Workday Deploys Agentic AI to Automate Finance and HR

Workday is integrating agentic AI across its finance, HR, and payroll operations to transition employees from routine information production to strategic business insights. At its annual Rising event, the company announced the launch of autopilot agents for routine workflows and an expanded Trusted Agent Platform for custom AI agents. Workday also established a new partnership with Anthropic to connect their respective platforms and agentic experiences.

These initiatives are part of a refounding chapter for the company under co-founder and CEO Aneel Bhusri, who returned to the leadership role in February. Bhusri stated that great companies pass the test of time because they are not built on a single generation of technology.

CFO Zane Rowe is accompanying these technical shifts with a new outcome-based measurement system for AI investments. Rowe argues that success should be defined by improved decision-making and organizational capacity rather than simple ROI or increased output, describing the approach as a new way of thinking about planning that goes beyond forecasting.