Workday launched Workday Data Cloud, Workday Build as well as a set of Illuminate AI agents as it aims to build a larger ecosystem around its platform.
At Workday Rising, the company rolled out Workday Data Cloud, which puts the human capital management and financial software company in the center of data flows. Workday Data Cloud has zero-copy access to data lakes, data warehouses, applications and business intelligence tools.
Databricks, Salesforce and Snowflake are among the headliner customers. When asked what would make Workday Data Cloud different from other data clouds, Workday CTO Peter Bailis said the company has the "people and money data" that others can build on. SAP is following the same logic with its SAP Business Data Cloud via a partnership with Databricks.
Workday Data Cloud uses Iceberg to make its platform data open, accessible and AI ready, said Bailis.
The company also outlined Workday Build, which is a set of tools so developers can build on the Workday platform. The tools include Workday Flowise Agent Builder, Extend Apps, Orchestration and connections to Workday Data Cloud. There's also the Workday Marketplace and community tools for developers.
- Workday buys Paradox to build out its recruiting suite, delivers strong Q2
- Workday acquires Flowise to speed up building AI agents, automated workflows
- Workday aims to be system of record for AI agents, digital labor
Workday Rising 2025 builds on the announcements made last year that rounded out Workday as more of a platform play.
"Our strategy is threefold. One, we're building the best AI agents for HR and finance that deliver real business value. Our data has context, and we're deeply embedding AI into HR and finance processes. Second, we're continuing to accelerate investments in our core so we're doubling down on what Workday does best. And finally, we're building an open platform designed for work. We're shifting from the system of record for people and money to a system of action for people and money that understands their customer businesses, understands what they need and helps them reimagine what work gets done," said Bailis.
In addition, Workday scaled out its Illuminate AI agent offerings that aim to bring data and context to business processes. These include the following additions:
- Illuminate HR Agents include a business process copilot, case agent, document intelligence for contingent labor, employee sentiment agent as well as agents for job architecture and performance.
- Illuminate for Finance Agents include AI agents focused on cost and profitability, financial close, and financial scenario testing.
- Illuminate for Industry Agents include agents for academic requirements and student administration.
- Workday said it will soon add Workday Flowise Agent Builder and the Workday Paradox Candidate Experience Agent when the Paradox deal closes.
According to Workday, Illuminate agents will be able to connect to third-party agents including Google Cloud, Salesforce and Microsoft among others. Workday is supporting Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent2Agent protocols.
The company also launched Workday Flex Credits so customers can pivot to more consumption based models as AI agents proliferate. There's a set of credits built into subscriptions and as AI agents scale customers can add more credits as usage expands.
