Workday puts agentic AI front and center to assist rather than just answer

Sana is now the default home screen for Workday and will provide the standard experience for all users, the tech giant announced at its Rising event in Las Vegas.

Referred to as Workday Home, professionals can ask the user interface what they need in natural language for key operational activities, such as tasks, decisions, and meetings, and Sana orchestrates secure Workday agents to complete the task.

“For too long, enterprise software forced you to do the work, searching for apps, data, and processes,” said CEO Aneel Bhusri during the keynote.

“We're flipping that script with Sana, the new front door to Workday. Instead of hunting through menus, instead of looking for the work you need to get done, you simply ask, like it's a simple AI prompt.”

The Sana announcement was one of the main events from a keynote presentation that focused on the game-changing potential of AI. As well as its work on Sana, Workday presented a series of new agentic services and platform developments.

The key message from the keynote is that Workday is building agentic capabilities into its platform, rather than bolting them on. With an increasingly open platform and strong links to pioneer models, like Anthropic Claude, Workday wants to help a hybrid workforce of professionals and their agentic colleagues to unlock human capabilities.

“Jobs are going to change; there's no question about it,” said Bhusri, reflecting on the changing nature of work. “Jobs are being redefined into skills and roles that are very different than they were pre-AI. But let's embrace that. Let's all learn AI, use the tools, and embrace the opportunity.”

Workday introduced Work Intelligence, which breaks every job role into tasks. The service automatically connects tasks to the skills they require, showing business leaders the areas that AI can automate, what it should augment, and what parts need to stay human. Professionals, freed up from repetitive work, can then focus on value-adding activities, such as the personal relationships that are crucial to hiring and reskilling in HR.

The company also launched Autopilot Agents that work continuously in the background across hiring, payroll, accounting, and compliance. Once again, these proactive agents aim to free up professionals to work on more valuable activities.

“The question is not whether we should embrace AI or fear it. The question is how do we harness its power and make it safe, reliable, and trusted?” said Gerrit Kazmaier, president of product and technology at Workday during the keynote.

“We can take big steps towards answering this question by transforming HR and finance with AI in a secure, reliable, and in a lawful way.”