Sana
the AI assistant across Workday, the agents built in it, and a meeting notetaker
Workers ask questions in plain language and Sana answers or acts in Workday for them, including reading uploaded files and writing and running code to analyse data. Workers can also build their own agents: "Use agent builder to create custom agents." On some plans it also joins meetings: "A Meeting Agent can join Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom meetings automatically as a notetaker." Workday adds: "The agent records, creates searchable summaries, and extracts decisions and action items."
Workday-built agents
ten ready-made agents, each switched on separately, for HR, payroll, finance, planning, reporting and Workday administration
Agents Workday builds for particular jobs: Self-Service, Payroll, BP Optimize, Adoption, Core Reporting, Decision Intelligence, Deployment, Financial Audit, Planning and Revenue Contract. Workday on one of them: "The Core Reporting Agent is a conversational AI agent that enables users to perform reporting actions in Workday." On another: "Decision Intelligence (DI) enables analysts to use AI to investigate data, explore what-if scenarios, and submit changes to Adaptive Planning through existing security and approval chains." Each agent is activated and deactivated separately, and each of its skills is switched on for chosen security groups.
Machine Learning for Recruiting
suggests skills to candidates and recruiters, suggests jobs to candidates, and writes job descriptions
Suggests skills on job applications and job requisitions, and suggests jobs to external candidates. Workday: "Workday bases the suggestions on an external candidate's uploaded documents when using the Quick Apply option." For internal candidates it draws on their Workday record, including job history, projects, public feedback and completed courses. Workday also generates job descriptions on requisitions, scores applications with a Candidate Skills Match that it plans to retire, and uses AI in job search on career sites.
HiredScore
grades job applicants A to D, finds past candidates for new jobs, and recommends jobs to employees
Grades job applicants and shows the grade to recruiters. Workday: "Workday HiredScore assigns candidates a grade in Spotlight and on the Pending Actions dashboard, based on how well their resumes match the skills and qualifications specified in the job description." Grade A means the candidate meets all required qualifications, most preferred ones, and an average match above a set threshold; grade D means they do not meet most of the basic ones. HiredScore also runs Fetch, which finds earlier candidates for new jobs, a Fit & Gap analysis, and the Employee Career Guide, which recommends jobs to employees.
Workday Paradox
talks to job candidates, screens them and books their interviews
Talks to job candidates on a career site or by text, answering their questions, taking them through an application, checking them against the job’s requirements, and booking interviews. Workday: “Save hours by capturing information that can instantly qualify whether candidates meet your minimum job qualifications.” It also runs the scheduling: “Our conversational AI agent sends interview reminders, and makes it easy for managers or candidates to reschedule via text.” Workday says it works in over 30 languages.
- Where to check the switch
- No switch found — look in your Workday settings or ask your administrator
Career Hub
its machine learning suggests work, mentors, learning and development plans to employees, and drafts talent and feedback text
Matches employees to internal work and suggests how they can grow. Workday: "Maximize the impact of your existing workforce by matching employees and contingent workers to internal work opportunities that suit their skills." Its development plans can include AI-generated development items. Around it sit Flex Teams, which matches workers to teams by skill, Talent Highlights, which drafts strengths and growth areas for managers to review, suggestions in the Manager Insights Hub, and AI suggestions that help people write feedback.
Skills Cloud
builds a skills library, suggests skills for each worker, and powers job-profile and pay-matching suggestions
Workday: "Skills Cloud is a machine-learning-powered remote collection of skills for workers and candidates to select from." It suggests skills to each worker from their job and project history, then goes further: "After workers add all the suggested skills from these sources, Skills Cloud uses machine learning to suggest additional AI-inferred skills." Built on it are skills fit analysis, suggestions of similar existing job profiles, AI-generated job descriptions on job profiles, and machine-learning matching of jobs to pay benchmarks.
Workday Learning, powered by Sana
writes course content with AI, recommends courses to learners, and rewrites course descriptions
Course content is written in Sana with AI and run through Workday Learning. Workday: "Workday Learning, powered by Sana is Workday's integrated learning offering that combines Workday Learning's system of record, Learning Management, and reporting with Sana's AI-native authoring and learner experience." Workday Learning also recommends courses to learners by machine learning and can rewrite course descriptions with generative AI.
AI Topics
and the other AI in Workday Peakon: groups, summarises and translates employee survey comments
Reads the free-text comments employees leave in engagement surveys and groups them into themes. Workday: "AI Topics uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Generative AI (GenAI) to analyze employee feedback." It writes the themes itself: "It then generates titles and summaries for these clusters to provide granular, actionable insights." Peakon also summarises comments for managers and translates every comment into the reader's language with generative AI.
Time Anomalies
and the other machine learning in time, scheduling and payroll: flags unusual time and pay, forecasts staffing demand, and pre-fills time and tax data
Scores each worker's time entries for how unusual they look, learning from what managers approved or sent back before. Workday: "When Workday identifies a time block as anomalous, it doesn't mean that the time block is invalid." The same area covers Pay Anomalies for payroll results, the Labor Demand Forecasting Engine for scheduling, machine-learning suggestions when entering time, UK P45 import by machine learning, and AI-powered US FLSA and FSB insights.
Expense Protect
and the other machine learning in finance and spend: scores expense claims, reads receipts and invoices, and suggests bank, payment and spend matches
Scores every line of a submitted expense report for how unusual it is. Workday: "Expense Protect uses machine learning to assess expense report lines and provide risk levels and insights, enabling you to identify problematic expenses." The score is relative to your own organisation: "The risk score indicates how anomalous the expense report is relative to all other expense reports in your organization." Finance also has receipt scanning, AI Bank Reconciliation, machine-learning matching of customer payments and overpayments, suggestions on supplier invoices and spend categories, generative AI for collection letters, and Intelligent Intake for purchase requests.
Custom AI
and the other AI in the contract product: extracts contract terms, reviews contracts against your playbook, drafts clauses, and answers questions across contracts
Extracts information from contracts using instructions written in ordinary language. Workday: "Custom AI enables you to automate the extraction and population of contract fields using natural language queries." It runs on other companies' models as well as Workday's own: "Custom AI combines OpenAI, Anthropic, and Contract Management and Document Intelligence large language models (LLMs), all orchestrated by Contract Management and Document Intelligence AI to help ensure accuracy." The same product reviews contracts against a company playbook (AI Playbooks and Review), drafts and redlines clauses, and answers questions across contracts (Ask AI).
Intelligent Planning
finds unusual figures in financial plans and forecasts them by machine learning
Workday: "Intelligent Planning leverages machine learning technology to help you build more precise plans." It has two parts: Anomaly Detection, which highlights plan figures that fall outside a range you set, and Predictive Forecaster, which generates forecast data.
AI QuickTips
and the other AI helpers built into everyday tasks: explains fields and calculations, suggests form answers, and helps write messages and help articles
Workday: "AI QuickTips provides lightweight, contextual guidance directly within Workday." Every tip carries a warning: "This content was generated by AI." Other helpers work the same way inside everyday tasks: the Form Completion Assistant, which suggests answers from past entries, the Calculation Assistant, writing prompts and an AI text editor for messages to staff, generated help articles for benefit plans, suggestions on Change Job, and AI-powered insights in People Analytics.
Summaries for Registration Troubleshooting
AI that explains to staff and students why a student cannot register for a course
Writes a summary of why a student cannot register for courses, for staff and for the student. Workday: "While troubleshooting course registrations, you and students can generate summaries that describe why a student can't register for courses."
