“Forever Forward”: From next-gen AI solutions to enhanced global payroll capabilities, here are the top 15 takeaways from Workday Rising, held in Las Vegas, September 16-19, 2024.
1. The Launch of Workday Illuminate
Workday introduced Illuminate, its next-generation AI platform designed to “accelerate, assist, and transform business processes.” David Somers, Chief Product Officer at Workday, emphasized the importance of context, stating: “It’s the combination of data and context around that data that allows us to provide highly personalized, accurate and transformative capabilities.” Illuminate was named as it is a way to “light the path forward and guide organizations into the future with AI.”
2. AI-Powered Agents for Business Efficiency
Workday debuted a suite of new AI-powered agents aimed at streamlining recruiting, expense management, payroll, and finance. These agents, including Recruiter, Expenses, Internal Mobility, and Hiring Manager-Recruiter Collaboration, are available at no extra cost to customers. Leveraging vast amounts of data from over 70 million users and 800 billion transactions annually, these agents mark a significant evolution of Workday’s decade-long AI journey. Looking forward to 2026, Workday’s AI roadmap includes agents for Succession, Contingent Talent, Workday Optimize, and Onboarding, ensuring even more comprehensive AI-driven business solutions.
3. A New AI-Driven User Experience
One of the highlights of Workday Rising 2024 was the unveiling of the Workday Assistant, an AI-powered natural language companion designed to improve the employee experience. This assistant allows users to ask questions in everyday language, and Workday’s AI responds with answers tailored to their job role, location, and tenure. By focusing on personalized, context-specific interactions, Workday aims to create a more intuitive and efficient user experience.
4. Deepening Partnership with Salesforce
Workday strengthened its strategic collaboration with Salesforce, allowing customers to integrate workforce data from Workday with customer data from Salesforce. This integration enables more powerful insights and unified data sets. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, made a virtual appearance from Dreamforce, underscoring the importance of this partnership: “We’re at a precipice. How many companies can say they’re really getting value from AI and the $500B investment that has been made? There’s too much DIY going on.” David Somers echoed this, emphasizing the need to break down data silos: “Being siloed in the age of AI isn’t a good long-term strategy.” The partnership promises unified data, reduced integration costs, improved employee experience, and better business insights, positioning both companies to deliver on AI’s untapped potential.
5. Workday Extend Fuels 3x Innovation
Workday Extend, the company’s platform for customer and partner innovation, continues to see massive adoption, with 2,000 applications now in production and over 1,000 customers using it. Workday describes this as “3x innovation,” meaning that customers can innovate by leveraging contributions from Workday’s product teams, their own internal teams, and partners. Companies like Netflix, JLL, Target, and NASDAQ have used Extend to build custom applications tailored to their unique needs. Netflix, for example, developed a purchase order request app for their procurement team that now supports over 400 suppliers and integrates with more than 700 systems. By replacing legacy systems with these tailored solutions, customers are driving significant efficiency improvements.
6. Workday Orchestrate Simplifies Integration
Scheduled for release in R1 2025, Workday Orchestrate is a new solution designed to simplify system integrations and streamline multi-step workflows that span different systems and departments. The visual, browser-based builder will make it easier for developers to design and deploy these integrations. Early adopters, such as Enova, have already reaped benefits, with the company reporting a 50% increase in productivity after using Orchestrate to build 12 high-volume integrations.
7. Global Payroll Expansion with Payroll Connect
Workday expanded its global payroll capabilities with the introduction of Payroll Connect, a product that integrates with multiple global payroll providers. This new solution simplifies payroll management for companies operating in multiple countries, offering a more connected and seamless payroll experience. As Workday continues to scale its operations globally, this product will be key to supporting the payroll needs of international businesses.
