Workday Rising: Customers Share AI Adoption Strategies and ROI Insights for HR Transformation
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Workday Rising - customers press customers on AI adoption and ROI, and get answers
In my last post, I shared my dives into the four hottest AI topics: context, guardrails, pricing, and the skirmish for enterprise UX control (the "headless" developments). But what do Workday customers think on the ground? My customer interviews have been instructive - but nothing beats customers
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Workday makes Sana its new home for AI-driven HR and finance
Enterprise management software company Workday Inc. today announced that it wants to turn its existing knowledge of people, money and business rules into an operational foundation for agentic artificial intelligence tools. At Workday Rising, the company's annual global conference, the company said
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Workday Rising - how Cardinal Health uses agents to give professionals the information they need
While some organizations like to talk about the potential of agentic AI, Healthcare provider Cardinal Health is going one step further and putting agents to work on behalf of the professionals the HR team serves. The company went live with Workday in 2010 and is customer 100. The long-term
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Workday Rising - how HR leaders turn AI explorations into business value
The hype about the potential of AI is often more significant than real returns on investment. Prompted by CEO excitement about the opportunity to cut costs and increase revenues, business leaders are eager to turn AI explorations into valuable production services. However, clear ROI remains a
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Workday Channel Chief: Partners Are Key To AI And 'Defining The Future Of Work'
In the wake of its Sana and C1.ai acquisitions, Workday is increasingly leveraging agentic AI to redefine HR and finance business processes. That's changing the game -- and creating opportunities -- for the company's channel partners, channel chief Bronwyn Hastings tells CRN. Agentic AI is
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Workday Bets on Claude, C1.ai to Expand Enterprise AI - Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY)
Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY), an enterprise software provider, is widening its AI ambitions with a new Anthropic partnership and an agreement to acquire C1.ai. The moves come as part of a broader rollout of AI tools across human resources, finance and IT, giving Workday a larger role in how
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Workday Rising - the hot topics of enterprise AI come to a head: it's about pricing, context, and (giving up) UX control
No sign of the SaaSpocalypse here. Workday entered the first full day of Workday Rising 2026 in uber-confident mode, talking up the re-invention of work and "The new Workday." What gives Workday that swagger? I believe underneath is a growing confidence that a multi-SaaS application and data
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Workday Launches AI Agent Deluge, Acquires Agentic Identity Startup
At its Workday Rising annual event in Las Vegas this week, the cloud application giant unleashed a wave of new AI agent capabilities that automate routine tasks and provide a new front-end user experience for Workday HR, payroll and finance applications. Workday has struck a deal to acquire C1.ai,
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Workday's Trusted Agent Platform Now Delivers Headless Access to HR and Finance, Letting Customers Build and Run Lawful AI Agents
New Agent Harness Runs Every Agent with Built-in Context, Memory, and Guardrails, So Every Decision Can Be Proven Workday, Inc. today announced its Trusted Agent Platform is now headless, enabling customers to build, run, and govern lawful AI agents across HR and finance with the development tools
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Workday Rising - identifying a governance growth opportunity for the world of agentic work. Why Workday is buying C1.ai
Workday is to acquire C1.ai, an agentic identity platform for humans and agents to ensure each has the right level of access at the right time to disparate systems across the enterprise, ranging from CRM, to Finance, to HCM and beyond. While Workday's Agent System of Record already provides a
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Workday to Bring Sana Everywhere Employees Work, Including Claude, Gemini Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot, Slack, and Teams
One Connection Carries Each Company's Permissions, Policies, and Approvals, So Workday's HR and Finance Agents Can Get the Work Done Wherever Work Happens Workday, Inc. today announced that Sana, Workday's agentic experience and orchestration engine, will work inside the AI tools and platforms
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Accenture, Workday launch AI agent program for HR and finance By Investing.com
NEW YORK - Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) announced today a joint forward deployed engineering program designed to help organizations implement AI agents in human resources and finance operations. The program will deploy teams from both companies to work directly with client HR and
