Workday announces new AI-powered capabilities powered by Sana acquisition

Imagine an AI agent that can scan your employees’ emails at the end of the month, clock all the receipts, make note of the relevant context available in their inboxes and on their calendars, and then use that info to automatically file expense reports on their behalf, so they no longer need to spend work time submitting reimbursements or expenses after business trips.

Well that future isn’t too far off anymore, according to execs at Workday.

Workday announced this week its “next chapter” in its AI-enabled future: the launch of Sana for Workday, with new AI capabilities inside the Workday ecosystem aimed at helping users better interact with the platform for streamlined activity and through easier, more natural interactions.

The move follows Workday’s September acquisition of Sana. The Tuesday announcement does not replace Workday’s core offerings, but rather offers new features incorporating the AI-native company’s key tools into the bread and butter of the employment and finance platform.

“As we think about the future, we think about how agentic HR will really be the way that Workday drives our HR pipeline: filling roles in days, policy changes are rolled out effortlessly, real time insights into culture,” Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri said on a press call ahead of the announcement. “It’s effectively autonomous HR driven by agents, and our customers love this message.”

The launch includes Sana for Workday, a new AI interface in Workday that allows HR leaders to interact with the system using natural language in a more user-friendly way. It also launched Sana Self-Service Agent, which can be used to automate processes and workflows. This agentic feature has already been tested by early-adopter customers and knows more than 300 skills that can dramatically change human workflows through automated processes across Workday. The company also announced its Sana Enterprise offering, which can open the door for agents to connect with and perform more comprehensive actions outside the Workday system for agentic assistance directly in the flow of work.

Sana is “a beautiful experience that seamlessly integrates with the Workday agents,” according to Gerrit Kazmaier, Workday’s president of product and technology.

“How we think about that is that Sana and Sana applications are the last software that people have to learn, because it’s the first software that’s going to learn you and how you get work done every day,” he added.

Execs touted the move as a perfect match for enterprise technology. Workday’s “deterministic” system (one with processes that have “a start and an end,” are performed repeatedly, and “must get done right every time,” such as payroll) with architecture, a strong system to govern permissions, and security and privacy measures, marries nicely with Sana’s agentic-first orchestration and its ability to develop code, design workflows, assign agents work, and learn from users.

The announcement comes as many HR organizations are looking to unlock the most potential from AI at work. Execs on the call say they see Sana for Workday as a complete rethinking of how employees and HR pros can interact with company systems using this “universal interface.”

“We were thrilled to bring the two companies together, and in many ways, it’s lit up what we’ve been building for 20 years. It’s been lit up by Sana,” Bhusri said.