How Workday’s New System Manages AI & Human Workforce

The rapid deployment of AI tools across enterprises has created a new challenge for organisations: how to manage, monitor and measure the impact of an expanding digital workforce alongside human employees.

As businesses integrate AI agents into their operations, the need for centralised control and governance has become pressing.

Against this backdrop, Workday has launched a platform called The Agent System of Record to help organisations manage their growing fleet of AI agents, as enterprises face increasing complexity in deploying AI tools while maintaining security standards and operational efficiency.

Workday targets enterprise AI control with illuminate platform 

The Agent System of Record aims to provide organisations with centralised control over AI tools from both Workday and third-party providers, as businesses face challenges in governing and measuring the impact of AI deployments across their operations.

The system enables companies to onboard new AI agents, define their operational parameters, track performance and monitor costs within a single platform – and this centralised approach addresses challenges around security, compliance and measuring return on AI investments.

"The workforce of the future will include both humans and AI agents and businesses that don't learn to manage this incredibly complex reality will fall quickly behind," says Aneel Bhusri, Co-Founder and Executive Chair at Workday.

The platform builds on Workday's experience in managing sensitive data and workforce processes across its existing customer base of 10,500 organisations globally.

Carl Eschenbach, CEO at Workday, says: "As the system of record for more than 10,500 organisations around the world, there is no one better than Workday to manage every part of the workforce – employees, contingent workers and agents – on our trusted platform."

Workday marketplace expands with role-based AI agents 

Workday has announced new AI agents designed for specific business roles, including contract analysis, payroll processing, financial auditing and policy management.

These agents contain configurable capabilities that allow them to support employees across multiple tasks rather than following fixed processes.

The contract analysis agent examines agreements across enterprises to identify obligations and opportunities within unstructured data, whilst the payroll agent identifies invalid data, automates audit workflows and monitors compliance.

For example, a financial auditing agent connects business documents to monitor transactions and reconcile balances, while the policy agent distributes corporate policy information to employees and managers.

The company will make these agents available through its Workday Marketplace, allowing customers to discover and deploy AI tools that integrate with their existing systems.

Furthermore, future developments will enable customers and partners to customise agents through Workday's development platform, Workday Extend.

Industry leaders back Workday’s AI management approach

Major technology providers have expressed support for Workday's AI management platform.

Adam Evans, Executive Vice President and General Manager at Salesforce AI, who says: "Workday is making it easy to incorporate and manage AI agents right alongside human workforces to augment employee bases with always-on digital labour."

Winston Weinberg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Harvey, adds: "By centrally managing agents and ensuring they adhere to the same strict access controls and compliance standards as human employees, Workday is building the foundation for a truly trusted and secure AI-powered workforce."

The platform has also received backing from AWS, Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President of Data and AI at AWS comments: "With Workday's Agent System of Record, organisations will be much better positioned to ethically manage all these agents.

“We're excited to collaborate with Workday to reshape the future of work through agentic AI."

Enterprise customers have also begun implementing Workday's AI capabilities.

Matt Castonguay, Chief Financial Officer at Team Car Care, says: "At Team Car Care, we've already experienced firsthand the power of Workday's AI capabilities, which are making a real impact on our bottom line."

R "Ray" Wang, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Analyst of Constellation Research, notes: "The rise of AI agents in the enterprise has created an urgent need for a centralised system of record to manage and govern this increasingly complex landscape.

“Most of the executives we've spoken with seek solutions that provide the tools they need to harness the power of AI while maintaining security, compliance and control."

The Workday Agent System of Record and new role-based AI agents are in development and expected to launch later in 2025.

Steve Chase, Vice Chair of AI and Digital Innovation at KPMG LLP, concludes: "Digital colleagues, or AI agents, will become an increasingly common addition to the workforce and Workday's Agent System of Record is well positioned to help organisations meet the moment of monumental change."

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