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Workday Rising - Dow wants to adopt agentic AI, but Flex Credits are a barrier
Workday Rising is in full swing in Las Vegas this week, as the company Workday sets out its agentic stall to re-imagine work. But for one customer, Flex Credits is proving a significant barrier to deploying agents, one requiring a debate between IT and HR over who's responsible for governance and
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Workday Launches Autopilot Agents That Get Real Work Done Across HR, Finance, and IT
New Agents Continuously Handle Routine HR, Finance, and IT Processes in the Background, Allowing Employees to Offload Repetitive Workflows While Remaining Firmly in Control Workday, Inc. today announced new AI agents that work as autopilots across hiring, payroll, accounting, and compliance. For
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Workday launches tool to analyze AI impact on workplace tasks By Investing.com
LAS VEGAS - Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) introduced Work Intelligence today, a product designed to help companies identify how artificial intelligence affects individual tasks within jobs and determine required skills for employees. The tool breaks down jobs into component tasks, links those tasks
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Workday Introduces Work Intelligence To Help Customers Design Work For AI
Work Intelligence Draws on Workday's Deep Understanding of Skills, Already Delivered to More Than 3,450 Customers Through Workday Skills Cloud LAS VEGAS, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Workday Rising 2026 - Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY), the trusted agentic platform for HR, finance, and IT, today
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Workday, Inc. to Bring Sana Everywhere Employees Work, Including Claude, Gemini Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot, Slack, and Teams
Workday, Inc. announced that Sana, Workday's agentic experience and orchestration engine, will work inside the AI tools and platforms employees already use, including Claude, Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot and Teams, and Slack, building on the self-service capabilities already
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Workday launches AI assistant Sana as new employee interface By Investing.com
LAS VEGAS - Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) announced today that Sana will become the new Workday Home, an AI-powered interface that allows employees to complete tasks using natural language prompts, according to a press release statement. The software company introduced Sana as a replacement for its
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Workday Brings Decision Intelligence to HR and Finance, Helping Teams Weigh Workforce and Financial Decisions Together
Workday Decision Intelligence Replaces Spreadsheets and Guesswork with a Single, Governed AI Experience for HR and Finance Workday, Inc. today announced Workday Decision Intelligence is now available across its portfolio, giving HR and finance teams a single, governed AI experience that works the
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Workday To Acquire C1.ai, A Leading Agentic Identity Platform For People And Agents
LAS VEGAS, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Workday Rising 2026 - Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY), the trusted agentic platform for HR, finance, and IT, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire C1.ai, a leading agentic identity platform for people and agents. C1.ai connects to the
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Workday Rising - what lies in store as the Workday sets out its agentic stall to re-imagine work, not just answer questions?
AI is one of the biggest opportunities in Workday's history. A statement of intent from Workday CEO and co-founder Aneel Bhusri as the firm's Rising conference kicks off in Las Vegas later today. It's only a few months since Bhusri returned to the helm of the firm, but the pace of AI innovation
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Workday, Inc. Launches New Ai Agents That Work as Autopilots Across Hiring, Payroll, Accounting, and Compliance
Workday, Inc. announced new AI agents that work as autopilots across hiring, payroll, accounting, and compliance. For HR, finance, and IT teams, this means less time chasing work and more time on the decisions only people can make. Workday's Talent Acquisition Agent is always checking the queue,
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Workday integrates Sana AI across multiple platforms By Investing.com
LAS VEGAS - Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) announced today that its AI engine Sana will operate within third-party platforms including Claude, Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot and Teams, and Slack, according to a press release statement. The integration allows employees to request
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Sana Is The New Workday Home: A Dynamic Agentic Experience Built To Finish The Work, Not Just Answer Questions