8. Celebrating Customer Success Stories
Workday recognized the success of its customers by giving out five North American Customer Awards at the conference, highlighting companies that have achieved significant benefits from their Workday implementations. In addition, Workday presented a Lifetime Customer Achievement Award to Dave Smoley. Workday now serves over 10,000 total customers, including 5,525 HCM customers, supporting 70 million workers and processing 800 billion transactions annually. Notably, 70% of the Fortune 500 companies use Workday, and those companies have reportedly grown 54% faster than their non-Workday-using counterparts.
9. Acquisition of Evisort Brings AI-Powered Document Intelligence
Workday’s acquisition of Evisort, an AI-powered document intelligence platform, enhances its capabilities in contract and document analysis. This move complements Workday’s existing employee document management features by adding advanced AI-driven insights into legal and business documents. Use cases span across accounting (identifying discrepancies between invoices and contracts), procurement (analyzing supplier contracts), and HR (speeding up employee access to HR and finance documents). This acquisition demonstrates Workday’s focus on expanding its AI offerings to cover more areas of enterprise operations.
10. AI Agents for Succession Planning and Contingent Talent
Workday’s forward-looking AI roadmap includes the development of agents focused on Succession Planning and Contingent Talent Management, which are slated for release by 2026. These agents will help businesses manage their workforce strategies more effectively by providing AI-driven insights into talent succession and contractor management. Workday also plans to launch Workday Optimize, a real-time analytics tool that provides actionable insights into business operations.
11. Personalized, AI-Driven Employee Journeys
With the introduction of new AI tools like Workday Assistant and enhanced recruiting agents, Workday is doubling down on the concept of personalized employee journeys. These innovations are designed to make HR processes more intuitive and efficient, whether it’s through automating routine tasks or offering AI-powered recommendations for internal mobility. The goal is to provide employees with more relevant information and smoother interactions with HR systems.
12. Driving Productivity with AI-Enhanced Processes
Across all product categories, Workday emphasized the role of AI in enhancing productivity. From recruiting and payroll to finance and procurement, Workday’s AI agents are designed not just to automate tasks but also to unlock higher-level insights that allow businesses to make more informed decisions. This focus on productivity signals a shift towards AI as a strategic enabler for organizational efficiency.
13. Unified Workforce and Customer Data for Enhanced Insights
The Salesforce partnership also points to a larger theme: the importance of unifying data across business functions. By combining employee data from Workday with customer data from Salesforce, companies can gain a holistic view of their operations. This combination is expected to lead to better decision-making, improved employee and customer experiences, and stronger business performance.
14. Enhanced Global Operations through AI
As Workday expands globally, AI is playing a central role in enhancing its platform’s scalability and adaptability. Solutions like Payroll Connect are tailored to meet the complex needs of multinational organizations, while AI-driven insights help customers navigate the intricacies of global operations more effectively.
15. Workday’s “W List”
Workday presented its “W List,” highlighting the performance of Fortune 500 companies that use Workday. Workday correlates companies on this list grew 54% faster than those that do not use Workday.
15. Reiteration of Workday core values. Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and executive chair opened Day 2 reiterating Workday’s core values established on a napkin 20 years ago, even before the company wrote a single line of code. They are:
Employees First:
– Workday believes that employees should be the number one priority, rather than just focusing on customers.
– The rationale is that having happy and engaged employees will lead to happy customers.
Customers:
– Workday is here because of its customers, and the company is dedicated to serving and supporting them.
Innovation:
– Innovation is highlighted as a core value and a key driver for the company, as they continuously work to adapt new technologies to the enterprise.
Integrity:
– Workday strives to do things the right way, with honesty and transparency, even if mistakes are made.
Profitability:
– While not considered a core value per se, profitability is important as it “pays the bills” and enables the company to continue investing in innovation.
Workday Rising 2024 was full of announcements that highlight the company’s focus on AI, customer success, and global expansion. From the launch of Workday Illuminate to the strategic partnership with Salesforce, Workday is positioning itself as leading “forever forward” in the AI-driven transformation of enterprise software. The next few years hold great potential as Workday continues to push the boundaries of innovation and extend their reach with strategic partnerships.
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