Workday Rising wrapped its 2026 run in Las Vegas last week,and the message is clear: Workday is moving from AI that answers questions to AI that does the work. AI is becoming a more active participant in how organizations manage their people, finances, and day-to-day operations.
This year’s announcements focused on expanding AI beyond simple assistance and into workflows that can automate tasks, connect business data, and support better decision-making. From new AI agents to an updated employee experience and expanded developer tools, and a major partnership with Anthropic, Workday is building towards a more connected AI ecosystem.
For organizations already using Workday, the question is no longer just what AI can do. It’s how these capabilities fit into current processes, where they can make a measurable difference, and what it takes to implement them successfully. Many of the announcements are still in early access or planned for 2027; we’ve flagged additional information and timing throughout.
Here are the key announcements from Workday Rising 2026 and what they could mean for your organization.
Sana Brings AI Closer to Everyday Work
One of the biggest announcements was the expanded role of Sana, which is now the new Workday Home. Rather than navigating multiple menus or applications to find information and complete tasks, employees can interact with AI to get answers and initiate actions across HR, Finance, and IT. The interface builds itself as people ask, generating forms, calendars, approval cards, and charts, then completing the task once the employee confirms.
New capabilities include:
Sana Concierge (early access)
Aims to resolve common HR and IT requests such as password resets, access requests, leave and payroll questions, and onboarding or offboarding, rather than just routing tickets.
Sana Coach (early access)
Sana Coach is bringing performance feedback, sentiment, and leadership coaching into one conversational experience.
Sana Inside the Tools Employees Already Use
This includes Microsoft Teams, Slack, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Google Gemini Enterprise, and Claude, with company permissions and approvals applied to every request.
The goal is to make Workday more accessible within employee’s existing workflows, reducing the need to switch between applications to get things done.
Why it matters: A simpler employee experience can reduce administrative friction and make information easier to access. Organizations will need to evaluate how these capabilities align with their existing workflows, security requirements, and employee support processes.
Workday and Anthropic Connect AI Reasoning with Business Workflows
Workday announced a partnership with Anthropic, the company behind Claude, that brings Claude’s reasoning capabilities together with Workday’s business data, workflows, and Sana AI experience.
The partnership is designed to help employees move between Claude and Sana while maintaining context and working with information from their Workday environment. Instead of using one AI tool to analyze information and then manually transferring that work into another system, employees could move more seamlessly from analysis to action.
For example, a hiring manager could compare open roles against headcount and budget, the build a plan to fill positions with people already on the team. A finance leader could check invoice exceptions against purchase orders, then approve them or route them for review.
The integration uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that helps connect AI applications with external tools and data. Workday’s existing security permissions, business rules, and approval processes continue to apply, and the user confirms every change. The Sana in Claude plugin is in early access, with general availability expected in late 2026.
Why it matters: Enterprise AI is moving beyond standalone chatbots toward connected experiences that can help employees complete work across platforms. For Workday customers, this creates opportunities to reduce manual information gathering and connect analysis with action, while also making security, data governance, and integration planning more important.
AI Agents Take on More Business Process
Workday is expanding its use of AI agents that can do more than answer questions. These agents can support and automate tasks across areas such as recruiting, payroll, accounting, and compliance. Workday announced autopilot capabilities for four agents:
Talent Acquisition
Monitors open requisitions, flags roles at risk of missing their fill date, identifies qualified candidates, drafts outreach, and coordinates interview scheduling. Outreach still needs recruiter approval before anything is sent.
Payroll Agent
Keeps checking pay data to catch missing or out-of-range items before payroll runs.
Accounting Agent
Extracts key terms from new contracts, prepares entries, recommends revenue recognition and billing schedules, and tests transactions throughout the year to keep the books audit-ready.
Deployment Agent
Finds Workday capabilities a customer hasn’t turned on and drafts a configuration and testing plan. Workday says nearly 5,000 customers have activated it since last September.