LAS VEGAS, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Workday Rising 2026 - Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY), the trusted agentic platform for HR, finance, and IT, today announced that Sana is the new Workday Home, an agentic experience that brings tasks, decisions, meetings, and agent activity into one place,
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Workday and Anthropic Announce New Partnership to Connect Reasoning to the Rules That Run the Business, Wherever People Choose to Work
People Can Find Workday Information, Take Action, and Approve Work Through Sana Agents in Claude - Workday's Permissions and Business Rules Apply to Every Request, and the User Confirms Every Change Workday, Inc.and Anthropic today announced a new partnership that connects their platforms and
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Workday, Inc. Announces Workday Decision Intelligence Across Its Portfolio
Workday, Inc. announced Workday Decision Intelligence is now available across its portfolio, giving HR and finance teams a single, governed AI experience that works the way an in-house analyst would: with seamless, secure access to the people, financial, and planning data already governed in
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Workday launches AI agents for HR, finance and IT tasks By Investing.com
LAS VEGAS - Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) announced today new AI agents designed to automate routine processes in hiring, payroll, accounting and compliance, according to a press release statement. The Talent Acquisition Agent, available today to early adopter customers, monitors open positions and
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Sana Is the New Workday Home: A Dynamic Agentic Experience Built to Finish the Work, Not Just Answer Questions
From Everyday Requests to Complex, Multi-Step Work Across HR, Finance, and IT, Employees Can Prompt Sana in Natural Language and Workday's Lawful Agents Do the Rest Sana Concierge Resolves Employee HR and IT Requests Before They Become Tickets Workday, Inc. today announced that Sana is the new
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Workday, Inc. Announces Trusted Agent Platform Delivers Headless Access to HR and Finance
Workday, Inc. announced its Trusted Agent Platform is now headless, enabling customers to build, run, and govern lawful AI agents across HR and finance with the development tools and models they choose. Every agent, whether it's built by Workday, a customer, or partner, works under the same Workday
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Workday to acquire identity platform C1.ai By Investing.com
LAS VEGAS - Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) announced today it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire C1.ai, an identity platform that manages access controls for employees and AI agents across enterprise systems. C1.ai connects to business systems including email, CRM, code repositories, finance
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Workday, Inc. Introduces Sana As The New Workday Home And Sana Concierge
Workday, Inc. announced that Sana is the new Workday Home, an agentic experience that brings tasks, decisions, meetings, and agent activity into one place, helping employees move directly from what needs attention to getting it done. Employees simply ask for what they need in natural language, and
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Workday Rising 2026: Workday wants to be the system of record behind every AI assistant
No one uses the HR application of their own free will. They have to do it either because there is a form to fill, a payslip to verify, or something to approve from a manager's point of view. Workday has been working on creating interfaces to help with all those tasks for twenty years. This year at
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Workday opens its platform to AI agents: Autopilot Agents and Headless Access explained
If you ask any person who has used payroll software on an enterprise level, what he or she does throughout the day, the answer will probably be the same. They click. Open a screen, check a field, approve a request, repeat. Workday Rising witnessed two more launches that promised to make the
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At Workday Rising, enterprise customers including Carlyle, Caterpillar, and Cardinal Health revealed their AI adoption journeys in HR and finance. From building ROI cases to deploying agentic AI agents, organizations shared practical lessons on transforming HR workflows while addressing pricing concerns and enterprise-grade controls.
Customers Demand ROI Clarity on AI Investments
At Workday Rising in Las Vegas, enterprise customers pressed their peers on the most pressing question facing AI adoption: how to justify significant investments to finance teams. When asked about building ROI for Sana Enterprise, Omer Tanvir, Managing Director at
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, emphasized the need for vision beyond individual departments. Andy Konsky from1
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offered a wake-up call: AI adoption and ROI can be demonstrated through increased revenue, reduced expenses, and lowered operational risk. "Over a ten year period, if you can make the case properly, I think almost every CFO would sign off," Konsky stated. This ROI conversation reflected broader concerns as organizations navigate pricing models for AI-driven HR and finance solutions.
