It is not what Workday has always done.
Workday has used machine learning (ML) to help organisations get more from the platform they invested in for several years. Suggested candidates, flagged anomalies, predicted attrition. The system spots patterns in data and makes recommendations based on them. Most customers are already using it without necessarily calling it AI.
What is new is a genuinely different type of capability. Workday AI can understand a question asked in plain language, reason across the data in your tenant, and respond or act without a human directing every step. That is a meaningful shift in what the system can do and how people interact with it.
What it looks like in practice.
The most visible expression of Workday AI right now is agents.
An agent is a capability within Workday that can receive a question or instruction, work out what is being asked, find the relevant information in your tenant, and respond or take action.
There are a growing number of agents available, and this is not an exhaustive list, but for most customers, the three to be aware of right now are:
Workday Self Service Agent
The self-service agent lets employees ask questions directly and get answers from your tenant without going through HR. An employee can ask how many days’ holiday they have, what their notice period is, or how to update their personal details, and get an answer immediately. This agent is available today, can be turned on in your sandbox environment without any additional cost, and is set to become a standard part of Workday by 2027.
Workday Payroll Assistant Agent
The payroll assistant agent is designed for the administrators who manage and support Workday internally. It helps them understand why something has gone wrong in payroll and what to do about it. It requires the payroll module to be in place.
Workday Business Process Optimisation Agent
The business process optimisation agent is for HRIS administrators. It analyses how business processes in your tenant are configured and identifies where they can be more efficient.
What it means for you.
Workday AI is not something that is being switched on overnight. Most organisations are still at the beginning of this. The self-service agent is the first meaningful thing available to act on, but before it can do its job, the foundations need to be in place.
We work with Workday customers to help them understand what is available, where the real opportunities are, and what needs to be in place before AI activation begins. Get in touch with our team.