The Payroll, Accounting, and Deployment agents are planned for early adopters in early 2027. Customers choose which tasks run automatically, and which need review; every action is logged and companies can set how often agents run to manage cost.
Why it matters: Automation is most effective when it supports a well-designed process. For organizations managing high volumes of work, these capabilities could reduce repetitive tasks and give teams more time for strategic priorities. Before adopting new AI capabilities, organizations should identify where manual work creates bottlenecks, determine which tasks are appropriate to automate, and establish the right controls and oversight. That process often starts with reviewing existing configurations and identifying opportunities for Workday optimization and ongoing support.
A More Connected Candidate Experience
The most common frustration from job seekers applying through Workday has been re-entering the same information for every employer. Workday Candidate Profile is aimed squarely at that problem. It’s a reusable profile that candidates control and can use across Workday-hosted career sites, so they repeat themselves less and employers receive more complete applications.
The feature is expected to become available in early 2027.
Why it matters: Candidate experience is an important part of recruiting, and reducing unnecessary friction can help make the application process more accessible. Employers should continue evaluating their recruiting workflows to identify opportunities to improve the experience from application through hiring.
Better Visibility Into Workforce Skills and Planning
Workday introduced Work Intelligence (early access for HCM customers) to help organizations understand how AI is changing jobs. It breaks each job into tasks, connects those tasks to skills, and helps leaders see where AI can automate, where it should augment people, and where work must stay human.
Workday also expanded Decision Intelligence across its portfolio, connecting HR, Finance, and planning data so teams can ask questions in plain language, compare scenarios on live data, and act within existing permissions. It’s reported as available now to HCM, Financial Management, and Adaptive Planning customers.
Together, these capabilities reflect a broader effort to connect workforce insights with business strategy.
Why it matters: Organizations need reliable data and well-aligned systems to make informed workforce decisions. Better visibility into skills, workforce needs, and financial considerations can support more effective planning, but the value depends on how well that information is configured, maintained, and used.
Expanded Tools for Workday Development and Integration
Workday made its Trusted Agent Platform “headless,” so agents built by customers, partners, or third parties can work with HR and finance data without anyone logging in to Workday, while every action stays bound to Workday’s permissions, approvals, and audit trails. Key developments include:
Agent-Ready Tools
Expose Workday capabilities to agents through MCP, and are generally available to all customers through Workday Extend AI.
Workday Data Cloud
Lets AI agents query live Workday data and business logic instead of working from extracts.
Workday Extend AI
A developer toolkit that includes a Developer Agent and Custom Agents (generally available).
Open Workday Developer Program
APIs, MCP tools, and documentation viewable without a login, plus an open beta for personal development tenants.
Agent Passport
(Early access): Gives IT a signed record of what an agent was tested for, by whom, and to what standard.
Expanded AI Partnerships
New and expanded relationships intended to connect Workday with other enterprise AI tools.
Workday also announced a definitive agreement to acquire C1.ai, a company focused on identity and access management for people and AI agents.
Why it matters: As organizations introduce more AI tools and integrations, governance, security, and system interoperability become increasingly important. IT teams and Workday administrators will need to understand how these capabilities interact with existing configurations, integrations, and business processes.
Making Workday Work For You & Your Organization
New product announcements can create exciting possibilities, but not every feature will be immediately available or relevant to ever organization. Some capabilities are generally available, while others remain in early access or planned for future release.
At Loop Consulting, we believe getting more from Workday starts with understanding how your organization actually uses it. New AI capabilities and product enhancements can create meaningful opportunities, but knowing what to adopt, how to implement it, and how to integrate it into existing processes is what turns new functionality into business value.
Whether you’re evaluating new Workday features, planning an implementation, navigating an upcoming release, or looking for additional support for your existing environment, our team can help you assess your options and determine the right next steps.
Have questions about the Workday Rising announcements or want to understand what they mean for your organization? Let’s talk about how to make Workday work for you.