Source: diginomica
HR Leaders Take Charge of Agentic AI Deployments
HR leaders are emerging as drivers of AI adoption rather than followers. At Caterpillar, the HR team leads enterprise use cases, deploying Workday's Self-Service Agent, Payroll Agent, and working with
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on onboarding workflows. Konsky emphasized collaboration: "We're working hand-in-hand with all of our other mission team leads." The strategic imperative centers on transforming how work gets done and winning with people. Carlyle's Tanvir highlighted a critical distinction between ad-hoc AI use and enterprise-grade controls. Before standardization, employees used ChatGPT inconsistently for talent reviews. Now, Carlyle has built compliance-approved, standardized AI playbook processes across the firm, ensuring legal oversight and consistency in HR workflows.Cardinal Health Deploys Agents to Eliminate 80-90% of Cases
As Workday customer 100,
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is putting agentic AI to work across HR operations. Adam Zaller, VP of Global HR Services, explained that 40% of Cardinal Health's workforce are frontline workers, with approximately 17,000 annual hires. The organization went live with Workday Payroll Agent two months ago, with version two expected to be "transformational" when it launches in spring. Trials of Self-Service Agent show promise in eliminating 80% of tier-one cases related to pay and time. Zaller aims to reduce total caseload by 80-90%, allowing HR professionals to focus on cases requiring human intuition. Cardinal Health also leverages Workday's Developer Agent to build custom solutions, including a Comp Agent for workers compensation adjustments, demonstrating how organizations extend beyond out-of-the-box capabilities.
Source: diginomica
Chipotle Rethinks Recruiting End-to-End with AI
Turning AI explorations into business value requires rethinking entire processes rather than automating individual components.
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, with 130,000-plus employees and 5,000 weekly hires, deployed a recruiting agent called Avocado (Ava) that operates 24/7. Job seekers scan QR codes in restaurants to start conversations with Ava about roles and applications. Results demonstrate measurable business transformation: job application volume increased from 50% to 85%, time-to-hire for restaurant roles dropped by 75%, and the company saves approximately $1 million annually in manager administrative time. Tariq Khan, Director of HRIT, emphasized the importance of dramatically rethinking the entire recruiting process to achieve these figures, exemplifying how AI adoption drives operational efficiency.Workday Positions Sana as New AI-Powered Home
Workday announced that
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is becoming the new Workday Home, bringing together tasks, experiences, decisions, meetings, and agent activity in one interface. Chief AI Officer Joel Hellermark stated, "AI is the new UI. Users shouldn't have to decide which agent to use." The platform includes Sana Concierge, a service agent for HR and information technology teams handling onboarding, leave, and password requests autonomously. Workday executives demonstrated a shift from "copilot to autopilot," where agents act behind the scenes without requiring chat interfaces. A recruiter autopilot agent, for example, checks open requisitions, prepares outreach, and surfaces candidates before the recruiter logs in. The company also introduced Work Intelligence and Decision Intelligence platforms. Work Intelligence shows how AI tools change work at the task level, leveraging Skills Cloud used by more than 3,450 customers with an ontology of over 75,000 canonical skills. Decision Intelligence enables HR and finance teams to operate with real-time business data rather than static reports.
Source: diginomica
Related Stories
Channel Partners Drive AI Strategy and Business Transformation
Workday's
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, accounting for approximately 80% of Workday implementations, play an increasingly important role in defining the future of work. Bronwyn Hastings, Workday's global channel chief, told CRN that partners are "becoming a core contributor to growth rather than an extension of growth." Partners are building agentic AI responses across HR and finance, expanding their businesses with comprehensive approaches to business transformation.5
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, a longtime strategic alliance partner, helps clients move beyond isolated use cases to leverage data embedded in Workday platforms through its Powered Enterprise transformation framework. Chris Long, U.S. head of consulting at KPMG, noted clients are looking to "lean into how they leverage the power of the data" for business transformation goals.Strategic Acquisitions Strengthen Agentic AI Capabilities
Workday announced its agreement to acquire
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, an agentic identity platform for people and agents, expected to close by January 31, 2027. This acquisition complements Workday's $1.1 billion acquisition of Sana in November 2025 and its earlier acquisition of Pipedream's integration platform. The vision positions humans and AI agents collaborating within Workday environments, with channel partners playing a major role in making this reality. Workday's partner ecosystem includes more than 1,675 partners, spanning global systems integrators, VARs, solution providers, MSPs, and ISVs. The acquisitions and partner strategy signal Workday's commitment to agentic AI as a core driver of HR and finance innovation, with practical deployments already demonstrating measurable ROI across recruiting, payroll, and service delivery workflows.References
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