.

Did Microsoft replace Viva Goals with another product?

No. Microsoft was explicit about this in its retirement FAQ: it stated that it would not be replacing Viva Goals with another solution or integrating its features into other products, and encouraged customers to begin exploring third-party OKR tools. There is no Microsoft successor to move to.

Why did Microsoft retire Viva Goals?

Microsoft gave the reason in its own documentation: adoption and usage across the Viva Suite customer base had not grown, and it had been unable to reach the scale and impact needed to justify further investment.

Can I still export my Viva Goals data?

No. Microsoft offered export through the API, through Excel via the Explorer feature, and to PowerPoint, and advised customers to export before 31 December 2025. The service became inaccessible after that date, so those export paths have closed. If your organisation exported at the time, those files are the starting point for a rebuild.

What is the best Viva Goals alternative for an organisation on Microsoft 365?

The practical requirements are usually the same ones Viva Goals met: OKRs owned by named people, automatic progress from the systems you already run, and reporting leadership will actually read. Empiraa GPS covers those and is framework agnostic, so you are not locked into OKRs if part of the organisation runs KPIs or quarterly priorities instead. Assess any candidate against the integrations you relied on rather than against a feature list.

We have been running OKRs in a spreadsheet since Viva Goals closed. Is that a problem?

It is very common, and it works for a quarter or two. What usually breaks is currency and ownership: the sheet reflects whoever updated it last, check-ins stop being reliable, and the leadership view is assembled by hand each time it is needed. If your organisation is spending real time rebuilding a status picture every month, that is the cost worth measuring.

Does Empiraa GPS only do OKRs?

No. GPS supports OKRs, KPIs, quarterly priorities and custom strategy models. That matters after a Viva Goals migration because organisations often discover that only part of the business was ever really running OKRs, and forcing the rest into the same shape is what made adoption hard the first time.

How much does Empiraa GPS cost compared to Viva Goals?

Viva Goals was licensed per user as part of Microsoft Viva and is no longer sold. Empiraa GPS includes unlimited seats, so the cost does not rise as more of the organisation is brought into the plan. Pricing is tailored to the organisation and the rollout, and is shared in a 15-minute demo.

Retirement dates and Microsoft’s statements on this page come from Microsoft’s Viva Goals retirement notice and retirement FAQ, checked 19 September 2026. Microsoft and Viva Goals are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Empiraa is not affiliated with Microsoft.

Not sure this comparison is fair? Ask ANI. It will tell you when the other one is the better fit.

See all GPS comparisons →

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