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The AI Transformation 100: 100 Concrete Ideas for Fixing How We Work
One month after co-founder Aneel Bhusri returned to the CEO role and four months after the company finalized its $1.1 billion buy of AI-native agent and learning platform Sana, Workday revealed a new way to work within — and outside of — the platform.
With Sana from Workday, the company is "entering chapter four" said Bhusri. The release consists of three parts:
- Sana for Workday — A new conversational user experience which supersedes the previous Workday menus.
- Sana Self-Service Agent — Agent with over 300 skills designed to perform common HR and finance tasks.
- Sana Enterprise — Agent that connects Workday with external platforms including Box, Confluence and SharePoint to complete tasks.
Along with the new capabilities, the release arrived with a big claim: "The Sana applications are the last software that people have to learn," Workday President, Product and Technology Gerrit Kazmaier said.
How Sana From Workday Operates in Daily Work
The existing context within a customer's Workday instance informs Sana's operations. Sana automatically inherits the security model, configuration and policies set by the customer.
Sana for Workday
Sana for Workday is the new user interface for the platform, the proverbial "new front door for work" the company stated it would build when it announced the acquisition. A chat bar now serves in place of menus and navigation, where employees ask questions, access documentation and initiate workflows.
Sana Self-Service Agent
Over 400 Workday customers have already gained efficiencies with the self-service agents for HR and finance, according to the company. The Sana self-service agents handle the questions and support tickets that come in to HR and IT teams on a daily basis and currently has 300 capabilities.
Sana Enterprise
Sana Enterprise comes with 18 connectors to common workplace apps — Google Drive, Slack, ServiceNow — with more to come. Joel Hellermark, Workday SVP and general manager of AI described the feature as capable of performing end-to-end tasks, all from the Sana Enterprise interface. "Instead of dozens of tickets and handoffs, you ask for an outcome and Sana delivers it," he said.
In cases where no clear documentation for the process at hand is available, the agent attempts the task based on the context within Workday's system of record. When the process remains ambiguous, the agent uses the same context to identify a process owner or employee to validate next steps. As with all agents, the system is designed to improve over time as it acquires more context and feedback.
"Over time, as those owners confirm how things should be handled, the agent reuses that knowledge so it can take more of these actions autonomously and only come back to a person when something is truly unclear or new," according to a Workday spokesperson.
Sana Platform Capabilities
Sana is built around four core capabilities that together cover the full range of how work gets done:
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Find | Delivers cited answers from company knowledge and Workday data |
| Act | Executes tasks across connected systems using enterprise permissions |
| Build | Generates documentation, dashboards and other assets from enterprise knowledge |
| Automate | Creates no-code, multi-step workflows for background execution |
Sana for Workday and the Self-Service Agent are available to all Workday customers through Flex Credits, with no extra license required. Sana Enterprise is available to Workday Human Capital Management or Workday Financial Management customers and through Flex Credits.
Workday Moves Beyond Its HCM Roots
Workday pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy throughout 2024 and 2025 as part of its effort to transform itself from an HCM-focused vendor into a centralized platform for work.
- Evisort, September 2024 — Contract intelligence platform
- Paradox, August 2025 — Conversational AI platform for hiring frontline workers
- Flowise, August 2025 — Visual AI agent builder
- Sana Labs, September 2025 — AI-native knowledge sharing and management platform
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Everything hasn't been smooth sailing for the company, however. Workday is currently defending two federal class action lawsuits: one alleging its AI-powered hiring tools systematically discriminated against job applicants over 40, and a separate case stemming from a 2025 data breach that exposed the personal information of millions of consumers. Both cases remain ongoing.
In February 2026, Workday cut roughly 400 positions — about 2% of staff — and announced Bhusri's return as CEO to accelerate its AI-first strategy. The company's Q4 FY26 results showed subscription revenue up 16% year-over-year and more than $100 million in new annual contract value from emerging AI products.
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